A NEW scheme to encourage more employees to take up sign language as an extra language and skill is coming to Exmouth.

A NEW scheme to encourage more employees to take up sign language as an extra language and skill is coming to Exmouth.

Signs4Life is setting up introductory employee in-house courses to equip people in communicating with the deaf community.

Sara Phillips, founder of Signs4Life, said: "You never know when you will come into contact with a customer or member of the public who is deaf or hard of hearing.

"British Sign Language (BSL) is the first language of 95,000 deaf people in the UK and we are working with organisations as varied as care homes, police forces, the Red Cross and Asda."

Signs4Life said it is leading efforts to see a society in which deaf people have full access and are working hard to raise the public and political awareness of deafness and deaf people.

The organisation is also behind campaigns in introducing sign language as a GCSE option within the education system alongside other languages like French and Spanish into mainstream society. In the summer the organisation is hosting the first ever conference, Bridging the Access Gap, on deaf awareness and career progression in Exmouth.

For more information about the Signs4Life employee courses in Exmouth contact Sara on 07964 019 764.