Building on the success of Pride Cymru 2019 ,two welsh charities are coming together again this August to bring an additional element to Wales’ largest celebration of Equality & Diversity. Whilst COVID 19 has impacted many outdoor events this year , Deaf Hub ( Wales ) previous known as Cardiff Deaf Centre and Pride Cymru are again working in partnership to ensure that the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community – are not excluded from this years online event . Pride Cymru’s Online Big Week is being hosted from Monday 24th August to 30th August .
Pride Cymru has been focused on improving accessibility to its annual event for many years and has been working with partner charities including Deaf Hub (Wales) to achieve this, all this hard work paid off as Pride achieved GOLD Accreditation from Attitude Is Everything in 2019. Pride Cymru has had British Sign Language Interpreters as part of the stage performances for many years.
Taking the whole event online as a result of COVID 19 has had its challenges but Pride Cymru is fully committed to improving accessibility for all and building on the partnership with the Deaf Community has been of continued importance this year. Wales Deaf LGBTQIA+ Pride in 2019 brought the first Deaf performer to Pride Cymru’s main stage, International Deaf Sign Song Artist Fletch, and for 2020 Fletch returns with other Deaf Artists to provide nearly an hour of performance content on Saturday 29th at 5pm . All of the events are being streamed
for FREE on the Pride Cymru Facebook page! #YourPride #LGBT Check out all of the events here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/pride-cymru-17229875735
As a charity Deaf Hub (Wales) at Cardiff Deaf Centre is undergoing a large development programme that sees the charity looking to raise £750,000 to redevelop the home of the charity on Newport Road, Cardiff. Sitting at the heart of Deaf Hub (Wales) plans are improving awareness of Deaf Arts, Deaf Culture and the importance of information in British Sign Language( BSL) across all aspects of daily living.
Dafydd Eveliegh – Chair of the Trustees commented “ The Deaf Arts Festival held at the WMC in March 2019 allowed many young people to experience elements of Deaf Arts & Culture for the first time , building on the success of the festival , we have secured funding from the National Lottery Community Fund Lottery to bring Deaf Performers to Pride Cymru again this year . We are pleased to showcase some great Welsh Deaf Talent and proud to note that Deaf Performers from across the UK are supporting too.
“We would love to see DEAF PRIDE (Wales) become an annual event along side our annual Deaf Arts Festival”
Helen Rankin – Accessibility Manager for Pride Cymru stated ‘We are so proud of the accessibility improvements we have made to our annual event , as an Equalities charity we will continue to work hard to keep removing perceived or real barriers to ensure the event is accessible for all. Whilst we have achieved the Gold states from Attitude Is Everything, we have no intention of sitting on our laurels and working with Deaf Hub (Wales) and Wales Deaf LGBTQIA is a testimony to that. Bringing a programme of Deaf Performers strengthening awareness of Deaf Arts and Deaf Culture and the core of the Big Online Week will also have BSL/English interpretation and captioning.