Making Bedfordshire a place where deaf and hard of hearing people can access everything needed to live, work, study, and relax.
Services We Offer
Our Mission
Catherine Wright,
Founder and Chair of Trustees
When myself and some friends founded Access Bedford (as we were known then), back in 2014 it was because we realised there was a real problem for deaf families, like mine, who were unable to access services - everything from healthcare and voting to youth groups and social and cultural support. We knew, back then that it would be a battle to change hearts and minds, but we wanted to make Bedfordshire a place where the deaf community could live, work, learn and relax and feel included.
Here we are 10 years later and although there have been some really significant improvements both locally and nationally, and we have the BSL Act to support our requests for access, as a community we are also still marginalised and battling many of the same barriers.
With the growth of our team, we are starting to see a shift in Bedfordshire, from support with funding, to an increase in the number of people accessing our services.
I am hopeful that in the next 10 years, Deaf Access Bedfordshire (as we're known now!) will no longer need to fight to give the 135,000 deaf people in our community access to basic services, and that we will be able to focus much more on education and skills development, teaching the hearing community to sign, supporting deaf children and their families to gain early access to language, and bringing the BSL GCSE to our local schools.
Find out how you can support us, here.