Young deaf and hard-of-hearing are poorly servced by legal services
Young deaf and hard-of-hearing people are poorly served by legal services, a report by the Royal Association for Deaf People’s Deaf Law Centre (RAD DLC) has found.
According to the report, Making the law work for young deaf people: “It is clear that there is a distinct lack of information and access in place for deaf people. This has fundamentally led to young deaf people in particular being unable to benefit from legal advice services.”
The report, which was commissioned by the Law Centres Federation, states that young deaf people “often don’t understand the options open to them” and “may also lack an understanding of the context of a legal problem, so the advice they are given may not make sense to them”. It argues that training needs to be given to legal advisers so they don’t assume knowledge the client doesn’t possess.
RAD DLC, which launched in 2012, aims to provide training to young deaf people and legal professionals.
It is intendad that law-awareness training “will go some way to address the gap in knowledge that young deaf people have, which renders it difficult for them to gain the most benefit from their sessions with solicitors and other legal advisers” the report concludes.
