Samantha Baines is an advocate for deaf and disabled access and is a proud deaf and disabled person herself. She has been a volunteer Ambassador for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) for five years and is a volunteer NSPCC Campaigner. 

 

Not only has Samantha written two children's books with deaf protagonists and the bestselling title Living With Hearing Loss and Deafness, she has spoken at The House of Lords, The House of Commons and presents on topics with a disability focus for Morning Live and The One Show. She is also a 'deaf consumer expert' on Rip Off Britain. She shared a very personal report on Congenital Heart Disease in new-born babies to raise awareness of the symptoms on The One Show. Her piece on lipreading classes for BBC Morning Live, ended up crashing the Association of Lipreading Teachers website due to high demand.

 

Samantha uses her profile to raise awareness of disability campaigns and injustices. She was proud to sign the Taking the Pip public letter and take part in the media campaign around stopping disability cuts in 2025 (a campaign that is still ongoing). She fronted the RNID's Accessible Healthcare campaign and Subtitles in Cinemas initiative and regularly gives deaf awareness talks to businesses, charities and schools. When presenting for BBC Radio London, transcripts of her radio shows were available on BBC Sounds, a first for the station. She always asks for live captions and BSL interpreters for any live event she does.

 

As a journalist, Samantha has covered topics across mental health and disability for The Telegraph, Radio Times, The Guardian, Metro and Stylist Magazine. A sensitivity reader for deaf characters in literature, she has also advised on creative captioning in theatres. She was previously a volunteer Ambassador for the British Tinnitus Association and volunteer judge of the Nasen Awards. A board member, she strives to promote disabled access where ever she can.

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In 2025 she took legal action against the UK Cinema Association to change the wording around their disability card (CEA Card) to include deaf people. The website now mentions 'hearing loss' to highlight that deaf people can also apply. In 2021, Samantha ran a social media campaign to give away free books to families who couldn't afford them at Christmas, donating over one hundred books and posting them out across the UK. In 2019, she hand-knitted and sold scarves to raise money for Hearing Dogs for Deaf people. Samantha is currently part of a working group of family lawyers striving to change the law around pets in divorce.