Three local leisure operators have teamed up with Bolton Deaf Society to make accessibility to fitness and exercise less daunting for the profoundly deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
A month-long trial is running at Bolton Arena Sports Village, Farnworth Leisure Centre and Leverhulme Park Community Leisure Centre, where front-line staff including receptionists and gym instructors have had basic British Sign Language (BSL) training so they can communicate more effectively with deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors.
Fourteen deaf community members have enlisted for the trial aimed at removing the need for sign language interpreters, making them self-sufficient when they visit a leisure centre, gym or swimming pool.
Zienna Hall, project lead at Bolton Deaf Society, said: “For someone who is profoundly deaf and uses British Sign Language – a visual not written language – as their first language, coming into a leisure centre can be very daunting with all the way-finding signs, registration and assessment forms, and instructions on safe equipment use in English – particularly when the staff in-situ can’t communicate with them.
“What we want to do is take away communication barriers and, ultimately, the need for interpreters, growing enthusiasm among the deaf community towards physical activity and regular participation.
“We did a trial last year and with interpreters in all the sessions, so all the deaf people used the interpreter and so did the staff. By the time the interpreter was taken away, staff had forgotten much of their deaf awareness/BSL training, and no one knew what to do.
“The venues weren’t able to commit to covering costs associated with an interpreter and/or communications support and positive momentum fell away. We learned a great deal.
“This time the staff have had deaf awareness and BSL training again, but we’re only having the interpreter present for the first session to go through the registration and well-being forms and to show them the gym equipment and so on.
“Then we are removing the interpreter for the next three to four sessions, so we can get feedback from the cohort that has put themselves forward about how leisure centre professionals are applying learning from their training.”
Lee Wood, head of commercial at Bolton Arena Sports Village, said: “We’ve all worked together to come up with a consistent approach when someone who is deaf or hard-of-hearing walks through the door. We don’t want to alienate them, we want them to enjoy the experience, so the journey is no different to anyone else. Ultimately, it’s the centre that has to adapt not the person.”
The trial has evolved from a post Covid survey called What Deaf People Want prepared for Bolton Deaf Society, Manchester Deaf Centre and Walthew House in Stockport, which found Bolton had approximately 600 BSL users and an estimated 55,000 people with hearing loss of some kind.
Zienna Hall: “It isn’t just about being profoundly deaf any more. Outside of that, there are people with cochlear implants, suffering from tinnitus, or hard of hearing through work, serving in the forces or old age. There are all kinds of reasons for hearing loss.
“Bolton Deaf Society was formed 155 years ago to serve British Sign Language users, but we’ve broadened our horizons in recent years for obvious reasons as we want to support as many people as we can.”
