Celebrating Deaf Awareness Week 2025: Beyond Silence, Beyond Barriers

Deaf Awareness Week 2025 has been a powerful reminder that change is possible when communities come together, raise their hands (and voices), and take real action. This year’s theme, "Beyond Silence", perfectly sums up what we stand for at AdaptNI — making sure Deaf people, those with hearing loss and/or tinnitus across Northern Ireland are seen, heard, and fully included.

🎉 A Party with Purpose

We kicked off the week with a brilliant Deaf Awareness Party at the Hilton Templepatrick, where laughter, connection, and community spirit filled the room. Thanks to everyone who attended, donated and helped make it such a success — we’re thrilled to share that we raised £584 to support our work. Every penny will go towards improving Deaf access to training, employment, and support services across Northern Ireland.

🏃‍♀️ Relay Heroes

Our marathon relay runners took on the challenge with determination, heart, and a lot of sore legs — but all in the name of inclusion! Their energy, commitment and visibility helped raise awareness (and eyebrows!) across the route. Thank you for going the distance — quite literally — for the Deaf community.

Deaf Awareness & Basic BSL – Bringing the Conversation to You

This week, we’ve delivered Deaf Awareness sessions and Basic BSL training to schools, employers, and organisations across NI. These sessions are always more than just training — they’re a chance to shift perspectives, open up honest conversations, and help people understand what true accessibility looks like.

One participant said:

“I had no idea how isolating everyday situations can be for someone who is Deaf or has hearing loss — this session should be delivered everywhere.”

Exactly — and we plan to do just that.

Ongoing Support — All Year Round

While Deaf Awareness Week shines a much-needed spotlight, our work doesn’t stop when the week ends.

We continue to offer specialist one-to-one support for Deaf, hearing loss, and tinnitus communities across Northern Ireland, helping people into jobs, training, and education. Whether it’s pre-employment advice, support settling into a new role, or ongoing workplace adjustments — we’re here.

We're proud to say we are still the only dedicated Deaf employment and training support service in NI — and we’ll keep working until no one is left behind because of awareness and communication barriers.

🙌 A Final Thank You

To everyone who supported us — whether you ran, signed up for a session, donated, or simply shared a post — thank you. You’re helping us move Northern Ireland beyond silence, and towards a future where Deaf inclusion isn’t an afterthought, but a starting point.

Let’s keep going — together.