Culture And Memory

Saving deaf young people's culture and heritage

DEX is a deaf-led organisation with a deaf board, staff and deaf young members and supports the DEX Deaf Youth Council (DDYC) for deaf young people (16 to 30 years) and the DEX Deaf Youth Hub (11 to 17 years). This pilot project is led by the views of deaf young people and our research and literature reviews which identified there are 4,000 deaf children learning British Sign Language in the UK, thus the deaf community is consequently getting smaller. It aims to facilitate deaf young people with creating their own deaf culture and community, to strengthen deaf identity and confidence. Deaf culture belongs to Deaf adults educated in deaf schools, but deaf children and young people are mostly educated in mainstream education so do not belong to either spaces. DEX will provide information on how human culture nurtures so members feel loved and at home in their own community.