At The Rim

The deafening Silence

2012-02-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

Britain's most (Un)wanted man. Despite massive concerns raised by every disabled and deaf person in the UK regarding welfare and benefits, it is clear the Conservative coalition government is determined to throw our most vulnerable on to the street to fend for themselves. Despite 7 major defeats of their discriminatory and hateful attacks on our deaf and disabled children too in the House of Lords, it is clear they are going to be overturned again in the house of parliament.

Are deaf/disabled even aware 500,000 of them are due to have financial support via DLA withdrawn ? Or those living in London will have to move out to make way for 'productive' people ? There are cries of what point the House of Lords if no-one has to listen to them anyway, but its serves the purpose at least as a part conscience of the people. Now anger is being directed at UK deaf charities for collectively abandoning and failing to organise the defence of deaf people, with the exception of the NDCS, no other major charity has stood up for the deaf child or indeed the deaf adult.

Deaf clubs are being zeroed, child support withdrawn, deaf education abandoned, service support for elderly deaf discarded, and funds withdrawn for basic access to service provision. Deaf also have to contend with the witch-hunts by media who say anyone who claims any benefit for a disability is a fraud, a scrounger, and abuser of fair-minded tax payers. All this takes place as Bankers received £35m pay outs and £1m bonus's for failed banks the poor and worse off are still bailing out.

Welcome to the UK, the world's leading discriminator against disabled people, and major discriminators and abusers of deaf children too. If you see this man report his whereabouts to the ECHR..... who knows they might do something.

Best BSL access to Local Services ?

2012-02-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

21 dedicated deaf access films in BSL, but none captioned ? Must be a lot of deaf in Bridport who cannot read....... and no deaf who need both mediums.

FULL LIST HERE

Why lip Reading and Sign STILL isn't working.

2012-02-01T02:24:00.001-08:00

In response to a request to show this topic again and since more comments are still going in. Consider this, if your class had an 25% success rate with 15% of pupils, would you call that a success ? The UK does.

I think there is a very real problem for those that acquire a deafness, and a very real need for an end to ya boo communication choices, lip-reading or sign ? sign or lip-reading ? that is accommodating people ? I don't think so. Instead of 'one size fits all', 2 does ? Neither mode is near effective enough, as they are taught at present. We do need an end to this mode or that mode being taught in isolation for acquired 'late-deafened' people, it's NO use at all and very biased, notwithstanding it is depriving the MOST needy deaf people of the help they need.

'Lip reading is hard to learn', yes it is, mostly because those that need to start as early as possible start too late. Instead of finding ways and means to make communication easier to learn, you are faced with a stark and biased lifestyle choice instead and two very different means of following things. I'm constantly surprised at Acquired deaf NOT raising this issue enough, perhaps they haven't the communication to do it except in print, where nobody takes any notice. We know the 'hard of hearing' are happy enough so long as the amplified fone or loop is about.

They all come a cropper when their hearing goes and they find they should have prepared properly. It's a well known fact most who go deaf after a long or even shorter period, do not seek communication options until either the aid stops working or their hearing goes completely. Indeed we are told 3 million Brits WITH already known hearing loss issues aren't even wearing an aid..... and approaching 24% of our young people already showing signs of acute hearing loss.... we'll have a sector for them in 20 years, the 'ideaf'. We have to address lip-reading and BSL being taught in isolation as stand-alone modes, it will encourage the born deaf to widen their options, maybe spread sign a bit more too.

Lip-reading tuition is still in the dark ages really and encouraging technology instead of people skills. Technology is great, until the battery goes..... mostly its communication by proxy, and remote, we are becoming more isolated, but, it is acceptable because of the way socialising is changing. This makes things difficult for the majority who need skills, who are mostly older people who find learning new things hard. Support must include trauma help and counselling support options too, the UK does nothing but leave you to it.

First, to examine the 78% failure rate of lip-reading students, (Any other mode taught with that statistic would be deemed pointless), and the teachers are determined to NOT go online and offer free services, even to those that need them. Second to investigate the greed of BSL tutors and examiners who are charging excessive fees so potential interpreters cannot afford to qualify, and the deaf to sort out what signs they are actually using as a norm, it's a farce at present with anything goes if it works sort of thing. A sign norm is a must.

