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At Derby College for Deaf People we recognise the need to provide the highest standard of support to enable our students to fulfil their educational potential. The communication service we offer has developed as our college has expanded; it is adapted to meet the needs of a wide range of students from numerous educational backgrounds. By employing Communication Workers in teams, we can match the needs of students either individually or in groups.

We recognise however, that communication Work as a profession, is still in its infancy. As an increasing number of Deaf people enter, or re-enter, education, so the number of Communication Workers has increased accordingly.

To maintain the standard of the communication support we provide, employees are encouraged to update their qualifications as new courses become available. In this way we hope to move the profession forward in line with other professions.

As many organisations are involved in the process of campaigning for official governmental recognition of British Sign Language (BSL), we feel the community of students at DCDP are able to be part of a shared linguistic environment which offers equal status to both BSL and English. DCDP promotes the idea of a bi-lingual environment within our campus and in the type of communication service we provide.

The communication methods we use cover a range of different strategies to enable students to have access to their course. The choice of communication depends on each individual student's needs at any given moment. Due to the constantly changing teaching styles used by various lecturers, CWs require a breadth of knowledge across several different communication skills. To ensure the needs of the students can be met, CWs are required to gain a mixture of qualifications.