CSW's NO thanks !

Perhaps should be sub-headed all our deaf yesterdays... Not sure if I should feel guilty or what, many years ago I joined with many other local deaf people to get rid of the dedicated deaf social/welfare worker.  In the past they provided birth to death support for many deaf people, helped them get married, get divorced, have children, bury family, read books, get work, and make telephone calls.  Curiously then opposing deaf from being given free minicoms, because "What use is a phone when you can't hear.. and can't read English ?"  They had done nothing much to enhance deaf self-help.  A very dubious system of job-protectionism.

There were perhaps about 10% who were integral to saving the deaf community from itself, some went above and beyond 'the job' to help deaf, albeit they  were as much of the problem as the solution    Now it has reverted yet again to hearing family doing it all in the UK.   Younger deaf just saw S.W. 'help' as a tremendous imposition on their privacy and wholly unwilling to permit the level of privacy intrusion this overbearing support service operated to do their job.  Too many Social Workers for the deaf enjoyed the power over others lives it gave them, and tried to be the parent over their children too.   Social workers for deaf then ruled the deaf community, told deaf what they should do, funded their deaf clubs, etc many became virtual 'family members' and the line between state support and the official secrets Act' disappeared entirely.

I am thinking back to 1980-90s a UK survey of Deaf S.W. for the deaf found 85% did not even posses sufficient BSL qualifications.  There was then, and still now, no service for the deafened, and lip-speaking, again then as now, not an option.  I was horrified Social Workers had been allowed to continue working with deaf people on that basis.  It came to a head at a Social Worker AGM where miffed deaf social workers complained official BSL interpreters trained properly were getting higher wages than they did for a lot less involvement, so a lot withdrew personal service help to the deaf in defiance.  In retrospect this sealed their fate.  Without the personal help angle, deaf couldn't use them.  Today any BSL terp will tell you they are part-SW/part friend and taking over the mantle.  They need reminding what happens when they go over their remit and to take care deaf do not see them as repeating the past.

The new problems are CSW's (Community Support Workers), these are half-nil trained deaf support, foisted on deaf people with very little knowledge of what deaf communications are about. Most had basic care qualifications and a pair of ears, but next to no BSL or lip-speaking ability or qualifications at all, the neutrality and safeguards are pretty flimsy as well.  Allowed to assist deaf with money and in the home with few safeguards or any monitoring.

Like 'class helpers' in schools, these people are hired because the system pays them a lot less.  Pro's (teachers) sit in offices doing paperwork and 'Helpers' running our kids education at the coal face.  Now DIY support for the deaf.  However like others I see this as letting us down, deaf communication needs quite specialised and qualified help, (They don't need a degree in deaf studies !), and they were bringing people off the street and dumping them straight onto the deaf.  I forced one charity here to withdraw their deaf support because I found none could sign at all, but SS here were referring to them as 'qualified'.   Their CV said not !

Patients given ipads/videophones to communicate.

Deaf patients and staff at Passavant Area Hospital can now communicate with family and friends via a videophone or iPad.

Joan Olsen is Passavant's Interpreter Coordinator. She says most of the deaf community is using a videophone or similar technology in their home now. She says it allows for more natural conversation. Olsen says TTY units are out of date and are only really used for those in rural areas without internet service.

The videophone, which looks like a small box with a monitor, allows deaf individuals to make video calls to other deaf persons and to hearing persons through a relay interpreter. Joans says it’s very similar to Skype or Face Time on the iPhone.    Calls are made using the internet.  Passavant's videophone is located in the Emergency Department waiting room and is used for making outgoing calls. The videophone includes on-screen instructions. The iPad is available, by request, for inpatient use. The iPad has special software that allows the user to place video calls.

The videophone and iPad were recent gifts to the hospital from the Passavant Area Hospital Auxiliary.

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Smart Space For the Deaf

A university in United States has gone out of its way to come up with an architectural design that’s specifically geared towards the deaf community.

WITH a funny anecdote, college football player Tony Tatum recently sparked a rousing round of applause.

The only thing is, the audience couldn’t hear much clapping. But they could see it.

Those listening to the charismatic student emphatically waved their hands in the air as a sign of appreciation – because Tatum and his audience were communicating via sign language.

Well-equipped: Tatum sitting in his dorm room located inside a US$18.5mil (RM57.6mil) state-of-the-art building with 175 beds.