The state should be providing free online lessons for those that need them, free sign lessons for them too, but ideally a merging online of BOTH systems to get the best of each. It is criminal to actually charge those who are going deaf to learn skills to live and work, and a state overseeing of the systems will ensure the bias is removed from both modes too.

We know lip-reading classes are virtually zero in many UK areas, but it is not just lack of tutors, but a view they don't work for acquired deaf at all, and designed for hearing people, (Who pay the fees), greed has replaced need. Anyone who wants to work with vulnerable deaf or HI people should be encouraged by free coursework provision, it isn't a hobby, but a need. People who suffer poor communications can't learn properly, can't earn a decent wage, can't advance in skills to work, and depend on expensive support options, so it makes financial sense to support it.

OK the late deafened need to get their communication act together a LOT earlier, but we have to deal with the reality most don't, it's been discussed on many sites, the driving desire to retain any sort of hearing, outweighs any potential benefits to learn skills if and when it fails..

There seems some sort of snobbery in being a good lip-reader as averse to a good signer too, and then signers clouding the issue with tales of culture/lifestyle whatever.... backed up by a segregated lifestyle as justification, it is time they realised they are dealing with highly vulnerable and needy people. Make no mistake it is in hearing interests to keep the deaf where they are and themselves as dictating communication usage with the deaf, we seem to have no input at all as to what is going on, and the dire and abysmal 'awareness' in the UK is a disgrace, and blatant and self-indulgent exhibition, of inflated deaf and hearing ego's.

Prime the deaf child for the deaf world, and then leave them there ? maintain the dependency, encourage those with a cultural persuasion to stay where they are 'like with like', as if real choice was an option ! Suggestions ALL deafened and hard of hearing should be entitled to FREE support via communication taught, and an enhanced system for acquired/late deafened to be set up, has fallen literally on the deaf ears of the biased people who run the support and what is laughing called 'awareness' areas/systems, each protecting their own little corner, and gravy train.

Colleges and Universities join in with buzz courses on culture which even the deaf have reservations about, it's all money and about money, and using deaf studies as an freebie to boost points for the real courses they are doing.. No wonder we read total rubbish from students, who just log in to deaf sites trying to filch awareness from there without ever stepping outside their comfort zone. Culture collects kudos, hearing loss doesn't. We need the balance re-addressed.

The politics is an end in itself to the nitty gritty of understanding. What it all boils down to, is we can't hear, and need communication alternatives, that's all it is, there is no mystery or history involved.. Deaf and HI people are most concerned with understanding others, that is the priority. You have to ask why there was never any drive to unify communication approaches... Here I suspect deaf culture and HI/Hearing cultures are drawing their own lines in the sand, mostly to grass root detriment.

Even total Communication doesn't see to know what it is.... Yes we are all different in need and ability, but there is no system extant to recognise that.

Both lip-reading and sign language students, require hearing class-wise, which negates any potential of them, for DEAF people, the ones that need the skills.

Romanian Migrants pretending to be deaf

2012-02-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

More scams from those pretending to be deaf to defraud deaf people and their charities. Romanian kids and women in ‘deaf and mute charity scam’ using fake UNICEF forms.

Romanian women and children are being used to operate a ‘mean and calculated’ charity scam on the streets of Manchester. People have handed over cash after being taken in by fake UNICEF charity donation forms – with some fraudsters pretending to be deaf and mute.

The con was highlighted at Manchester magistrates’ court when Marin Leventica, 20, was locked up for six weeks. Leventica, of Randolph Street, Longsight, had admitted two counts of fraud committed earlier this month. The court heard she lives with an uncle who supports her. District Judge Paul Richardson told her: “It’s not just a question of the money you defrauded.

It means that people will be less willing to give to genuine charities. “I see no alternative but an immediate custodial sentence for these offences. I think the public’s disgust has to be marked and others have to be under no illusion how seriously courts view this type of offence.” Helen Veitch, prosecuting, said police had watched Leventica approach men carrying a clipboard with the phoney forms claiming to be collecting on behalf of the children’s charity.

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Euro Accessibility Act, pointless ?

