Radio for deaf people : have you heard about it?

Abstract

(Excerto) Radio's inaccessibility to deaf people is one of the basic facts of life. Nonetheless, it seems that there has been very little discussion of the potential for greater integration of the deaf and the hard of hearing into media audiences. As we turn our attention to radio as the main focus of this initiative, it is now known that some strategies have been tried to draw these communities into the media environment. As an outcome of a MEDIANE European Exchange, we try to highlight some of those experiments, as well as considering current practice in Public Service Radio towards the deaf, especially in Portugal and in the UK, by interviewing some of the journalists of the BBC and RDP about future strategies, if any, that could be adopted. To this end, we questioned how radio could improve the access of deaf people, as well as demonstrating the potential of social media to promote their participation. As an output of the project, this flier summarizes good practice and underlines recommendations to media broadcasters of appropriate software to reach deaf people more effectively. Based on an exploratory study with public radio in Portugal and in the UK, this handout should also be available for Journalism and Communication students, thus raising their awareness and providing them with information about this subject.