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About Us

About Deafway

We are a UK registered charity with a history going back to 1894. Founded and still working in Lancashire, in the North West of England.

Objectives and Activities:

Deafway’s primary aim is to achieve equal access and opportunities for people who are Deaf. We are a UK registered charity and our history dates back to 1894. Founded and currently operating in Lancashire, our work is dedicated to understanding and respect of sign language as well as the Deaf Community and Deaf culture. Our services include onsite residential services, we currently support 25 full time residents who are Deaf with varying mental health and physical disabilities. We receive referrals for residential care from all over Great Britain.
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Mission Statement:

“Working to achieve equal access and opportunity for people who are D/deaf*”
* We have followed the convention of using an uppercase ‘D’ in the word Deaf to indicate ‘Culturally Deaf’ and a lower case ‘d’ to indicate hearing loss.

At the centre of all of our work is an understanding of and respect for sign language, the Deaf community and Deaf culture.

We work in the UK and potential beyond.

Our current activities and services include: –

  • Residential care services for D/deaf people with a range of mental health needs.
  • Rehabilitation care services for D/deaf people.
  • Deaf heritage / cultural activities and projects.
  • Deaf/sign language arts activities and projects.
  • Training in BSL and Deaf Awareness for hearing individuals and organisations.
  • Provision of D/deaf spaces.

At Deafway, the centre of all of our work, for all of our projects and activities, is Deaf culture and sign language.

We see Deaf culture as a vibrant, living, international culture that has much to teach the ‘hearing world’. We see sign language as full, vibrant, living languages.

We believe that every D/deaf person , wherever they live in the world, should have a right of access to sign language, Deaf culture and an education. Given this, they can then each make their own decisions as to their own personal linguistic and cultural mix.

We also believe that many of the problems and difficulties experienced by D/deaf people around the world are as a result of hearing authorities’ lack of acceptance and recognition of sign language and Deaf culture.

ROYAL SCHOOL DEAF LIP READ

The history of Deafway can be traced back to the late 1800’s through two organisations – The Royal Cross School for the Deaf and The North and East Lancashire Welfare Association for the Deaf (NELWAD). Both of these organisations were established in Preston in the 1890’s, one providing formal education for Deaf children and young adults and the other meeting the social needs of the local Deaf adult community.

The Royal Cross School and NELWAD were registered charities in their own rights and The Mary Cross Trust was formed by the merger of these two charities into one new charity in 1990. In 2003, the name was changed to Deafway which is a better reflection of who we are and what we do.

Deafway celebrates diversity in our organisation and in society as a whole and is an equal opportunities employer welcoming all people with a positive view of age, caring responsibilities, gender, disability racial origin, religion, sexual orientation or socio-economic background.