EVERY day we take it for granted. Whether on the phone, crossing the road, listening to your favourite music or talking to friends, most of us would struggle without our hearing.

Take it away and even the most menial tasks such as shopping or booking an appointment can become frustrating.

To mark British Sign Language Week, the Evening Advertiser joined profoundly deaf computer engineer, Simon Huggins, on a shopping trip in Swindon town centre to see what difficulties he faces.

The 33-year-old, from Chiseldon, has been deaf since he was 13 months old and uses British Sign Language as his first language.

The Government has introduced the third part of the Disability Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in connection with employment, the provision of goods, facilities and services, or the disposal or management of premises.

It means that those businesses that don't make necessary changes could face legal action.

Interpreting for Simon was 38-year-old Mark Starr, from Park North, who works as a translator, and teacher of BSL for Sign Lingual in Stratton.

First stop was the town's Swindon Station, and on the way he explained through Mark some of his experiences.

"I tend not to use the train anymore," she said. "I had a bad experience, where I missed the stop I wanted to get off at because I could not hear the announcements, and then I had to spend ages trying to get back to Swindon."

At the station, we asked Simon to see how easy it was for him to find out ticket prices for a return trip to Bath. He returned disappointed.

He said: "I went to the counter showed I was deaf, and the woman behind the desk brought out a pen and paper on which I wrote where I wanted to go, and she wrote '£8 return'.

"There should be someone there with some basic signing skills, to help deaf travellers."

Mark pointed out: "There is clearly some discrimination here, had Simon been hearing, he would have been asked what dates and times he would like to travel.

"He was given no details about peak or off-peak prices, so he could be fined for not having the right price ticket if he travelled."

Walking back into the town centre, Simon spotted that several of the public telephones had been installed with a new minicom system. "This is a big improvement," he said. Simon then visited two building societies, the Alliance and Leicester and the Abbey, both on Regent Street, as a first time customer.

Banks and building societies can be particularly tough for the deaf, who lip read between 40 to 60 per cent of words and can be bamboozled by the technical jargon used in banks.

He said: "In the Alliance and Leicester, the magic pen and paper came out again. It's not ideal and I would rather they tried to communicate in sign."

In the Abbey they told him they had someone who could sign but they were not in until tomorrow.