The sound of animated chatter split out through the open door of a small public building in Barrow’s Duke Street in 2001.
Inside people were rushing around taking sandwich orders, making cups of tea and groups of people sit around chatting.
LEARNING: A young boy learning sign language to help communicate, pictured in Barrow, pictured in 1999
This was part of a unique piece of training that was teaching local residents how to interact with deaf people, and the training came from the hard work by an organisation that aimed to bridge the gap between those who could hear and those who could not.
The group known as Deaf Awareness was made up of people who were deaf, had deaf relatives or simply wished to assist and vowed to go into various places of work in Barrow and teach others how to community with those with hearing difficulties.
SMILES: Debra Dalton of the Cumbria Deaf Association pictured in 1999
People with no hearing have a unique way of speaking and their conversations fill the whole room even though a single word might not be uttered.
In 1998, assistance for the deaf community came in the shape of a £187,000 lottery grant, thanks to the help from Barry Carter, a project co-ordinator for key learning.
His work with the Cumbria Deaf Association had been praised by the community.
INSPECT: Mayoress of Barrow Cllr Betty Willacy seeing the latest gadgets used to help deaf people
He said: “The Cumbria Deaf Association started some research about four years ago looking for deaf adults with special needs.
“We identified about 47 people within the whole of the county with special needs.
“We applied to the National Lottery’s charity board to fund a training scheme and we were successful.
GUIDE: Trish Hawitt, training consultant for Peninsula Training Ltd (centre) guides volunteer Sheila Bateman through the deaf awareness course, pictured in 2001
“The project provides training and confidence building for deaf people with additional disabilities to get them into mainstream education.”
The project would offer a video conference link to different centres within the county including Barrow, Carlisle, Whitehaven, and Kendal, to try to break down the isolation felt by many deaf people.
The lottery grant would also look to pay for a CD rom to help deaf people with additional disabilities.
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