UKCoD members are all charities or businesses which provide services to deaf and deafblind people, or are affiliated public services. We are delighted to welcome all organisations providing services for people with a hearing loss to join us.
We work to improve services for those with any level of hearing loss. represents the deaf sector on policy issues, hosts conferences when possible and interfaces with government, government agencies and large organisations on issues of concern to anyone with any level of hearing loss and encourages cooperation between deaf charities.We also co-ordinate national Deaf Awareness Week and support Special Interest Groups that concentrate on specific deaf issues.
We are an umbrella organisation for deaf charities and organisations working with deaf and deafblind people in order that this under-represented group has input into policy decisions about them.
A snapshot of our top 10 current activities for potential volunteers
We are working with DWP, Access to Work, Job Centres, NHS England, Sensory support organisations around the country, Universities in the UK, Europe and the US, and suppliers.
A snapshot of our top current activities
We are working with DWP, Access to Work, Job Centres, NHS England, Sensory support organisations around the country, Universities in the UK, Europe and the US and other suppliers of special services for those with a hearing loss.
Employment Support
We are improving our support for job seekers who have any level of significant hearing loss many of whom have lost jobs and have to reapply. Often after having missed out on information re-training opportunities available to others who do not have communication.
We are seeking to improve awareness and wider introduction of reasonable adjustments e.g. supporting young people with a hearing loss who are moving from education into employment.
Disability Student Awareness
We are improving awareness about the DSA (Disability Student Allowance) that is available for students with a hearing impairment that are applying for university placements. However many of Deaf young aspiring freshers do not know about it. This support can be crucial in helping students access higher education as well as enabling them to remain studying without dropping out. UKCoD recognised this gap, and we are campaigning with 33 County Councils and their sensory departments providing information about DSA.
Accessibility
RelayUK text service operated by BT
We are encouraging and supporting users of the relay to report specific instances of failure to comply with the relevant regulators. This follows a finding from our survey earlier this year that revealed about 70% of participants experienced problems with banks, medical professionals, government agencies or large companies refusing to accept relay calls.
Following focus group discussions of the results from our survey earlier this year, we are discussing possible improvements with BT.
NHS
We are following up with the team responsible for GP contracting within the NHS England Improvements Team regarding the problems experienced with remote GP appointments for people with a hearing loss. We are having to point out that NHSE are not following the obligations set out in their own Accessibility Standard.
NHS commissioning of BSL interpreters
We are following up and checking the views of the BSL community on a substantial report and recommendations from a “Rapid review” of NHS commissioning.
VRS 999
Following discussions over 2 years with Ofcom by: UKCoD, RNID and Sign Health we obtained a decision from Ofcom to require provision of a new VSR 999 emergency service for BSL users alongside the existing voice, SMS, and Relay UK 999 services. It is scheduled to start in July 2022. We will be continuing to work trying to ensure the system meets the needs of BSL users.
VRS101
We are encouraging more police forces to provide VRS services on and seeking to liaise with the police nationally.
Rehabilitation following cochlear implant
We are promoting use of a technique in the UK developed by a University Medical Centre in the US that assists post-operation audiology treatment. The technique provides objective cues specific for each patient to indicate what setting changes will lead to better performance. Experience in the US shows that over 90% of patients prefer the settings resulting from use of the technique and while results in the UK have been encouraging we expect progress to continue slowly.
Video updates
We were unable to hold a conference this year because of the pandemic. However, we are working on video updates which we plan to publish via our website shortly with help from specialists who presented at previous conferences on:
BSL Act private member’s bill
We are following up with linguistic specialists and Rosie Cooper MP pursuing her prospective BSL private member’s bill, with a view to strengthen its provisions and making the BSL Act more effective.
Website
We are working hard to update our website. Although we hold no personal information and there is no gain to anyone attempting to hack our website, we are working to improve its resilience to attack.