Tatum is hard of hearing and attends Gallaudet University, an institution of higher learning that offers programmes specifically for the deaf.

The college, whose charter was signed by the then president Abraham Lincoln in 1864, is located on a lush green campus in the US capital of Washington D.C.

It has since developed into a hotbed of architectural design geared toward a community that predominantly interacts through the motioned – not the spoken – word.

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Rosie Watson dies.

TRIBUTES have been paid to a disability campaigner following her death after a long illness.  Rosie Watson, 50, from Darlington, was well known in the town for the time and effort she gave to many charitable organisations.

Profoundly deaf, she was a passionate campaigner for disability rights in education, having successfully fought the discrimination she faced while studying at Durham University.  Her case against the university, which was settled out of court with a £25,000 payout, received national publicity, which she hoped would pave the way to improving access to higher education for other deaf students.

After her experiences, Mrs Watson worked as a volunteer at Darlington Association on Disability (Dad) to ensure that other deaf students were well-supported in further education.  Lauren Robinson, chief executive of Dad, said: “Rosie worked for Dad as an information worker and also gave many hours of time volunteering, supporting disabled children on the Dash play scheme and piloting a national scheme to inspect nursing and residential homes with the Care Quality Commission.


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OK, deaf CAN go on cruises !

From buses to planes and now boats - No Go Britain hears of a deaf couple who were initially refused access to a cruise holiday. The company has since backed down after a campaign by the couple's son.

All Paul Harrison's parents, Karen and Peter, wanted was a quiet cruise holiday around Turkey and Greece.

But there was a problem, at least for the cruise operator, Thomson Cruises. The couple are deaf. When Karen Harrison notified Thomson of this a week before the cruise was due to sail, to help the company prepare any special assistance, they were told they would be unable to travel unless they had a hearing assistant with them.

"Regrettably, we will have no option but to refuse yourself and Mrs Harrison boarding of our vessel if you are unable to travel with at least one other person who is able to hear alarm signals and announcements and who would share a cabin with you and your wife," Thomson told the couple this week.

"If you do not wish to cancel your holiday entirely then the only alternative is that we look at amending your holiday to a suitable land-based one."

Thomson said that its ships were too old to have the necessary equipment to make the journey safe for the couple. There are clauses in disability discrimination and equality law which mean that some elements of the rights of deaf and other disabled people to travel do not apply onboard cruise ships - although the laws are set to change to come in line with rail and aviation by the end of this year.

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Deaflympic UK: Decline and fall.

It rolls on and on with deaf sport carping at paralympians and 'Deaf' blogs and articles taking pot-shots along the way, clearly there is anger at apparent 'exclusion' of deaf access to the paralympics, but, is any of it true ?  No it isn't.  All it has achieved with UK Guardian articles and BBC blog articles, is most people want deaf to stop shouting 'Foul play' and get their act together, they gain no support undermining what has been the most successful paralympics in history.

The UK deaf CANNOT sustain a go-it alone policy.  Can the deaflympics even hold regular event in the future ?  Attempts to get 'into' that paralympics via an indirect route that would have seen deaf STILL going it alone, has not got far, and, what do world deaflympians feel about the UK trying to compete in everything but not WITH anyone else ? Recent articles from Mr Swinbourne swing for and then against the paralympians, there is no unity of approach at all, but who suffers ?  Paralympians ?  They don't who needs deaf input.  Read a recent response regarding the recent Swinbourne hoo-ha.....

"The Author is Charlie Swinbourne. Unfortunately there is strong differences of opinion about deaf participations and the paralympics. Personally I find the deaf entirely at faulty (i.e. the deaflympic executive, not the sport people). Charlie has bias toward the deaf side, I don't. There were two articles printed, one by the CEO of the deaflympics, blaming the paralympic committee for not accepting specialised access, the other by charlie S ALSO blaming the paralympics, then this recent article suggesting.. some middle road ? Consistency seems a real issue, but the fault is cultural basically.

