Nottinghamshire Deaf Society

Established over 120 years ago NDS is proud to have played a part in making Nottinghamshire a more open society for the city and county’s deaf community.

We live and work in a world of new opportunities and challenges for anyone experiencing deafness and hearing loss, and we are as committed as ever to pursuing those opportunities and meeting those challenges.

Our principal activities include:

• Community Centre providing 400 regular users a place of community in a world that is every bit as complex and still in large parts as inaccessible as it was fifty years ago.
• A range of services tailored to meet the specific needs of deaf sign language users – enabling them to access information directly in their first language of BSL.
• Acquired Deafness project to develop and build links with the deaf and hard of hearing community inNottinghamand Nottinghamshire and to pilot a range of services to meet the needs of this group of people.
• BSL interpreting services, enabling over 2,000 Deaf users and hearing service providers to communicate effectively.
• Registered UK-online centre providing service users with internet access to support their day-to-day lives.
• British Sign Language (BSL), Deaf awareness and Communication Tactics training for individuals, mainstream services, and teaching of BSL in some schools.

As we continue to meet the needs of a broad range of deaf people, we recognise that the advancements in technology including neo-natal screening and cochlear implants are changing the demographic of the community. These are some of the opportunities that we are seeking to meet head on, working with existing and new beneficiaries, partners and funders.