Actress Ayling-ellis welcomes increased respect for people who are deaf

ACTRESS Rose Ayling-ellis has hailed the increased respect being given to people who are deaf, affording them “the support they’re supposed to have”.

Ayling-ellis, 27, who has been deaf since birth, found fame starring as Frankie Lewis in BBC soap Eastenders and went on to become the first deaf contestant to win Strictly Come Dancing.

She will make her debut tomorrow in the Cbeebies story corner and become the first celebrity to tell a Cbeebies bedtime story with sign language. It will be the first of two stories she has recorded for Cbeebies.

Speaking to CBBC’S Newsround, she praised the passing of a Bill in the House of Lords to legally recognise British Sign Language (BSL) as an official language in Scotland, England and Wales.

“I feel so happy it’s happened, because, finally, it needs to be a recognised language because it is a language,” she said.

“I think it’s good that we’re getting the respect we deserve because for so long it’s been ignored.

“So it’s really nice it’s getting recognised and to be a language, which means so much for deaf people because then they can have their right, they can have the support that they’re supposed to have. It’s a big difference.”

The soap star has actively campaigned for BSL to be recognised as an official language and be given legal status in the UK.

Ahead of her bedtime story being broadcast, Ayling-ellis said: “It’s the first bedtime stories that has been done with British Sign Language, which is so exciting and I think that’s incredible.

“It will be so nice for deaf children to be able to access their favourite programme and it’s in their language. That’s really exciting.”

She also recalled the difficulties she faced when attempting to access news programmes as a child, and praised Newsround’s regular broadcasting of signed episodes.

She said: “It has come a far way because I didn’t have that when I was growing up. The subtitles would be live and it was quite difficult to understand the language, so unless you know good English you can’t understand it.

“So, that’s amazing to hear deaf children can watch the news and understand it in their language. Thank you, because I didn’t have that.”