In reality and as my blog recorded, there are ALREADY deaf participants who participate at the paralympics, and still doing, an deaf-blind dressage medal winner, as well as a Russian runner who used sign language at the finishing post, and an deaf swimmer who HAD access via a flashing light system, this suggests to me the claims they are 'excluded' are unfair. Some are deaflympians, others paralympians, and some are both, AND some participating in the MAIN Olympics too as HI and deaf.. This suggests to me the claims by deaflympics they are excluded by the paralympic committee was quite without foundation. 'Demands' by deaflympics really wanted funding that would  re-establish the deaflympics  within the paralympics, just a way to get funding really, but unwilling to be listed alongside or to compete against 'disabled' or paralympians. I raised this issue direct WITH the deaflympic (UK), CEO, he refused response when confronted.

If not the Paralympics then compete with the main one. There is a strong bias that suggests facts get in the way of a good story. You don't have to read between lines to see the Deaf do NOT want to be integrated with the paralympians. It is a shame as the platform for awareness not only for deaf people, and awareness, but of deaf sporting achievement is to be some 'battle-ground' for deaf to go it alone in the name of culture. Are not the Olympics multi-cultural ? and, multi-communicational too ?   They had 25 years to lobby for reasonable access.... Of course they are, that IS the point of it. Near every reference to deaf and the paralympics has been about deaf artists and not deaf competitors, but they ARE there. It's just a sporting mess, and deaf need to get their act together. Sacking their sporting body is a start."

Deaf who DO

Paralympics letting the deaf down

Why deaf are still not paralympians

Why can't I be an paralympian ?

Showing deaf how its done

What ARE the deaflympics ?

Australia: Queensland police Access.

(Signed and captioned).  The Queensland Police Service has launched a new SMS and Email service for Deaf and hearing-impaired people to report non-urgent matters.

Living Una vita povera

How state attacks on deaf, deaf-blind, and other disabled in the UK are making them poorer, less healthy, and even less equal than 5 years ago.

“Things have progressively got worse for deaf people in the county for the last eight years,” said Joanna Steer chief executive officer of Deafconnect in Northants & Rutland.

“A lot of organisations and local authorities have been cutting their services for deaf people, but several councils still have social worker teams for deaf people, but in Northamptonshire there haven’t been these social workers for a few years. [wales hasn't any for 12 years].

“Deafness is largely over-looked in many different ways. It is both physical and a communication problem.

“A major issue is deaf people struggling to access key services because they can’t communicate. If all statutory services would have a text option things would be a lot easier, but some still expect them to use a minicom, which is out-dated equipment which many people no longer have.

“From local authorities to doctor’s services or even claiming benefits, there needs to be an option to use mobile phones.

“Our remit is to help support people to maintain their independence, so we do a lot of explaining and do a lot of advocacy work to fight discrimination.

“Our funding has been cut and cut. We now have a quarter of the funding that we did eight years ago and we have had to find ways of making our own income. It is very concerning.”

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Deaf who DO.

The beauty of silent films lies in the artistry of actors' body language and facial expressions, relying on the poignance of the unspoken to evoke viewers' interpretation of the performance.

In Laurentia Tan, the profoundly deaf heroine, we can draw a parallel.  Following up on her bronze medal win in the Grade 1A Individual Championship Dressage Test on Monday, Tan again captivated the judges at Greenwich Park with a sterling performance in her Individual Freestyle Test yesterday, winning Singapore's first silver medal in the sport with a score of 79.000.

Britain's Sophie Christiansen bagged gold with a score of 84.750 and Helen Kearney of Ireland finished third with 78.450.  Tan's feat makes her the most bemedalled Singapore Paralympian with one silver and three bronzes.  "I'm over the moon, I didn't expect another medal," said the 33-year-old who has cerebral palsy. She had finished third in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Games and did not expect a medal this time round.

"So many people come up to me and say 'wow' and how much I've inspired them." But it is not her improvement from a bronze to silver that is awe-inspiring


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C'mon charlie have a go at her too......  Or maybe at this Russian winner using sign language too Deaf sports people are participating it seems.  paralympics preventing participation ?  Think NOT !

Briton Olivia Breen, who has cerebral palsy and is deaf, was unaware a false start had been called in her T38 100m heat and carried on until the end. She was allowed to rest for an hour before returning and eventually finished fifth in the final.

Deaf and mute man was locked in a basement for FOUR MONTHS

While his captor stole his Social Security checks  Police found William Richardson, 63, locked in the basement of a South Philadelphia home, malnourished and beaten in a room with only a bed, a chair and a makeshift commode.  His captor allegedly repeatedly threatened the deaf and mute Mr Richardson, forcing him to sign for his Social Security checks and then stealing the money for himself for four months.

