On a recent blissful Friday afternoon doused with warm amber sunshine, I emerged determinedly up onto the high-street with my busking gear, keen to make up for lost time with the rapidly dwindling daylight left in the day. As I stumbled upon my regular spot outside the window of the British Heart Foundation store next to Chelmer Bridge, I saw myself intercepted by the smiling face of an eager, young charity rep supporting the NDCS (‘National Deaf Children’s Society’), sidling up deftly to approach me.

My heart dropped - I had nothing to give: due to my own personal finanical situation (and indeed the very reason I might come out in public to play music at all), I needed to employ a polite excuse in order to escape such a conversation.

Despite personal circumstances, I always try to listen for as long as I can before making a decision. This concept grants the two benefits:

  • to learn something new about a concept unfamilar.
  • to show compassion for the effort the other person is making towards you.

An awkward conversation

“We are campaigning to have British Sign Language be included as a mandatory part of Secondary School Education, what do you think about that?” quipped the young man, rather rhetorically.

“Oh, that sounds, erm, really cool…” I replied meekly, trailing off into a half-hearted anecdote about a conversation about meditation I overheard from a school teacher last week.

Before he could continue further, I seized my moment. “I’m really sorry but I actually don’t have anything I can offer at the moment…”, I muttered through gritted teeth, flashing a wincing smile.

Instead of showing signs of derision of pressuring me to pay, he simply stood there calmly, smiled, nodded and briefly pointed over his shoulder to his campaign banner, proferring:

“No worries, then - just bear us in mind for the future, would you?”

This unique reaction really inspired me. After all, in a perfect World, when we are refused something, shouldn’t we all respond with such grace?

I left the conversation feeling relieved, and determined to find a way to repay this seemingly-innocuous kindness.

The Right to Sign campaign

The campaign this young changemaker was promoting is the ‘Right to Sign’ campaign: a flagship campaign for getting British Sign Language the attention it deserves within the British education system, ensuring it becomes an integral component of future curriculums.

The intial announcement of the campaign publication

Having run for over 9 years, the NDCS’s Right to Sign campaign recently faced two harsh setbacks:

After taking some time to read the campaign timeline, it is clear to see how much grit and perseverance has gone into the work so far. My personal highlight from the existing milestones was a vlog from a young deaf campaigner called Daniel Jillings who fearlessly met with the Minister of School Standards in 2018 to expound the significance of integrating BSL within schools.

Aside from education-focussed activities, the NCDS is involved in numerous other meaningful campaigns, most recently partnering with children’s animated series ‘Peppa Pig’ to help write a segment of their show devoted to the lived experience of deaf people. The NCDS have also achieved remarkable feats in previous campaigns, more specifically the introduction of audiological screening for newborn children in order to help identify issues with hearing defects earlier in their development, as well as and the introduction of BSL transcription for broadcasts of BBC’s newsround.

Donations

If the message of this article resonated with you, please consider donating to the NDCS or other charitable organisations that matter to you.

Takeaways for the future

It is truly a precious gift that we live in a country where freedom of expression is welcomed and we have the opportunity to engage with important such crucial topics with people on our very doorstep. Topics like deafness, disability and other medical conditions can limit someone’s life in an inconceivable number of ways, and I’m truly glad that this interaction helped enlighten me about the work that NCDS does.o

My advice? If somebody approaches you on the street to talk about a charitable cause, please try to take the time to stop, and to listen. Try to think of it as a blessing that they chose you to speak to.

All the best, Scott 🙏