To mark 2025 Deaf Awareness Week (5^th-11^th May), DPA Secretary Kathie Buffery writes about her experiences as a deaf person, and shares her thoughts on effective communication with the d/Deaf community

The theme of 2025 Deaf Awareness Week theme is ‘beyond silence’. This year, we are focusing on breaking down the barriers to full accessibility for those with hearing loss, and celebrating how diversely deaf people communicate, whether through lip reading, BSL or with an assistive device.

Life as a person with a hearing loss can be scary. Let me explain.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Kathie – a nearly 50 year old deaf and neurodivergent parent. I have a profound hearing loss: having been diagnosed as having a severe hearing loss when I was 23, my hearing has gradually deteriorated, bringing me to be diagnosed as having a profound loss nine years ago. I knew I was losing more of my hearing, but sitting in the audiology exam room, having what is the equivalent of a functional hearing test and not being able to hear one set of voices at all – and being told at the end of it I was profoundly deaf – was devastating, even though I knew already.

If you listened to me, you wouldn’t realise that I am deaf – apart from a few subtle differences in the way I talk – unless you were a speech therapist.

Communicating with me or any d/Deaf person is simple:

• Speak clearly, don’t shout or over-enunciate your words (this may get you a funny look from me) as it doesn’t help at all. (Think the movie ‘Hear no Evil, See no Evil’.)
• Make sure the lighting in the room is sufficient. If the light is behind, you all I will see is a shadow.
• Face me – I honestly can’t hear you if you don’t.
• Try not to cover your mouth, it’s a habit for some.
• Make sure you have my attention – this can be by coming into my sight or tapping me to get my attention. If I don’t know you are talking to me, I won’t be able to listen.

This is just me personally, but these tips tend to be able to be used with friends, family, colleagues or members of the public.

One thing that I get a lot especially when I don’t hear someone, is “Oh, it doesn’t matter”. It does matter. When you do this, it excludes people from the conversation and makes them feel even more isolated than they already are.

In social situations I struggle to hear people especially when a lot of people are talking or there is a lot of background noise. I can only focus on one person at a time and its exhausting. I rely on my friends and partner for help to understand conversations, so when you say, “It doesn’t matter”, it does – it matters to me.

Living with a hearing loss means I don’t hear cars, trains, my own child crying or fire alarms. I am constantly on my guard. At work I struggle in meetings, video calls can be a struggle. Simply having lunch in a loud room can be hard.

Communicating with someone with a hearing loss just needs a few simple things to make us included, but please remember to ask the person what they need – every person with a hearing loss is unique and will have different needs. ∎

by Andrea Shoetan
President | Disabled Police Association

The past 12 months have been a busy one for the DPA Committee, and we have seen some change. Tracy Betts stood down in December as DPA President and I was voted in as interim President. I am very grateful to be voted in at this year’s AGM as substantive President so that I can really start on the work I promised in my application. My sincere thanks to Tracy for all her hard work and support over her time as President.

The DPA has published the results of the first ever hearing survey. Co-author Kathie Buffery and I have been busy working on the recommendations from the survey at a national level. Hearing loss is now on the NPCC risk register due to this work. We are working with Jon Harrison, Chief Medical Officer and Paul Taylor, Chief Scientific Advisor to ensure our recommendations are addressed at a national level rather than individually by Forces.

The first Disability in Policing Survey was launched this year by Anjali Howard, working with the University of Portsmouth. I look forward to seeing the results and using them to make change for the better. These will feed all our workstreams this year.

Feedback following last year’s conference was positive. We responded to previous feedback, providing breakout rooms so delegates could choose between three rooms to make the inputs more personal and specific. We had attendance from every police force in the UK, which we think is a first! One thing we would like at this year’s conference is higher attendance by Chief Officers not directly connected to national disability work. I feel this goes a long way to show support of disabled officers and staff at the highest level.

The Danish Police attended our conference and asked Tracy to write an article for their national magazine on neurodivergence within policing in the UK. It is positive to work together with other countries to share our experiences, and learning goes both ways.

I have recently joined the International Police Association (IPA) for this very reason. After 19 years in policing, I had not heard of the IPA until I called into a Women of Colour in Policing (WoCiP) webinar. I was then asked by the Swedish President of the IPA to complete a 3-part interview with her as part of their #SheisIPA campaign to encourage women into the IPA as they are underrepresented. They were very keen to learn about my personal journey of disability within policing, and my national work as President of the DPA. I have since met with the UK IPA leads and look forward to working together to raise awareness.