Dwayne Young, 56, has been charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, robbery, forgery and held on $1million bail  Mr Richardson demonstrated through gestures Wednesday night to the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was abused, punched in the chest and jaw inside his own Wheeler Street home.

Young allegedly kidnapped Mr Richardson at his place of work on Washington Avenue, where he was a handyman at a plumbing company.  He went missing in April of this year and was discovered Sunday night.


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The Paralympic Games are letting down deaf athletes

First the IDCS sour grapes, now, Limpin' Chick'n Editor Attacks the Paralympics (Charlie Swinbourne).    Hell hath no fury like a deafie scorned obviously... Do either seriously think these petty asides enhance the deaf ?  Deaflympic sport is running out of excuses now mounting digs at highly successful paralympics ? sporting suicide !  They have had YEARS to lobby for access and support to participate, and refused every time....

Excerpt from article:  Remarkably, there is no category in the Paralympics for deaf athletes. This is a massive missed opportunityOn Tuesday I watched Evgenii Shvetcov from Russia win the Men's 400M T36, narrowly beating the man I was cheering on – Team GB's Paul Blake – into second place. But any disappointment I felt suddenly disappeared when, seconds after crossing the finish line, Shvetcov looked into the TV camera and used sign language to communicate a message to people watching back home.This may seem disloyal to these shores, but if I'd known Shvetcov was deaf, I'd have been cheering him on from the start. There are deaf athletes who have competed in the Olympics and Paralympics at London 2012, but they're few and far between.

Another separate disability is required for them to compete in the Paralympics because, remarkably, there is no category for deaf athletes.In this country, deaf athletes have for a few years now been the poor cousins in funding terms. The Guardian's Datablog identified total spending of £11bn on London 2012 (£9bn from the government, and £2bn budgeted by Locog), while UK Sport has been spending more than £100m per annum on Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes. In the context of those sums, £42,000 seems miniscule, but it's the amount of funding that UK Deaf Sport used to receive annually from the government.

When this sum was withdrawn in 2008, with then sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe claiming this was to focus funding on athletes competing in the Beijing and London games, it put deaf athletes' participation in the Taipei Deaflympics 2009 in jeopardy.If you're wondering what the Deaflympics are, then take a look at Tuesday's BBC Ouch! interview with Craig Crowley, the president of the International Committee of Sport for the Deaf.

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Deaf week S.A.

HAS it come around again ?  mised it the last 5 years...  Here from South Africa.  The department of sport, arts and culture in the North West has embarked on a Deaf Awareness Week as part of its mandate to educate communities about deafness and sign language.

The activities in the province, to draw attention to deaf people, their challenges, capabilities, as well as achievements, are expected to form part of build-up programmes to the main event to be held at Mmabana Taung on Friday.  Numerous deaf communities throughout the world united in honouring Deaf Awareness Week during September, the department said.

The week, which began on Saturday, is designed to educate communities on several issues the deaf face in their everyday life and to honour their contribution to South Africa.  Among the activities of the build-up programme, the department of sport, arts and culture held a Deaf Women Empowerment Seminar yesterday at the Archives Building in Mmabatho.

Departmental spokesperson Vusi Kama said: “There will be various presentations and exhibitions by organisations such as the Human Rights Commission, Provincial Council on Aids, the South African Social Security Agency, the departments of social development, safety and security, and other agencies.”  The main event will start with a march by deaf communities around the province to draw attention to issues affecting the deaf.

Department MEC Tebogo Modise said: “We want people to understand deaf communities so that they can communicate with them and for deaf people to socialise with hearing people without feeling intimidated.  “Government officials should also be urged to learn sign language in order to be able to deliver excellent service to deaf communities.”


SOURCE

MMR vaccine caused deafness in two U.K. children, formally recorded in 10

Why is it acceptable for Drs to accept MMR caused deafness, while refusing to accept it also may have caused Autism too ?  Then, reject compensation because they are only deaf.  More research needs to be done about the MMR link to brain damage and now deafness too.  It shows how low they rate deaf people, no respect.

