TRADERS in Halesowen have been given see-through face masks to help communication during deaf awareness week by the town's BID team.

The team, now based in the new Hobbs building, secured funding to provide the face masks from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund.

The masks allow people who are hard of hearing or deaf to lip-read and understand facial expressions more clearly whilst communicating with businesses across the town.

Whilst the roll-out of the masks is taking place as part of Deaf Awareness Week, which is this week (May 3-9) the BID has secured enough funding to provide the re-usable masks for the next four months.

BID Manager Vicky Rogers said: "Our traders work incredibly hard to ensure that Halesowen retains its reputation as an inclusive town for people to live and work in.

"This funding has helped us provide a little more support in continuing this good work.

“Not only will the masks provide clearer means of communication for members of the deaf community, but it will also assist people with a learning disability, a speech difficulty, autism and dementia.”

If you run a public-facing business within Halesowen, please contact info@halesowenbid.co.uk for more information.

Business Improvement Districts are created through a ballot process to deliver additional services to local businesses.

Each business across the BID area has to pay a 1.25 per cent levy towards BID work which aims to attract interest and investment to the town.