Scotland’s national Grant Aided Special school for pupils aged 2.5 years to 19 years relocated to Linlithgow 2 years ago, and has very much been accepted into the vibrant local community, thus enhancing the lives of our children. Donaldson’s would very much like to give something back to the community, and we have come up with the idea of helping Linlithgow to become a ‘Deaf Aware’ town, to which deaf customers and service users could come, confident that they will receive the same warm welcome from staff in shops, businesses and tourist attractions as all others visitors receive. To help work towards this, Donaldson’s would like to launch a pilot project called ‘I’ve signed up to Donaldson’s’, through which we would provide tailored basic training in deaf awareness and British Sign Language to key frontline staff. This will also help employers meet their legal requirements through the DDA to ensure that their business is compliant and accessible. On completion of the training, it is our intention to present each successful agency with a sticker to display on their shop window or door, stating that they have ‘signed up to Donaldson’s!’ While this is still very much at the planning stage, we would like to work initially with a small number of businesses and organisations – basically as guinea pigs!
If this was then considered worthwhile and helpful, we would then roll it out across other members of the business community. More information will follow on this but if you would like to register an interest, please e-mail info@donaldons.org.uk Many thanks Janice MacNeill Principal
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