Katie Stephen, a 21-year-old woman in the United Kingdom, recently proved that she was made deaf in one ear after receiving the MMR vaccine as a child. Stephen's medical records showed she received a vaccine for the Urabe type of mumps in 1991 and became deaf in her left ear after she was given the shot as a 15-month old. According to The Times, there were 10 cases of deafness which were "formally recorded" as a result of this particular MMR vaccine and that a person who went deaf in both ears after receiving the shot received vaccine injury compensation in a case brought prior to Stephen's claim.

Stephen has been refused the payout for vaccine injury because it is only given to people with 60% disablement. Paul Breckel, chief executive of Action on Hearing Loss, said: "We are disappointed that the formula used by the Vaccine Damage Payments Unit does not fully recognise the impact for Katie in completely losing the hearing in her left ear."

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Katie

Why Deaf STILL aren't in the paralympics

ICSD blames the paralympians....... While blind and partially sighted competitors have had a high profile at the Paralympics deaf competitors have been notably absent.  The decision over which sports and impairment groups are represented in the Games ultimately rests with the International Paralympic Committee.

The British Paralympics Association says sportsmen and women who are deaf - and their representative federations - were originally part of the Paralympic movement, but decided to move away from their own associations and create their own Games, such as the Special Olympics and Deaflympics, and are therefore not members of the BPA and are not funded the same way as other national governing bodies.

However Stuart Harrison, vice-chair of UK Deaf Sport, says that is "not a very helpful point of view".  He says the International Committee of Sport for the Deaf (ICSD, also known as Deaflympics) was admitted to the IOC in 1955 as an International Federation with Olympic Standing.


Harrison says the communication requirements - primarily sign language - of Deaflympians, the cost of sign interpreters, and the inability of the Paralympic Games to accommodate the growing number of Deaflympians, led to the ICSD deciding to withdraw.  "Fundamentally we couldn't come to an agreement," he says. Had deaf sport not been so far advanced by the 1990s, Harrison believes it would have been a natural progression to join the Paralympics.

SOURCE BBC

I've been bar-coded...

I think I got a use for these applications, can we have henna tattoos with them ?  The above 'code' is not an actual one, maybe they should design one !

How was it for you ?

We may never know without captions !  An Channel 4 perspective (UK).

Directional Glasses for the deaf...

Will these be rejected like the captioned access ones were by deaf as 'too obvious' ?   Will google 'sue ass' like Apple ?  Because deaf people lack access to such potentially life-saving cues, a group of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon built a pair of glasses which allows the wearer to "see" when a loud sound is made, and gives an indication of where it came from.

An array of seven microphones, mounted on the frame of the glasses, pinpoints the location of such sounds and relays that directional information to the wearer through a set of LEDs embedded inside the frame. The glasses will only flash alerts on sounds louder than a threshold level, which is defined by the wearer.

Previous attempts at devices which could alert deaf users to surrounding noises have been ungainly. For example, research in 2003 at the University of California, Berkeley, used a computer monitor to provide users with a visual aid to pinpoint the location of a sound. The Korean team have not beaten this problem quite yet - the prototype requires a user to carry a laptop around in a backpack to process the signal. But lead researcher Yang-Hann Kim stresses that the device is a first iteration that will be miniaturised over the next few years.

Richard Ladner at the University of Washington in Seattle questions whether the device would prove beneficial enough to gain acceptance. "Does the benefit of wearing such a device outweigh the inconvenience of having extra technology that is seldom needed?" he asks. "No doubt the authors are doing some good engineering, but is what they produced really useful enough to those in the target group?"

What's more, there is a risk that the glasses will clash with a US patent application filed by Google earlier this year. The patent, entitled "Displaying sound indications on a wearable computing system", describes a feature for a device similar to the headset of the company's much-anticipated Project Glass initiative. The system flashes visual alerts when it hears sounds that could be important to the wearer.

SOURCE

Here is the GOOGLE one

UK Children now on par with 3rd world starving.

A damning indictment of the UK's dismissal of their obligations to its own children as well as its vulnerable disabled.  Whilst children in the UK are plunged into poverty and near starvation, the UK government pretends to be 'saving the 3rd world' from starvation and injustice.  The ultimate and cruel hypocrisy of today's Britain as one of the world's richest economies, we join the USA in hiding the truth of what really is happening.  We too have soup kitchens, and church charities providing food for hungry families, 200 of them within 60 miles of where I live..  Save the world's children dismiss your own.  The UK gave £80m to Africa recently, that was to buy influence away from China.  Madness, and completely immoral.

