UK Council on Deafness

The UK Council on Deafness is the national infrastructure organisation for charities and professional bodies working with deaf people. Many of our Member Organisations are specialists that are better placed to make informed comments than we are. If this is the case then we are happy to refer you to the most appropriate source of information. You will find their contact details in the Members Directory

Please contact the Director, Jonathan Isaac, for further information about the work of UK Council on Deafness. No other member of staff is authorised to make statements to the press.

Jonathan Isaac
Director
UK Council on Deafness
Direct Telephone 01206 274075
Email j.isaac@deafcouncil.org.uk

Quick Facts

Nearly 15% of the population have some degree of deafness. For every 10,000 people:

10 will be born profoundly deaf. They probably get little or no benefit from Hearing Aids and mainly use Sign Language to communicate.

20 will have become profoundly deaf. They may use Sign Language and probably also lipread.

100 will be partially deaf. They may have difficulty following what is being said, even with hearing aids. Mostly they will lipread and some use sign language as well.

600 will be hard of hearing. They will be able to follow what is being said with a hearing aid and will be able to use a telephone if it has an adjustable volume or has been designed to be used with a hearing aid.

800 will be mildly hard of hearing. They may have difficulty following conversations particularly in large groups or in noisy situations. Some will wear hearing aids and many find lipreading helpful.

• British Sign Language (BSL) is the first or preferred language of around 70,000 people in the UK.
• About 2 million people in Britain wear hearing aids, maybe another million would benefit from doing so.
• Almost all deaf and hard of hearing people rely on lipreading to some extent.
• Many combine signs from BSL with English in order to communicate.

"Being deaf is about experiencing the world visually"

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