11 million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing.

 

Deaf people are more likely to:

have poor mental health - up to 50%, compared to 25% for the general population
be unemployed - 65% of working age deaf people are in employment, compared to 79% of the general population

Being from Derby where the Royal School for the Deaf is located, I am aware of the need for inclusion.

Deaf children and adults are excluded from society and have to access special provisions to enable them to access basic services. 

We cannot continue to dismiss the needs of the (on average) almost 1100 children born annually in the UK.

Many of us learn languages that we never use but we are unable to communicate with our colleagues, family members or friends who are either born deaf or lose their hearing.

This is wholly wrong.

Any of us could have a child born into our family who is deaf or we ourselves could suffer from hearing loss. 
This is not a choice, but being able to speak French, German or Spanish usually involves us choosing to visit the countries where these languages are spoken. 

There are only 151,000 BSL users in the UK.

I would love to see BSL taught in all schools, opening up a new world of communication for us all.