In the 30’s and 40’s, we fought for children’s right to adequate nutrition in the UK. Our campaigning was a success: the Education Act of 1944 made it compulsory that all schools in the UK provide milk to children under the age of 18. We continue fight for children in the UK today by supporting some of the most vulnerable children and families. Right now, 1.6 million children live in severe poverty in the UK. Our programmes make sure children living in poverty get off to the best possible start in education, and we’re making sure they get the essentials they need - a hot meal, blankets, a warm bed.

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What are the Deaflympics?

An BBC blog gets more than it bargained for when attempting to raise deaflympic awareness, clearly, many cannot see why it exists.  Read the comments that came in:

(1)  Deaf must drop the dogmatic cultural attitude and get down to the sport and making the times required to participate. Some take part in the paraplympics, some in the main event, most neither. Disabled deaf should be in the paralympics, the more able-bodied in the main event. The suggestion of 'special categories' for the deaf is just another way of lobbying for deaf to go it alone again.

(2) While deafness causes issues, they can be overcome and in doing so, deaf athletes could enter the Olympics, not the Paralympics. It is not beyond us to provide visual communications alongside the current audible ones.  As for team sports, there is nothing stopping the hearing from using sign language. Indeed, a goal keeper could communicate with his captain at the other end of a football pitch.

(3) Should we have an 'Olympics' for people with every disability? Maybe Alcoholic? webbed toes? Under 6 foot tall? Why can't a deaf person compete in the regular olympics - have visual cues. Deaf people seem to be obsessed with differentiating themselves from the wider disabled community and portray being deaf as some kind of sub-national culture like being Welsh.

(4) I have every sympathy with the deaf, but there are very few sports being deaf could be considered a handicap. Running? Have the loudspeaker that is used to start connected to blocks vibration should suffice.  However can I forward an olympics for the downright lazy and incompetent?


(5) The problem is culture attitude, not sport, and it is rooted in dogma at the top of deaf sport. Deaf can obviously participate in the Olympics, but NOT while they are demanding funds and support for a stand alone deaf alternative. Deaf can't raise the bar, because they don't get the impetus to improve, via training and competition.

(6) Craig Crowley (The smiling oaf pictured) is also the same person who cancelled the winter deaflympics at the last minute because HE failed to ensure that progress on the facilities were on track. He left hundreds of deaf athletes stranded across the globe through pure incompetence. Not the kind of person we need in charge of deaf sport if you ask me.


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Deafness doesn't hold me back...

In salons, there are standards noises going around: hairspray being spritzed, hairdryers loudly humming, and people talking and laughing.

Despite growing up around hairdressers and being a hairdresser for four years, Gloria Kriausky doesn’t know these sounds. That’s because Kriausky is deaf.   “My family thought that I was born with hearing, that I went deaf later, but I don’t think so, I think I was born deaf. They didn’t have the kind of technology that they have today, for screenings,” she said, with the translation of Jennifer Paycheck, a certified interpreter through Central Kentucky Interpreter Referral.

For Kriausky, this “isn’t a hindrance at all,” according to Shelia Curtis, owner of The Salon, where Kriausky works. When Curtis first learned Kriausky was looking for a salon to join, Curtis was excited at the prospect.   “I was overwhelmed with joy when she came to me for a job,” said Curtis

Curtis used to cut the hair of both Kriausky and her mother, so the salon owner knew the kind of person Kriausky is.  “Someone who was that driven … that spoke volumes to me,” Curtis said.   Despite making slight adjustments for a hearing-impaired employee, “it’s been pretty normal, really,” Curtis said.

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Cops rough up more deaf people in USA.

A deaf couple claims two off-duty Bexar County Sheriff's deputies handcuffed them and roughed them up as they were shopping inside a west side convenience store. Now the two want to know why it happened in the first place.

Jeffrey Donovan and his girlfriend Mercedes Castellano were shopping inside the Express Mart on Ceralvo, off Zarzamora on Aug. 23 and had only been inside for about two minutes before deputies approached. Surveillance video shows how quickly the deputies came inside and cuffed the couple.