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

You know me always game for a laugh, and always able to find some of the biggest in Europe. The latest is a 'consultation' on accessibility which appears to have a few 'european' fans of the deaf ilk in the UK in a tizzy. Someone hasn't told them the UK wants as little to do with the European laws or Europe mostly and still hasn't complied with an law made 10 years ago regarding BSL, and currently telling European Parliament their laws are going to be opposed in the UK, including their hypocritical human rights one.

Sorry, the gravy train has stopped at Dover lads. Almost forgot, here is the proposal for those who still dream about the UK and UK deaf being 'European' (Global even). Not re-printed in entirety, or the joke would be lost.......

DEFINITION: European Parliament and Law making Commissions. An prime example of the old theory of probabilities. Get an infinite amount of monkeys typing away for an infinite amount of time, they will come up with Shakespeare's works. But WILL they come up with an law that works ? jury is out, it aint happened yet.

Public consultation with a view to a European Accessibility Act
Date: 29/02/2012.

Objective of the consultation.

The Commission is reflecting on the development of a European Accessibility Act containing measures to improve the accessibility of goods and services in the European market. This consultation is part of the preparatory data collection that will underpin the assessment of the impact of the measures.

(TRANSLATION) we are going to talk ourselves silly for a few years, consult a few obscure minorities, pass a few sillier laws, keep the plebs quiet, justify our useless existence, make some more money. Then leave them to it. Shit we gotta do everything for them ?

Target group(s):

All citizens, including persons with disabilities and older people, enterprises and organisations of public and private sector as well as civil society in EU Member States, EFTA/EEA and candidate countries.

(TRANSLATION) Anyone with enough time to waste, and who wants to pick up some great expenses and a chance of free travel. Hell we'll throw in 150 language translations too.... europe will get Turkey soon and it'll all be over, just kebabs.

Period of consultation:

Opening date: 12 December 2011
Closing date: 29 February 2012

(TRANSLATION) Sorry folks it only lasts a few months (It's banker-bonus time), so if you want in and look important, do it now....

SOURCE/MORE

Access All Areas ?

2012-01-30T03:22:00.000-08:00

I'd settle for just the main ones frankly ! I'm STILL stuck with some snail mail and some hearing help ! It is e.g. impossible to call an utilities company/bank/ISP with anything like a text or e-mail, they don't want to know. In ye olde days when Typetalk was about, the relay operator was unable to assist at all, defeated by press a for this b for that etc. I had to drop using TT altogether, relay systems are mostly not effective enough, I cannot see VRS doing anything in the UK. Hearing have little or no time or patience to accommodate you.

You can try snail-mail bearing in mind they NEVER give you an address ! but a box number, and certainly no-one human to contact, many still carry the blurb 'Text by Typetalk' including the DWP and others, but no-one answers such a relay call, even minicoms are still mooted as a contact, and I cannot recall as with other deaf people, the last time I ever used that, 30 I had installed in job centres were dumped in a drawer to gather dust 6 months after they were installed on the grounds deaf never used them and that was before mobile texting was vogue....

The problem is no-one in the campaigning area is monitoring effectiveness or usage of access properly. Every deaf person e.g. is using a different means to access things, and there is this "black hole of pointless access", whereby deaf people campaign for, then STOP using access to services and let family/friends do it all instead, only using iphones or computers/skype etc with EACH OTHER. I got very cynical about bothering to fight those access campaigns at all. if they displayed a need and a demand then the argument for access is clear and cannot be opposed. I'd be at Point of Service, banging away for deaf access to then be told after it was installed not a single call was made, or at best 6 in a year.

I began to think the system was right in refusing to provide some access to deaf people unless there was clear demand shown, and decent usage identified, especially when a few deaf groups backed the "Access rights whether we use it or not.." argument. The only valid case for that is 999. There were deaf with no access, and couldn't get it because that demand didn't materialise, so those who MOST wanted and needed access were defeated by those who demanded some gizmo access or another but never intended to utilise it, and the rest didn't have anyway.

Most campaigns launched today appear to be done with no research at all and they are just using the rights argument that doesn't take into account actual use, or actual demand and think despite global meltdowns, the money keeps coming. yet deaf groups are amongst the most inaccessible to anyone outside. The lazy online approach of one size fits all. Basically the limited funds available for access were squandered selfishly,and those at the business end left to fight their own corner, and mostly losing because the support was not relevant. I view VRS here as an example whereby the rights argument is used in violation of the fact less than 100 people are going to use it out of 10 million, (most of them just minutes a month), and the cost is prohibitive to the user and the provider, the cost would better be met by training another 150 interpreters instead, whereas VRS would take half that OUT of current circulation.

