Deafness

Delivery of deaf awareness gains Royal Mail stamp of approval

Royal Mail

Union reps at the Royal Mail in Chester are celebrating a first-class learning double after a training DVD they filmed to promote deaf awareness has been nominated for a Royal Mail award.

The DVD is set to be distributed to all the company's UK depots. They have also become the first business-based learning centre in the UK to be officially recognised as a Deaf Awareness Centre.

After attending a deaf awareness evening at West Cheshire College, Martin McNally and Ady Prins, CWU union learning reps (ULRs) at the Chester Royal Mail learning centre, decided to start putting on deaf awareness courses. Their centre was assessed and officially recognised as a deaf awareness centre by the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP). The first deaf awareness courses were attended by Royal Mail managers, learning reps and other members of the workforce.

This prompted Martin, Ady and unionlearn project worker Ged Bretherton to consider filming a training DVD to help other colleagues. Unionlearn, the TUC's learning and skills organisation, helped the ULRs to script and film a 20-minute DVD, which gained the backing of the Royal Mail.

Royal Mail has also pledged to use the DVD as part of its two-day induction programme for new staff. The DVD shows different scenarios, each showing how staff could deal with deaf or partially deaf customers on their doorstep and at customer service counters. Their bosses were so impressed by the DVD that it has been put forward for a Royal Mail Chairman's Diversity Award.

Union Learning Rep Martin McNally said: "It seems that no-one had done this sort of thing before, so it has opened up a lot of opportunities to raise deaf awareness within the Royal Mail."

Dave Eva, unionlearn Regional Manager, said: "This is a great example of how unionlearn in the North West, unions and union learning reps all working to ensure equal access for all. Equality and diversity is a key feature of the work of trade unions. It's great to see how the determination of union learning reps at Chester Royal Mail will lead to a better quality of services for deaf and partially deaf people across the country."