"They were waving at us to come over there and all of a sudden they handcuffed us and were really rough at us," Donovan said, through an interpreter.    "It really freaked me out because we were trying to tell them, 'they're deaf! They're mute! They can't speak!'" said a person who was inside the store, who did not want to be identified.  "I think it was uncalled for. They were too rough."

Employees said the deputies were yelling for the couple to put their hands up.  "I don't understand why they rushed up on us like that. I couldn't understand what we'd done wrong," Castellano signed.  The witness said the couple were very frightened.  Donovan says they were taken outside where they tried to communicate with the deputies.

"I was trying to explain to him that I couldn't hear. I was deaf. I tried to explain to him twice. As they uncuffed us, we asked if we could write back and forth. I guess they didn't want us to write back and forth," Donovan signed.

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UK's cruel and hateful Smoke Screen...

How the UK Government, is using the Paralympian success as a cover while removing their rights.   In Rio will there BE any disabled participants from the UK ?    They have removed deaflympic support funds and now removing disabled support too.  "The Paralympics Opening Ceremony appeared to develop a colourful theme of transcendence and overcoming.  The 2012 Paralympics showcases the talents and efforts of disabled people who have trained and worked to become the sporting elite.

Yet TV news headlines such as 'people with disabilities overcome their disabilities' are unhelpful –disabled people can 'overcome' impairments or disabilities no more than people can overcome their ethnicity. Some things remain fixed.

A wheelchair user without the use of their legs doesn't immediately rise up and walk because they become a Paralympian, someone with a lifelong health condition doesn’t suddenly lose it. The paralympians, like the olympians are a group of people who represent sporting excellence - but we do not see headlines declaring that olympians have transcended their ‘everydayness’. Non-disabled people are not urged to go out and ‘overcome’, to become olympians with a ‘can do’ attitude - so why are disabled people?

The answer is political and attitudinal. Disabled people have been at the heart of the cuts by the Cameron-led government from the moment the coalition came to power.

Speaking to Channel 4, at the opening of the Paralympics, Cameron said: "It’s about the inspiration and it will change people’s minds and that’s what matters. It’ll teach people about what they can do, rather than what they can’t do."

A very similar line is being used to target disabled people as welfare ‘scroungers’ and ‘fraudsters’ by the government and by companies reassessing disability support, such as Atos." 

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Anti-'Audism'/pro-deafhood bloggers.. UH ?

Perhaps like this with blinkers on ?  Is it any wonder deafhood, and the anti-'audism' supporters lose credibility when challenged on their blatant generalisations, and refusal to respond to other people's observations?    Here is one comment they deemed 'not acceptable to print'

"Audism is not preferring hearing to being deaf, it is subjective/relative only, we must be wary of gross generalisation.  In the issue of those who are deafened/acquiring profound loss.  It is simply a desire for their norm.  I must remain sceptical about claims HoH being 'born-again' into deaf culture, it doesn't happen, unless the loss was so severe at day one, they never knew what real hearing was, the lifestyle, background and education is totally at odds with the concept.  (It is the same, but counter argument 'Deaf' use to justify culture and just as valid).  It's important deafhood 'followers' identify their 'targets' a lot more selectively, so as not to alienate other deaf and HI people."

Clearly the mentioned blog above, prefers to not print or not to answer.   Another DeafYou without the vids.... It has ALWAYS been the view of cultural deaf they are some 'sector apart' from anyone else, either with hearing, or with hearing loss, unless some obscure criteria was met. you have to be born into it.  We are all deaf, we are not all cultural, we are all individuals, and deafhood is as divisive now as it ever was. Audism is just an USA term with no validity in the UK and unrecognised AS a word.  We use 'Discrimination', since, that is, what it is.

Sailing, we are sailing...

Follow-up  vid to this blog  (ATR does NOT recommend anyone drives with 2 hands off the wheel like this !).

Turning it down.....

We read last year Apple rejected outright any attempt to limit volume controls after groups in the USA challenged their ipods contributed to hearing loss (Just as they do here in the UK). USA courts rejected the opposition and while accepting they could contribute to hearing loss, it is the stupid OWNERS fault for turning them up too high.   The same logic that says guns are not a problem gun-owners are.