Technology goes fast and the built-in obsolescence is getting even shorter. It is impossible to adopt any norm, and its a merry-go-around that costs an arm and a leg, most is not geared for elderly people with loss or those with issues of handling small print either..... I use text (SMS) for builders and many other local services and it works fine, I just text I am deaf and require such and such a service, rarely has anyone failed to respond. They even used the text facility on their own mobiles to me when communication was a bit awkward. Most recognise the deaf quid has the same value as the hearing one !

Would I campaign for universal access to everything for the deaf ? not now I wouldn't. I would just try to identify those who really need it and would use it. Otherwise the effort any campaigner puts in for the deaf is wasted time.

Deaf Hate crime ? Just kids ?

2012-01-25T04:24:00.001-08:00

Still the abuse of deaf and disabled goes on, here we read a 14-year-old boy from the Selby area has appeared in court, accused of trying to set fire to the house of a blind and deaf woman and her ten-year-old son.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before a youth court in York yesterday facing charges which included attempted arson with intent to endanger life.

The court heard the boy had allegedly been involved in an incident last November, in which some milk bottles were smashed outside a property in Brayton, and the complainant left her property to shout at the vandals.

Jane Chadwick, prosecuting for the CPS, told the court that two days later, the boy allegedly returned to the woman’s home, tore up pages of a school book and lit them before putting them through the letterbox of the house.

But STILL not registered as a crime of hate or even abuse. At what point is it hate ? when these kids kill ? maybe not even then. We need the law enforced, it starts with abuse, then becomes hate to the point where they want to hurt us. Smart money is he walks, and with not even a fine. SOFT BRITAIN in action.

SOURCE

Hate Crime

Blind and Deaf Dr a hero for all..

2012-01-24T00:43:00.000-08:00

Dr James Hanlon with Helen Keller. Writing on the photograph says: "To Dr James Hanlon, with Christmas Greetings, Helen Keller

At the age of 42, James Hanlon went blind and eventually deaf. But far from accepting his career was over, he went on to help ease the pain of polio victims

WHAT MAKES some people carry on in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds? It’s a question frequently asked but seldom answered, at least with any degree of certainty.

The story of Dr James Hanlon, Dublin’s blind and deaf physician, is no ordinary tale of triumph over adversity.

His resolution not to be undone by the tragic events of his life and to remain true to his vocation baffled as many as it inspired.

And yet his story is not widely known to this generation.

When he died in 1961, at the age of just 53, his passing drew tributes and condolences from across the world.

Pope John XXIII ordered that news of his death be announced on Vatican radio.

An Irish Times obituary, from the time, described him as a doctor who “overcame blindness and impaired hearing to lead a brilliant medical career”.

Hanlon had been one of the more prominent ear, nose and throat surgeons in the capital in the 1940s.

SOURCE/MORE

Deaf Child support, worst cuts ever seen...

2012-01-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Planned cuts to deaf children's services in Salford have been branded "among the worst seen" by disability campaigners.

Salford considering plans to cut its three full-time and two part-time specialist teaching assistant posts to just two.

The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) said plans to halve the number of specialist teacher of the deaf posts to just one full-time and one part-time are taking support away from some of the area’s most vulnerable children. The council is also considering plans to cut its three full-time and two part-time specialist teaching assistant posts to just two.

Jo Campion, deputy director of campaigns at NDCS, which is supporting a local parent-led campaign against the cuts, said: "We are absolutely appalled that the council is considering taking away support from a group of children who need more support, not less, and are calling on the council to immediately halt its plans.

"The cuts that Salford City Council is planning to make are some of the worst that we have seen in the country." She added that deaf children in the region are falling behind at school, with 65 per cent in the North West failing to achieve at least five good GCSE results.

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Deafyou comment losers threaten to 'occupy' ATR

2012-01-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

Deafyou anonymous commentators threaten to squat at ATR. So especially for you losers here is a blog so you can. (It will save you damaging the windows and stuff to get in.) The truth behind deafyou ? hmmmmmm will we ever see it ? Methinks they protest too much.... (Still 200 extra views can't be all bad).

