A new report from the National Deaf Children’s Society says that, ten years on from the introduction of hearing screening for new-born babies, the benefits are being undermined by lack of support for deaf children and their families. Three quarters of such children arrive in school lagging behind their peers in terms of development and, by their teens, they are almost twice as likely to fail to achieve five good GCSEs.
In the third report of our series on the challenges faced by disabled people in Britain, Jackie Long has been finding out how some families cope.