Tour guides for deaf people 'will encourage inclusivity'

The six guides, pictured with representatives from NWRC and Tourism NI and Derry's deputy Mayor Niree McMorris (right), completed the training earlier this summer

A group of newly-qualified tour guides are hoping they can help make visiting Northern Ireland more accessible to the deaf community.

Six guides have graduated this summer from the Tour Guiding for the Deaf course at Londonderry's North West Regional College (NWRC).

Funded by Tourism NI, it is the first time tour guides in Northern Ireland specifically for the deaf community have been trained outside of Belfast.

One of them, Patricia Clarke, said she hoped it was "the beginning of change that encourages inclusivity in the future".

Patricia, from Derry, was able to hear when she was born, but became deaf at the age of two following an illness.

She lip reads, and is a sign language user.

She said there was a definite demand for tour guides who better understand wider communication methods.

Patricia, second from left, and her daughter Seana, second from right, are two of the new graduates

"A lot of deaf people always want to go to places to learn about the history and culture," she told BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show.

"About ten years ago we had a group of American deaf come to Derry and I was asked to do a tour of the walls – that was the first time I realised Derry badly needed tour guides," she said.

"For me to do the course with NWRC was amazing."

Patricia said it "focused on all the things we need to do" and "the things we are not supposed to do".

Overall, she said, it was about making the experience for deaf people an inclusive one.

The new guides are members of the Foyle Deaf Association and are all based in the north west.

Patricia's daughter Seana Taylor is the association's project coordinator and the only hearing person among the newly-qualified guides.

She said her mum often told her "there are times the deaf community feel very excluded, very left behind".

The course, she said, had been "about championing the deaf to champion themselves", adding once the final certification comes through the graduates will be able to operate as fully-fledged tour guides.

She is in no doubt there is a need for a deaf-specific tourism offering.

Any notion that the deaf community can get by by reading an information board, she said, was a misguided one.

The British Deaf Association are holding their annual general meeting in Derry later this year

'The opportunity is there'

Estimates, she said, suggest there are around 1,700 people who use Irish Sign Language and some 5,000 British Sign Language users in Northern Ireland alone.

Take into account their families and friends – who, too, can often feel excluded from the tourist experience - and "the opportunity is absolutely there", she said.

Later this year, the British Deaf Association will hold their annual general meeting in Londonderry.

That will give the new guides an opportunity to showcase the city to the deaf community, Seana said.

"That will attract a massive footfall to Derry," she added.

The new guides graduated at a ceremony in the city's Guildhall last month.

Eimear Callaghan, from Tourism NI, said guides were "hugely important for our overall visitor experience," adding they are Northern Ireland's "ambassadors and storytellers".

"I congratulate all our newly qualified guides on their achievements and look forward to seeing them deliver tours in the walled city," she said.

NWRC's Peter Wisener said the course reflected the "inclusive ethos of our college and our commitment to widening access to education and industry-relevant skills".