28th June - 4th July 2010 isDeaf Awareness Week, when organisations working with deaf people across the country are inviting everyone to 'Look At Me'. The theme aims to improve understanding of the different types of deafness by highlighting the many different methods of communication used by deaf, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing people, such as sign language and lipreading.

You can read more about the local and national events happening throughout the week, and about the range of organisations currently working to support deaf people and their families and friends on the Deaf Awareness Week Website.

Anyone wanting to gain a greater understanding of deaf and deafblind people and the languages and communication methods they use, should visit the Signature website. Signature, a partner of CILT, the National Centre for Languages, offer nationally recognised qualifications in subjects such as British Sign Language and speech to text reporting, which can be studied across the UK.

CILT is currently developing its Languages Work website to include more information about careers you could go into using British Sign Language (BSL). You can have a look at case study here, but we are always on the lookout for more, so let us know if you are using BSL at work and we could feature you on our site.