The Action

After some research they found out that the Irish Deaf Society was campaigning to make Irish Sign Language the third official language of Ireland. They wanted to support this initiative to achieve equality for the deaf community. To advocate for the deaf community, they set up sign language classes for teachers and students in their school.  They also invited Susan O’Callaghan from Cork Deaf Association as a guest speaker who gave a great insight into what it is like to be a member of the deaf community.

As these classes went so well, the group invited local businesses to take sign language classes in their school. By getting these people learning Irish Sign Language (ISL), it makes life much easier for deaf people living in the community as they can communicate more freely, thus creating equality for deaf people.

Throughout the project the team worked with Cork Deaf Association, TD Michael Creed, students and teachers in their school, the Deaf Village Ireland and the Deaf Heritage Centre. They set up a Twitter account which has followers such as GAA players Brendan Cummins, Martin Coleman and D.J Carey, retweeting the messages to a large audience.  The team was awarded a mentor from the YSI Den who is helping them to spread the message and achieve their goals.

The Impact

Going forward, the group is focusing on lobbying their petition to get ISL recognised as an official language by the Oireachtas with the help of TD Michael Creed. They are also selling wrist bands in their community to raise awareness on deafness. All profit will be donated to the Cork Deaf Association.