Aeson says that the majority of Deaf people he has spoken to have suffered some form of abuse
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Aeson is Deaf and his first language is British Sign Language (BSL).
He suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse in schools for deaf children where many staff humiliated and shamed pupils for their disability.
Aeson grew up in the 1970s and 80s and spent his childhood attending schools for the deaf.
He was physically and emotionally abused for as far back as he can remember in the first school he attended. He explains ‘Most schools at that time were hearing controlled. All the teachers and support assistants were hearing and there were no deaf professionals’.
Most of the staff could only use sign language at a basic level and this hindered the development of Aeson and the other children who were fluent in sign language. He adds ‘Their attitude towards deaf children was discriminatory and oppressive ... most teachers referred to us as being “naughty” … the mental abuse made me feel as though I was worthless and stupid’.
Aseon says that because he was so young, some of his memories of the first school are unclear, but along with the verbal abuse, he remembers being physically abused. He says ‘I hid the abuse and never discussed it at the time because I accepted it as a part of life. I thought it was normal’.
The teachers and assistants often used physical force to control the children; Aeson remembers a teaching assistant who had ‘great power’ and would tug, shove and smack them. He adds ‘She used to drag us by our ears and shout in our face’.
The children were also made to stand in the corner facing the wall, which he says was particularly alarming for deaf children as they could not hear what was going on behind them.
When Aeson was 11, he moved to a residential school for deaf children. Here, he was sexually abused by a member of staff, Mr Smith. This man kept a weapon in his room which he showed Aeson before he abused him.
Aeson describes what happened the first time Mr Smith abused him. He shared a room with other pupils and one night he developed a severe migraine. He says that the migraine ‘...was so bad that I couldn’t cope. I screamed out in pain and fell out of my bed. I crawled along the floor for help but no one came ... I think I then fainted’.
He remembers that Mr Smith came and found him and took him to a single room. Aeson got into bed and Mr Smith cooled his head with a damp towel, but then took off Aeson’s clothes and touched his private parts.
Aeson says ‘I can’t believe that he used me being unwell as an opportunity to sexually abuse me. I was completely shocked, and I blacked out. That was my first sexual experience’.
Aeson describes the confusion and disorientation he felt the next day. ‘From this moment, my life had changed forever. I felt like a different person … I felt isolated and alone and the shock greatly impacted me.’
After this incident, Mr Smith visited Aeson three or four times a night to sexually abuse him. Aeson would try to protect himself from being touched but often this did not work. He learned to take note of when Mr Smith was working the night shift so he could try and be ready to fend him off.
He thinks the sexual abuse went on for about four months. Towards the end of this period, he realised another boy had also been sexually abused by Mr Smith. He says ‘We talked for a while and then kept quiet about it’.
Over the following year or so, more pupils talked to each other about being abused by Mr Smith, and a few of them decided to tell the school what had happened to them.
Mr Smith was investigated, convicted, and sentenced for his offences.
Aeson says ‘The court experience deeply affected me’. He explains that a BSL interpreter was provided when he gave evidence, but not for the rest of the proceedings, so he could not follow the rest of the long trial, not even when the verdict was delivered. When he saw his mother in tears he thought Mr Smith had been found not guilty, until he realised she was crying out of relief.
He says ‘I felt it was unfair that hearing people heard the verdict before the deaf victims. Having no interpreter to impart this information made me very emotional’.
Aeson is still affected in many ways by his experiences. He struggles to trust people, form relationships and he is uncomfortable with sexual contact. He has depression and anxiety, and has battled with addictions. He describes his mood as erratic, and says ‘I have a lot of anger and fear that is unresolved within me and that causes me to close myself off to others’.
Aeson describes his sense of injustice at the discrimination he has faced as a Deaf person, which affected his language development and his education. He says ‘Being told frequently that I was stupid, less clever than hearing children … affected me greatly … I lost confidence’.
He adds that many deaf children leave school unable to read or write well, not because of a lack of intelligence but because of poor education.
Aeson feels strongly that closing most specialist deaf schools and putting deaf children into mainstream education is a failure in equality of education.
He did have some counselling, but it was only available in ‘blocks’ of sessions that did not continue for long enough to be helpful, and he would then have to wait a long time for the next block.
Aeson says, ‘I wasn’t stupid; I was simply Deaf. If I had been educated in BSL from the start … I would have flourished’.
Deaf with a capital D refers to people who have been deaf all their lives, or since before they started to learn to talk. People who are Deaf usually communicate in sign language with English as a second language.