Japan/china/Korea went much the same way, so the sole avenue left, of addressing loud audio equipment is for the UK to issue strict guidelines on imports. There is no desire by our government to do that, and as I understand NO Lobby in the UK demanding that. I think personally all audio equipment we have in the home from CD players to ipods to TV's etc should be strictly limited to the government guideline of safe volume.   You get TV's of over 50 watts output, surround sound that means you cannot escape it in any part of the room you are listening in, young people too stupid to take any notice, and have the view "Better deaf than not having fun.."  (Obviously an logic based on never having been deaf or knowing what it means).  What it means is the music does NOT go on, neither does the fun.

In short governments have to overrule personal preferences,this point meant Apple won their case, as the USA is sensitive to being told what to do, even to help themselves avoid misery and poor health.   9 million British, and (See Below), many more millions of Americans of all ages too are in the brown stuff.

The area of 'coercion' was the contentious one. Indeed could well force deaf charities and environmental aid providers having to withdraw a lot of equipment they sell to us, like one telephone I saw that exceeded safe volume guidelines for hard of hearing by 52%, I didn't personally agree VOLUME is the answer to poor hearing, but tends to accelerate loss.

It is just playing into the myth deaf or HoH just need things that are louder. They don't, if you are deaf NO volume makes any difference, if you are HoH you take the risk of tinnitus and worse loss, for short term gain, because the volumes just are turned up and up to compensate.. I think you have to simply remove the right of people to deafen themselves, or at least force manufacturers to realise no-one needs equipment at that level.. 

They say in 20 years cigarettes will vanish as a habit in the UK since we have made the user  look anti-social, perhaps we need to make loud noise more unsociable too. It's a mystery health and safety UK already issue legal guidelines, but they appear only to apply in the workplace. However, this is constantly abused too, as complaints are coming in regularly of cafe's and other service areas and transport, where piped music is so loud you cannot hear yourself think.  Employers said "Music makes for an happier and more productive workforce.." yes and deaf patrons too.  Let THEM hear it we don't want to.  We're fed up shouting over the counter because they are in a world of their own. The customer is right not the employee.

I did a blog last week about Hotels who break the law and PUBS and other public areas, that offer noisy TV's and background so that HI were unable to effectively communicate, they ARE Breaking the law, so why isn't no-one pursuing it ?  Background noise on TV broadcasts are being challenged,but it is not having much effect,and neither is better classroom acoustics being taken up so HI kids can follow lessons properly.  So we widen the doors for those in wheelchairs and deafen them when they get in ?  Silence isn't golden, but noise certainly isn't either !

Safe USA Levels

Safe UK levels

I'm deaf why can't I be a Paralympian ?

Liz Jones asks the pertinent question.    (Perhaps better to ask deaf sport that question !).   "I’ve been watching the Paralympics with awe. It’s unusual to see disabled  people enjoying themselves, exposing themselves.  There is an aggressiveness to the competitors I actually like: they are unapologetic, in your face. 

After the honed perfection of the Olympics, where the athletes seemed like Marvel cartoons, to see imperfection is very moving – as it is to see the spectators, those in wheelchairs or with visual impairments or whatever, who suddenly have a world-class event at which they are the norm, not the inconvenience. 

I think it a bit silly, though, to admonish people such as Edwina Currie, who tweeted that the Italian athletes looked gorgeous, ‘even in wheelchairs’. There were also calls to strip the Games of any mention of the word ‘disabled’.   Disability makes you different, and unable to do stuff. Someone tweeted in response  to Currie: ‘Would you say, “They’re gorgeous, even with black skin”?’ Which is clearly nonsense. As is the appointment of David Beckham as a Paralympics ambassador, unless he actually is mentally impaired."    (No, won't answer that lol)....


Actually Liz there was a deaflympics participant (Teigan van Roosmalen):

"ParalympicsGB’s Rhiannon Henry was involved in a heat for in the S13 100m freestyle that began with a false-start before quickly descending into a farce after a light that instructs deaf Australian swimmer Teigan van Roosmalen when to start broke down.

Naomi Ciorap false-started in lane eight to gasps from the Aquatics Centre crowd but luckily for the Romanian this coincided with Van Roosmalen’s technical problems.

 Unfortunately for the crowd and Henry it took bungling organisers 10 minutes to reinstate Ciorap and fix the light. After what seemed like an eternity they eventually corrected the malfunctions and good on Henry for keeping her head to finish as the fourth-fastest qualifier.

There is also:  Rebecca Meyers (USA) another deaflympian.

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