Ernie is 10 years old and lives in Bristol. Ernie uses sign language as one way to communicate with his mum and dad and twin brother. When shopping in Asda over summer, Ernie stopped at a video screen at the entrance to the store, showing a man using sign language to welcome visitors.
In the video the man signs, 'welcome to the store, we hope you enjoy your visit and if you need help, just ask one of our colleagues.'
Ernie loved the video and stood next to it copying the signing. Mum says, "It was at my son's eye level so caught his attention and he was copying it - you can se on the video how happy it made him; he was beaming. It was really sweet and Ernie loved it! I guess the main reason for having screens like that in the store is to make things accessible and inclusive... and it worked!"
"It's a big screen, and Ernie is a visual learner. He's visually impaired as well, so for him it was perfect. He can struggle to see things on a smaller screen but this was perfect."
"His face just lit up and that realisation that there was somebody signing like he does made his day. There were lots of people walking by that loved his reaction."
Ernie watched and copied the message 10 times and you can see the video clip in the link above.
Asda introduced the screens in 298 stores across the UK for British Sign Language Week in March, but they were so popular that they have remained in place.
The man signing in the video is Ishtiaq Hussain who lives in Stourbridge. Ishtiaq saw the Ernie's response on social media and was delighted; "I love how it has put a smile on Ernie's face, you can see how happy he is, bless his heart! This just shows how small changes can make a big difference."
- what is sign language, who is it for?
- why do you think British sign language week exists?
- Why does Black History Month or LGBT history month exist?
- Do you think we need these months or weeks to highlight difference? Do you think there is a danger people might only talk about sign language in British Sign Language Week and not talk about it the week after? Might schools only talk about black history during Black History Month and not in the rest of the year? (Historian David Olusoga argues that we should talk about these things all year round, but in the highlighted week or month, we "turn up the volume")
- British sign language week is over, so why did Asda keep their store entrance signing videos?
- Why have the video in the first place? Surely most people visiting the store won't use sign language, so is it worth making the video for a small number of people?
- what is representation, how does it affect people, why is this story about representation?
- How do you think Ernie felt when he was signed a welcome to the store, why is he beaming?
- "I guess the main reason for having screens like that in the store is to make things accessible and inclusive" what does that mean? Can you think of other examples of things being accessible and inclusive?
- Are we accessible and inclusive in our school? How do you know?
- what can we learn from Asda?
- why is this about No Outsiders?
www.no-outsiders.com
