Having been deaf since childhood after they became ill with meningitis, Greensand House residents Charles and Eleanor first met at a badminton club, and later went on to become successful golf and tennis players too. After greeting the couple to the home on 26th January and wanting to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment, Customer Service Manager Bernice Jackson signed up to begin learning British Sign Language with the New Skill Academy. A combination of hand gestures, facial expressions, and body language, it is the most common form of sign language in the UK and has been recognised as a language in its own right since 2003. Bernice explained her new venture, “I have wanted to learn sign language for many years. There is a gentleman at my local
café who is deaf too, and I have wanted to communicate with him more effectively. So far, I have learnt the alphabet, numbers, animals, and people. I can now have basic conversations with Charles and Eleanor, and they happily show me when I sometimes get it wrong.”