Cue: "AnonymousJan 21, 2012 03:19 PM
Warning. your blog will be gone.. Occupy At The Rim".

So now you look worse than you did before. Free speech is a bugger aint it ? Try spamming here see how far you get...

Phone Companies may be forced to include deaf

2012-01-21T02:42:00.000-08:00

Will it, won't it happen ? the saga continues.......Telecom giants may be forced to develop a video service for the deaf which uses sign language. Two months ago the revolutionary video relay service, which would help 45,000 deaf children in Britain to enjoy greater independence, develop social skills and find work, was at risk from “penny-pinching” telecom chiefs.

But even the highest estimated cost of the service - £113 million a year - represents less than two weeks worth of profits for all the big four Telecoms giants; BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Sky.

The video relay link, in which users with a computer and webcam see messages delivered by a sign language interpreter, is due to go nationwide this year, but the industry regulator Ofcom says there are concerns about the “substantial” costs of the scheme.

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Revelation ! DeafYou has a policy.

2012-01-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

Yep and we all know what is is along with its ridiculous agenda and self-righteousness. Eager to shore up it's flagging comment slot, and now trying to appear whiter-than-white, DeafYou hastily edited out 27 comments from it's vblog areas over the last 2 days, then posted this to suggest THEY are hard done by, what Deaf YouVideo said... who is 'We' ? all I read was 3 anonymous posters slagging everyone else off, and multi-posting abuse. The vblogs are fine, the comment spots reduce their value, so WHO is really letting deaf down here ?

"To MM from ‘At the Rim’ blog

We (deaf) think you can go far to find a more hypocritical and mythical posting to attack bloggers for the simply comments which it's biased article from your blog.

Look MM, please read this site's policy...

Deaf YouVideo is not responsibility for, You may be exposed to content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive.

MM Read this before you tell the public that I did hypocritical from you is a lie.

Shame on you for lying. MM, you need the medical or seek a professional help."

No lies if the truth about deafyou hurts so be it. I think it a bit sad deafyou has resorted to suggesting deaf people have mental health issues, do we not get enough of this from mainstream ignorant ? You would gain more credibility removing your anons, everyone is a psychiatrist all of a sudden ! You claim your policy absolves you from responsibility if abuse takes place, that is no policy at all, you are simply stating 'nothing to do with us, if anons abuse other deaf people'. Yet comments ARE verified by you prior to being posted, so deafyou IS complicit in contributing to abuse of other deaf people, you let the abuse through.

Nobody is attacking deaf people, I've never posted anything abusive in an DY comment's slot, prove it. Am I attacking your anonymous morons ? yes I am ! are they deaf ? how do you know ? if you have a policy you seem to use it VERY selectively. I know you read my responses to you, I know you refused to print a single one of them, strange policy of 'free speech' you have, grow up and get a moderator in. I think YOU are an anon as the wording is identical to what was posted here at my blog. At least change the text so I have to guess.

You don't speak for deaf people certainly not me. By all means promote vblogs in ASL get to grips with the loony tunes you have as followers. What is the point taking pot shots at me via deafyou anyway. It is just trying to engender sympathy and you won't get it from me. Your 'policy' sucks frankly. Anyone tries posting abuse here doesn't get an airing, who is the more responsible ? You can publish or not whom you want, but DON'T suggest it is then nothing to do with you, that makes no sense.

600 deaf children misdiagnosed as hearing.

2012-01-20T01:06:00.001-08:00

The parents of some 600 children have been sent letters asking them to bring them in for another assessment at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
All were seen by a single doctor who worked in the audiology department from February 2007 and April 2011.

Last year managers discovered a child who had been assessed by the doctor as having normal hearing, actually turned out to be profoundly deaf. A subsequent audit of the doctor's patients found that in total nine patients identified by him as normal, needed hearing aids. The doctor has been referred to the General Medical Council.

A spokesman for Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust said the doctor had since left the hospital "for personal reasons".

He emphasised that the 600 represented only a small fraction of the 16,000 patients seen by the audiology department over the four-year period. Professor Ian Lewis, medical director, said: "The majority of these patients have also been seen by other members of our Audiology Team and we therefore believe the risk of misdiagnosis is low."

