British Sign Language and Lewisham Council

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Our commitment to equality

We have a duty to inform you of our policies which cover race, gender (man/woman) and disability equality schemes. This does not mean we are categorising individuals; we are just making sure that all community groups are covered. We have developed a comprehensive equality scheme, to help review our services to ensure they match the diversity of the community.

We have a policy in place which covers race, gender (man/woman), disability, age, sexual orientation (gay/lesbian/straight etc) All of these areas are highlighted in our policy, which support the comprehensive equality scheme. We have formed our policy in accordance with the human rights act.

By having a comprehensive equality scheme we ensure that we fulfil our legal responsibility to support race, gender, disability, as well as any other groups that are treated unfairly or discriminated against.

Any equality issues relating to the Deaf community are currently covered under the disability equality scheme. However, we know that the Deaf community do not view themselves as disabled but as part of a linguistic minority, and we understand this.