A Lancashire law firm is set to become the first practice in the country dedicated to providing legal services to the deaf and hard of hearing.

Joseph Frasier in Blackburn will next week launch a campaign – Representing Your Right to Be Heard – to help make legal services more accessible for the nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK.

Last year the firm carried out research to identify the problems encountered by the deaf and hard of hearing when trying to access legal services.

It has partnered up with national charities, organisations and other law firms to offer services tailored to meet their specific needs.

All fee-earners will learn British Sign Language and the firm will make use of technology, including a webcam, text relay and MSN, text, Skype and Twitter to help communicate with clients.

It will launch a new website on 19 August with access to SignTube, a video-sharing site that allows deaf people to communicate.

The firm’s founder Saimina J Virmani said: ‘The last few months have been a journey for us and we have loved learning about deaf culture.

‘The deaf community is very tightly knit, and although we see people who are deaf as being on the outside of our world, the tables have now completely turned and we are on the outside.’

She added: ‘As legal professionals we are trained to use the power of our advocacy and voice, but in working with deaf and hard of hearing clients, this has essentially been taken away from us.

‘Representing Your Right to Be Heard is essentially about empowering deaf and hard of hearing people and about providing the easiest access to legal service.’