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Members of Wolverhampton's deaf community have helped to create an exhibition celebrating British Sign Language and highlighting changing attitudes towards deaf people.
Unheard Stories: A History of BSL has been put together with help from Gordon Hay, a member of the British Deaf History Society, and is on display now at Bantock House.
Gordon, who lives in Wolverhampton, has researched deaf history and the development of British Sign Language and has also brought together several objects to illustrate the development of deaf education.
The interesting array of objects on display include some very early hearing aids and archive photographs of children being helped to hear and taught to speak which illustrate teaching methods in the early 1960s.
Pupils from Deansfield High School have also been involved in the project and have produced a BSL video for the exhibition, thanks in part to a £1,000 grant from History Today magazine awarded in recognition of the project.
Youngsters teamed up with local communications company Zebra Uno, whose two directors are themselves deaf, to record reminiscences of deaf people's experience of education.
Bantock House curator Helen Steatham said: "Wolverhampton has a long history of attracting deaf people to live and work and I am delighted that we have been able to stage this rare and unusual exhibition which is both relevant to our deaf audience and also raises awareness of deaf issues with our hearing visitors.
"The exhibition has been really well received and has attracted people from around the region. It is also particularly rewarding to see lots of our visitors, especially the younger ones, learning to finger spell while they are here.
"I would like to thank Gordon for his help in putting together the exhibition, which is one of several ways that our museum is showing its commitment to improving access and raising deaf awareness."
Bantock House is renowned for the way it caters for deaf visitors, and staff have picked up a number of awards for their efforts.
Earlier this month it was highly commended at the Renaissance West Midlands Awards 2008. Judges were impressed by the provision of BSL video guides to the house and its collections.
It has also won a Jodi Award for Excellence in Accessible Technology. The award from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council recognises projects that use technology to help disabled people access collections.
Unheard Stories: A History of BSL runs until Sunday, July 6. Admission is free and Bantock House is open from 11am to 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. |
