Initial ideas

One of my good friends is deaf and I've always wondered what it would be like to live in a world where you can't hear the sounds of nature, music or laughter.

This is what gave me the idea to create this multimedia project as I am interested to find out what it is actually like to be deaf. With this topic being so broad, I needed to narrow it down to something that could create an engaging podcast.

I had several ideas such as creating one which was based on a day in the life of a deaf person, or one focusing on deaf adults in the workplace but eventually I came up with the idea to base the project around deaf children and what the education system has in place for them to help them through the education system. After various pieces of research I came across a 2019 report from the National Children's Deaf Society which stated that only 73% of deaf children achieve five GCSE's by the age of 19 compared to 88% of hearing children.

This really spurred me on to investigate why this was happening in our education system nowadays. I was interested to see the difference between exam results in state and public schools compared to the results in a specialist deaf school. I put out a 'journo request' on Twitter to see if I could gain any more information about this difference and luckily was put forward to the headteacher from the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby.

I also managed to get an interview sorted with the Lead Advisor Teacher of Hearing Impediment in West Sussex as well as with a 16-year-old deaf girl called Ruby who will talk to me about her experiences in the education system.

Why I decided to do a radio piece?

I decided to create this piece into a radio documentary podcast because I really enjoy this aspect of journalism. I am aware that the subject I have chosen to do the piece about is being deaf which is controversial to the fact I am creating an audio piece. However, I decided to do this because I want people who can hear to get a taste of what it is like to be deaf and I believe that this subject needs to be made more aware.

At the beginning of the podcast, the listener will experience different sounds that a deaf person may hear such as muffled voices, ringing and vibrations. This will be generalised as every deaf person is different and experiences different sounds. This will allow the listener to really think about the lives that deaf people lead and will raise awareness of this.