I will be asking the Policing Minister (meeting end of April), Home Secretary, Chief Constables, Commissioners, PCCs, Major’s, NPCC, Unison, Federation and College of Policing to sign a new Pledge that they will support their officers and staff to share their disability and offer them support. I also hope this will encourage more senior leaders within policing to share their disability, as we recognise there are few that have – such openness speaks volumes to all staff and officers who may follow.

I continue to work closely with NPCC Lead for Disability, Derbyshire Constabulary Assistant Chief Officer Andrew Price. I am pleased to announce that ACO Price has set up a brand new NPCC Disability Portfolio Working Group (previously Workplace Adjustments Working Group), with the first meeting being held this month. We will use this working group to track how Forces are embedding the DPA’s Pledge and to address any barriers they face. I will ensure that a brand-new national Disability in Policing strategy is created as a key aim of this group.

The Freedom of Information requests to police forces have been received and are being analysed by previous President Tracy Betts, who has kindly offered to complete this strand of work started during her tenure. These requests concerned information on employment tribunals, grievances, and reasonable adjustments. Results are so far as expected – it is not only the Metropolitan Police that shows disability discrimination is by far the highest reason for employment tribunals. This has increased since the Casey Report. Nationally we need Forces to recognise the significant risk this poses and the work that needs to be done to improve this. Part of this work is ensuring that disability is spoken about, part of any conversation on ethics, reasonable adjustments are not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘MUST have’.

I am starting to see a trend of some Forces making staff in equality, diversity, and inclusion teams redundant. This is surely counterproductive when the cost of employment tribunals runs to hundreds of thousands of pounds in each Force. The cost of staffing these roles would more than pay for itself if it reduced the number of legal challenges under the Equality Act. Likewise, policing now has an inexperienced workforce, but officers and staff with disabilities often have vast knowledge and experience. This invaluable asset can be retained and utilised by individuals being placed in roles they can excel in, rather than being left to struggle or leave policing completely. These measures would save the police service a large sum of money in the long term.

I look forward to seeing you all at this year’s conference so save the date! Monday 29^th and Tuesday 30^th September 2025 at the East Midlands Airport Hotel. The theme of this year’s conference will be: valuing experience and diverse abilities in UK policing to reduce disability discrimination.

The following points will be covered:

• Law – The Equalities Act, Public Sector Duty are LAW, not ‘nice to haves’. How can Forces provide reasonable/workplace adjustments in a timely manner?
• Real life experiences from people within Forces
• Estates – how we can ensure that working environments allow staff to thrive rather than hinder them by their design
• Employment Tribunals – ‘disability’ is a word that is rarely used, yet it is the highest reason for discrimination within Forces. We must track the learning, talk about it, and improve.

Thank you for your support – I look forward to working with you. ∎

Hearing loss is a normal part of the ageing process but can occur at any time of life due to illness, injury, or trauma. Within policing, the unique roles performed by our officers and staff put them at a potentially increased risk of developing hearing loss or hearing-related conditions such as tinnitus at a younger age.

Following our first ever national police hearing survey in 2024, we made a number of recommendations. One is for Forces to implement mandatory hearing tests for those in at-risk operational roles, as only firearms officers currently undergo regular hearing testing. This means that some individuals in these roles have only had their hearing checked at the medical recruitment stage of their policing career.

If you are not in the police, the need to get your hearing tested, especially if you are exposed to high noise levels or suspect you may have hearing loss, still applies.

Consider how many times you have had your eyes tested under the DSE regulations, which ensure employers offer sight testing every two years for free when you are a regular user of computers. However, have you ever had your hearing tested, despite suspecting that your hearing levels may have diminished?

There is no stigma associated with wearing glasses. Sadly, there is for some regarding the use of hearing aids. For about ten years I have worn two hearing aids, through the NHS which provides everything for free, including upgrades every three years, batteries, and aftercare. I even recently realized I could request sparkly hearing aid moulds to make them more personal to me.

My recommendation is that if you feel you are struggling to hear certain things, please take this free online test. Upon completion of the test, there will be recommendations if further investigation is required.

Take care of yourself, and don’t be afraid to check your hearing. ∎