East Devon MP joins Deaf Academy student council for accessibility roundtable

Simon Jupp MP met with the Deaf Academy student council on the 12th of May to discuss accessibility for young people in the Deaf community.

The Deaf Academy is a leading educational facility based in Exmouth which provides specialist teaching and care to 9- to 25-year-olds who are Deaf with accompanying additional needs.

Following a personal invitation from the student council, the East Devon MP joined its members for a special meeting to discuss experiences of accessibility for young people in the Deaf community. A range of topics were covered during the meeting, including how further improvements could be made to inclusivity at both a local and national level.

Discussions highlighted the importance of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters and the Media Bill currently moving through the Houses of Parliament. The draft piece of legislation published by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) aims to improve the offer of signing, subtitles and audio descriptions from online streaming service providers.

The East Devon MP also praised the Deaf Academy for its recent Ofsted rating of ‘Good’ and its exciting plans for a post-19 centre near its current site in Exmouth.

Simon Jupp, MP for East Devon, said; “It was a real privilege to chat with these bright young people about what more we can do to help them fulfil their potential in life. Thank you to the hard-working staff for making it such a welcoming visit and for providing such fantastic support to these students. I’ll continue to support them where possible and look forward to welcoming them to Parliament!”

Jayleigh, Chair of the Student Council, said; “It was great to have Simon visit us. He listened to our ideas and I think we made him more aware of the barriers that we face every day. Simon also explained the new Media Bill and how that should improve communication between the media and the Deaf community. Simon has invited us to the House of Commons. We can’t wait to visit. It will be so interesting to see how everything works.”

Sylvan Dewing, Principal of the Deaf Academy, said; “It was a pleasure to welcome Simon to the Academy and for him to be able to hear first-hand from our students about the challenges they face on a daily basis and their ideas for improvement, as well as being able to share our progress and plans for expanding our provision, particularly for our older students.”