Testimonial for Healthwatch Wolverhampton from Zebra Access

Zebra Access is a Deaf-led charity, based in Wolverhampton, dedicated to ensuring that all Deaf and Hard of Hearing people enjoy equal participation and access without communication barriers.

We have continued to work with Zebra Access, commissioners and providers to engage with the community around various health issues, and we are delighted that Sean Noone from Zebra Access had this to say about us:

“The Deaf community especially feel that they are now truly included within the consultations that they have had at the coffee morning. The Deaf community historically do not get involved with community consultations, so it has been amazing to see such development and passion from both the community and Healthwatch.”

 The work Healthwatch Wolverhampton does for the D/deaf Community

 As part of the work carried out, a lot of emphasis has been on BSL users, however they have presented the findings to BCHA (Bone Conduction Hearing Aid) and to the audiology staff at West Park. Both meetings were well received, and they were all given a communication card to support them when speaking to professional staff. Whilst the team were in the pop-up shop in the Wulfrun Centre a patient came to let them know that they had just used the card in a shop and the assistant was not looking at them so they showed them the card which asked them to look at them so they could lip read, which they did.

Healthwatch Wolverhampton were shortlisted for the “Championing Inclusion and Diversity” award for the work they have carried out with this community, the awards were presented at the Healthwatch England Annual Conference on 1 October 2019 and the team received ‘Highly Commended’; a huge acknowledgement for Healthwatch Wolverhampton.

The team commented: “As this piece of work started back in 2018 with Wolverhampton University looking at the issues that the D/deaf community were experiencing, it was a pleasure to be invited to present at a deaf conference held by the University around the issues that we had found but also the health studies found across the country, they were very similar. We presented on the work that we had being doing with the community and how they felt more engaged.

 We were delighted that Healthwatch Wolverhampton was a part of this conference and it was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to present the highly successful journey and outcome of this research initiative. Thankyou for working so closely with us on this.”