DRIVING instructor Steve Swinton was furious when heard a young deaf man had been refused lessons.

He set about learning the basics of British Sign Language but found the only course available was in a weekly mother and toddler’s group.

He said: “It caused a bit of a stir at first but I soon mixed and later I went on to attend an advanced course.”

Now the 54 year-old combines running his own Castle Hill School of Motoring with training would-be driving instructors and has been teaching hearing impaired learner drivers for 15 years.

The father of three reckons he is one of only 50 instructors out of 43,000 in Britain who use signing to teach deaf people to drive and says the skill has gained him extra business as news of his signing ability spread.

Now he wants to set up a course teaching BSL to other instructors and says learning sign language has helped his business over the years.

“Around 10 to 15 per cent of my learners are deaf or hearing impaired.

“I sit further forward turned towards the learner and use my hands instead of talking to tell the drivers what I want them to do and it works very well.

“They can see me signing in their peripheral vision and in some ways it works better than talking does.

“I would eventually like to set up a course for those instructors who want to learn BSL as it a very useful skill which can help their business.”

A former Breightmet High School pupil, Mr Swinton worked as a mechanical engineer but after being made redundant he decided to set up his own driving school.

“I wanted to work for myself and that way nobody could make me redundant and for me it has been a very good move.

“I knew there would more business avenues to explore than just teaching people the basic L-test and now I teach instructors and hearing impaired and deaf people.”

He is a top Grade 6 driving instructor, an advanced driving instructor and supervising examiner and is on the Official Register of Driving Instructor Trainers (Ordit).

l A See Hear programme featuring Mr Swinton will be broadcast on BBC 2 on Wednesday January 28 at 1pm.

From : The Bolton News

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