The Zest team takes part in sign language workshop

In October, the Zest team was excited to take part in a sign language workshop led by the lovely, David J Johnston who came to us from Deaf links in Dundee. One of the participants and staff member, Megan Ravenhall shares her experience.

“I must admit that I wasn’t entirely sure how the evening would pan out but I went with an open attitude to whatever Lisa had in store.
I wasn’t disappointed!

Our teacher was brilliant, involving us in practicing sign from the outset. We began with our names and, as we appear to have some doubles on our staff, (two Megan’s and two Lyndsay’s) the variety of names was pretty low. After that we participated in a little acting course where we took it in turns to take David’s order.
This was interesting to say the least and for the innocent passers-by, they must have thought it was quite odd that a group of girls (and John of course) were stroking their faces (black coffee) and at one stage making monkey actions (funky monkey smoothie) to Charissa’s delight.
Although it may have taken some of us a bit longer than others to catch on, the end of the night proved we all had learnt something really special when we moved from the ordering rehearsal to the main stage…the counter.

This was such a great evening, not only because of the educational aspects but also because of the value which we can now add to our services at Zest. Diversity is encouraged by all of us and to now be able to proudly call ourselves amateurs in the art of sign is another way in which we hope to make our services to the public more inclusive and allow us to communicate with an even broader range of customers.

Thanks again David for all your time and effort! We weren’t the easiest or brightest brunch to teach but you managed to teach us some basic sign which will be invaluable in the future.”

The Zest staff is gearing up for more training this week. They will be participating in a workshop on autism led by Lee-Ann from the Fife Council Supported Employment Services.

For more information about Deaf Links, visit the Tayside Deaf Hub website.