History of ELDS

East Lancashire Deaf Society has been in existence since 1877. Until the late 1980’s Deaf people were being controlled by missioners/hearing people who tell them what to do, find them jobs and treated them as if they could not live life on their own. This is seen as paternalism. Paternalism is still seen today in many of the Deaf societies and associations. Many are still run by hearing people with a handful of mainly tokenistic Deaf people on governing bodies. Many Deaf people who are in contact with these organisations have developed a culture of dependency.

ELDS began to move away from the concept of paternalism and dependency some fifteen years ago, when the Constitution was amended to ensure that a minimum of 51% of the governing body were Deaf people. In reality today, well over 70% of the Management Committee is profoundly Deaf. The Society also began to move the focus of its work outside the Deaf Centre, to address the situation of Deaf people in the wider society. The organisation of social activities was left entirely in the hands of Deaf people themselves.

Lancashire Deaf Service

Lancashire Deaf Service was set up when ELDS got an opportunity to expand its services to reach the whole of Lancashire. It was seen that the name ‘East Lancashire Deaf Society’ would confuse people that live in Central and West Lancashire. This is how Lancashire Deaf Service came about. It became a name that Deaf people throughout Lancashire could identify with. Lancashire Deaf Service now has offices in Blackburn, Burnley, Preston and Lancaster and continues to grow.