National Sport and Physical Activity Survey - UK deaf Sports

"UK Deaf Sport is committed to creating more opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people to exercise and play sport. To do this we need your help; we want to know about your views, experiences and attitudes towards sport and physical activity

By taking part in this survey you are helping to shape the future of sport and physical activity for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The information you provide is hugely important to us, as we want to ensure that deaf sport and physical activity are not marginalised or ignored. It will support future funding applications for deaf sport and help provide more opportunities for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to play, coach and volunteer in sport.

The survey is deaf friendly and there is also a BSL introduction . Every response is important so please complete the survey by clicking here.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7KKGBY8"

Repost from Living Sports website.

ACTION NEEDED!! UK Sport Consultation

Below is a message from  Lee Dolby, Director of Development, UK Deaf Sport:

You may be aware that currently the UK Government does not recognise deaf sport in the same way that it does Paralympics Sport. This has meant that since lottery funding began £174,944,971 has been invested into Paralympics, but only £209,620 in Deaflympics in other words just 0.11%. Paralympics’ funding has increase by 707% since Sydney from £10,075,602 to £71,247,756 despite this the amount of medals won reducing in number (Sydney 131, Athens 94 (down 28%) Beijing 102 (down 22%) London 120 (down 9% on Sydney)

This distribution of funds is driven by UK Sports “No Compromise” funding policy. A policy that currently does not support deaf athletes on a deaf pathway. UK Sport now have a public consultation process open to review this approach and we need as many people and organisations as possible to respond to the consultation to highlight the need for Deaf athletes on a deaf pathway to be recognised and supported in the same was as there Paralympics counterpart so that they too can continue to achieve great success on a world stage.


To help people understand the current situation we have created some supporting information on our website and also shared our draft response to the consultation. Please have a look at these and then most importantly ACT NOW to provide your feedback directly to UK Sport so that they can understand the strength of the feeling across the deaf and sporting community to this massive imbalance in funding. All the information can be found on the link below.

http://www.ukdeafsport.org.uk/news.php?action=view&news_id=331

Thank you to all those that go on to make a response. Hopefully if we join together to make our voice heard we can improve the situation for future generations of deaf and hard of hearing people that access, enjoy and go on to excel in sport

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Lee - leed@ukds.org.uk.

The deadline for responses is December 10th so don’t delay, have your say.

UK Deaf Sport Looking for Trustees

UK Deaf Sport is currently inviting people to join its volunteer board of Trustees Do you know anyone who has what it takes to drive UKDS UK Deaf Sport) forwards? 

They are looking to balance and strengthen the board at UKDS with trustees who

have the right skill set and experience.

If you know anyone who would be an ideal candidate, please pass on this message to them. Or it could be you!

Full details and how to apply are available directly from UKDS website. The deadline for applications is 21st February 2014

Supporting Deaf People to Play Squash

Last week Squashsite365 posted the following news:

"Deaf people will soon have more opportunities to play squash, as a new resource is launched to pave the way to make the game more accessible. 

The guide, Deaf-Friendly Squash, is the first of its kind and has been produced by England Squash &Racketball (ESR) in partnership with the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) and UK Deaf Sport (UKDS). The resource aims to show coaches how, through following simple steps, deaf people can be taught to play and enjoy squash. 

The guide is accompanied by a video which features a range of signs to help coaches support deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate. For the full article click here"

Locally in Peterborough Racxsports have delivered a series of free deaf-friendly training sessions to PDDCS members. Dan, the coach, is making great efforts to improve the deaf awareness with the organisation.

Deaf young people are welcome to join their following mainstream sessions:

Primary school aged/maybe year 7 - Saturdays from 10:30 am

Secondary school aged and above, inc. adults - 11:45 - 12:45