To mark Deaf Awareness Week 2026, our Director of EDI worked with students at the Newcastle School of Pharmacy to create a short blog about D/deaf awareness, inclusive pharmacy care and how this relates, in an actionable way, to patient safety.
The theme for this year’s Deaf Awareness Week was, ‘Right to understand – Together, we break barriers.’ This theme aimed to raise awareness for the communication needs of the D/deaf community and advocate for greater access to communication tools and services to support safe and inclusive consultations with patients.
Pharmacists and pharmacy teams play a key role in creating a safe space to support members of the Deaf community and ensuring equitable access to medication services. We can do this by educating ourselves on basic sign language, maintaining face-to-face contact, utilising visual/written aids and remaining open to conversation.
“Adaptation is a constant part of my life… the solutions to help bridge the gap are versatile and very much individualised” – Annissa Wiltshire, MPharm student and member of the Deaf community
Newcastle University’s BSL workshop is a great example of how we can undergo further training to educate ourselves. Newcastle Alumni and Foundation Trainee Pharmacist, Christina Newell, found the BSL training be “invaluable” in informing her work: “[doing BSL] pushed me to be a better healthcare professional with patients and carers who use this language to communicate. It also helped me develop different skills, such as being patient, knowing how to communicate with others using my body language and how to be focused and attentive to somebody when communicating with them.”
In pharmacy practice, ensuring information is clear, adaptable, and responsive to individual needs is essential to delivering safe, person-centred care and reducing health inequalities.
Blog post written by: Melika Ghazi-Nouri, Annissa Wiltshire, and Cristina Newell.
