'We can do anything' The deaf pupil who sued council over interpreter

The deaf pupil who sued council over interpreter

- Libby Brooks

The slogan on Niamdh Braid's powder-blue sweatshirt puts it plainly enough: "I define my own deaf identity."

"We're in a world that's built for hearing people," says the 16-year-old from Glenrothes in Fife, "and we have to navigate through it to find what works best for us."

This year, the teenager won a legal battle with her local council to have a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter in lessons, after she realised how much of what was said in class she was missing out on.

Niamdh, who has been deaf since birth, wears hearing aids, but can struggle to follow in noisy environments and her preferred language is BSL. As a younger child, she didn't have any deaf people she could look up to on TV or on the news. Now she hopes that through her advocacy "younger deaf kids can look up to me and see that they can achieve anything".