CITV TO SCREEN SIGNED SHOWS FOR DEAF AWARENESS WEEK

5th – 11th May 2008 is Deaf Awareness Week so in light of this, CITV will be dedicating a weekend of programming to our deaf viewers, visually signing all shows between 13:30 and 18:00 on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th May.

This will include preschool programmes Engie Benjy, Paz, Tractor Tom and Curious George and 4 – 9 shows Sooty Heights, Feodor, Horrid Henry, Jungle Run, My Parents Are Aliens and Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids.

Sign language experts at ITV SignPost – the company’s specialist access services business based on Tyneside – will translate a host of popular children’s shows into British Sign Language (BSL).

Malcolm Wright, Managing Director of ITV SignPost said: “We are always delighted to support campaigns which raise awareness about the UK’s deaf community.

“Deaf children like to enjoy the same programmes as their hearing peers and to share the experience with them. By providing BSL access, they will have the chance in May to see a range of ITV’s award-winning children’s output.”

The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘Look At Me’, designed to highlight the different ways deaf people communicate, such as sign language and lip reading.

An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 deaf people in the UK use BSL daily – along with hundreds of thousands of family members, friends, professionals working with the deaf community and students of sign language.

The British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD) estimates that there are 30,000 children under 16 in the UK with significant levels of hearing loss.