Fletch@bsl

Born Jayne Elizabeth Fletcher, on the 30th November 1983 and grew up in Wolverhampton, Jayne was born 3 months premature; Deaf, with the doctors giving her only a small chance of survival. 38 years later this is her story… Jayne was born into a hearing family, who have no experience of deaf culture, identity or the language, they believed that Jayne would be fine and fit into normal hearing world and that she would get by . . . . Jayne struggled for years to battle mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and self-harm, which she believes to be mainly due to communication issues, as so few people around her signed. ​ ​ Jayne spent a lot of educational years being denied access to courses that she had wanted to study such as music, due to her "disability". Her daily life incurred numerous barriers as there is very little access to information for people whose first language is BSL (British Sign Language). The impact of her announcing that she was gay, also resulted in her being bullied, not only for her deafness but also her sexuality.