UK indie and major record labels association The BPI is proud to announce the latest training session in its ongoing Equality Training Programme – Deaf People in the Music Industry? A Mythbusting Workshop.
This online event on May 6th is being staged as part of Deaf Awareness Week (4 – 9 May) and is dedicated to better understanding and engaging with the disabled community. The BPI has partnered with the charity Signed Culture to put on a myth-busting session on how people with hearing impairments engage with music – and the wider music industry.
This free workshop is open to all BPI and AIM members, as well as, upon request, other music industry staff – who can book their ticket here.
Recent BPI Equality Training Programme events include sessions on 'Diversity in the Ranks', 'Let's Talk About Race', ‘Unconscious Bias in the Workplace’, ‘How Recruitment Practices Can Be Diversified’, ‘Understanding Anti-Semitism’, and ‘Career Progression for Diverse Talent’.
About the session:
There seems to be a general lack of awareness, knowledge and understanding around access that the deaf community needs in order to attend music events and access the music industry generally. Charities often hear the phrase, “if they’re deaf, they can’t hear music so why do they want to work in the music industry?”
The deaf community who use BSL (British Sign Language) as their first or preferred language and method of communication, accounts for around 150,000 of the general population, but some of these people will have an interest – and talent – in music. Access to events, to work opportunities can be extremely limited, but it doesn’t have to be. How can you reach out to the Deaf community to welcome them into your world? Signed Culture will help you.
There are Deaf musicians, rappers, signed singers – and also dancers and choreographers. They will all want to access music events to learn more about their craft, but there might be others.
