A DEAF charity is aiming to make Gloucestershire the most deaf friendly county in Britain - and they're doing it with a range of hilarious videos with a serious message.

Gloucestershire Deaf Association are using humorous videos involving deaf people to make a point about awareness of the issue.

In Gloucestershire alone there are nearly 47,000 people living with some level of hearing loss. Whether they are profoundly deaf British Sign Language users or have lost their hearing through illness or age, everyday they will face difficulties accessing mainstream services.

Each of the short videos uses a humorous storyline to highlight one or more specific problems that hamper deaf people every day in their effort to use mainstream services that hearing people take for granted, from visiting the bank to gaining access to a building using an intercom entry system.

Most videos feature GDA’s project developer and a deaf sign language user himself Reg Cobb, who over the past two years has become a social media star through the charity’s weekly newsletters.

Mr Cobb said: “Our experience tells us that deaf people want to be independent, they want to be able to manage their own finances and they want to take control of their own lives.

"However so often the reality for them is that they cannot access services which are only available by telephone because they cannot hear; and if they are a Deaf sign language user, they find businesses do not realise what steps they can take to assist communication.

"All the issues around deafness are solvable and often at little or no cost; our aim is to make Gloucestershire businesses more aware of what these are.”

GDA launched their first video called ‘Dave the Signer’ which focuses on the importance of having a fully qualified British Sign Language interpreter at appointments.

Every Thursday at 12pm for the next four weeks the charity will launch another video each looking at a different issue.

Find out more about Gloucestershire Deaf Association (GDA) at www.glosdeaf.org.uk, follow them on Twitter @GlosDeaf or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GDAGlos.