Deaf Connections

Deaf Connections is the oldest voluntary organisation for adult deaf people in the world. From its centre in Glasgow, it provides a range of specialist services for both deaf and hard of hearing people. These include community care, community health, BME activity groups, mother and toddler groups, hard of hearing programmes and sports and social clubs. Deaf Connections’ traditional area of operations is Glasgow and the West of Scotland but in recent years, it has undertaken projects with a national remit. 

In the U.K. there is an estimated 50,000 deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) as their first and preferred method of communication; however The British Deaf Association (BDA) estimates that the actual number of people who use sign language regularly is approximately 250,000. The vast majority of deaf BSL users have poor literacy skills and therefore written text is of limited use to them when seeking information. In addition, there are currently only around 70 qualified registered sign language interpreters in Scotland.  Due to the obvious geographical spread of deaf people, it can be very difficult to get an interpreter when you need one.