SOURCE/MORE

The truth about DeafYou ?

2012-01-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

I think you can go far to find a more hypocritical posting than this recent one at deaf you. In between direct and outright abusive language and offensive posts they bleated about 'free speech', as IF they knew what it entailed.

Holism got most of it, but deafyou neglects to mention in their free speech tirade he isn't allowed it by them along with their unofficial 'black list' of 9 other bloggers. The entire response area of deafyou seems run by a clan of deafies who display a lot more hate and ignorance than most we see at deafread and even the hardened hearing anti can display, calling other deaf 'retards' and all sorts. If deafread is about respect then deafyou is flying in the face of that concept. If Taylor wants free speech then he HAS to moderate that aspect, no-one attacks the person, only the view and in a manner which is not abusive.

If you met any of these deafyou anons on the street you would cross to the other side of it. They actively encourage these anons, probably 2 or 3 idiots who just enjoy slagging everyone off and with no real aim of support or discourse at all, since the responses they give are 100% personal abuse and the youtube owners actively encouraging it, with some perverse view it is 'Deaf' YAY !!! fighting back. But it's a magnet for the losers and abusers.. It is a concern genuine posters utilising deafyou or deafyou grabbing from youtube, being blatantly used to give deafyou semblance they are a democracy or even some perverse 'champion' of ASL things. Nobody is being fooled. The truth is so far 'out there' as to be impossible to find.

I suspect most of the Anonymous time-wasters are one and the same..... we had 1 deaf clown in the UK using at least 16 anons, who created utter chaos, we zeroed him by banning anon posters. Clean up deafyou ! If I can stop them on my blog taylor can stop them there.

read the comments and weep.....

AFA challenges Stem Cell tests

2012-01-18T00:06:00.000-08:00

Audism Free America (AFA), a grassroots Deaf activist network, condemned the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its approval of a study which will use cord blood stem cells on infants as young as six weeks old in an effort to eradicate the Deaf population of the United States.

AFA further denounces the FDA, Cord Blood Registry ®, LSL/AVT specialists,*Children's Memorial Hospital (Houston), and the principal investigators of this study for undermining the human rights of their patients and promoting eugenic outcomes.

The newswire released on January 12, 2012 from Cord Blood Registry and Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital states that parents of newborns and infants between six weeks to 18 months will be recruited. The infants will undergo MRIs (which frequently include sedation), blood tests, and be given their own stored stem cord blood via IV infusions. Possible health risks to the infant were not mentioned.

The newswire contained alarmist views of how being Deaf impacts language abilities and social development without describing research concerning the negative impact of withholding American Sign Language and access to cultural identification with other Deaf people.

When contacted, Dr. Harlan Lane, Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University and recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award stated: "Children who are born Deaf or early become so have a dual heritage - they have their parents' ethnicity and also that of the sign language minority; their natural language is American Sign Language. Exclusively pathological views of Deaf children have been out of date for decades. Deaf babies are healthy babies and live fulfilling and contributing lives."

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Time for a change ?

2012-01-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

Continuing the debate on awareness, support and directions, that deaf and HI are still not getting the benefit from, responses to the UK charities. E.G, Db tests reveal only so much sound or frequencies you may hear or not, it doesn't identify the degree to which that may affect the person, and this changes as years go by and via the support they do, or do not get.

In many respects how loss affects people is as much psychological as it is db related. If e.g. that aspect is not addressed at day one then support becomes an real issue and in some cases academic if not immediately addressed or recognised. No amount of support barring an complete return to normal hearing would be acceptable to some, rendering huge issues, and the deterioration via depressions and family and friend break-ups, communication issues, isolation from social areas, and even run-ins with the politics of deafness, can really undermine any sort of coping with what goes on.

You are either told to fully accept it, or you opt out out altogether, with catastrophic consequences for some. One of the biggest issues deaf people have with AOHL is this black and white idea of loss, and definition by decibel/lifestyle/or communication, or the trite descriptions we read "deaf do this hard of hearing do that" set up, none of it is helpful to the '3rd sector' of those with hearing loss, i.e. those who acquire it. Probably the least supported and most in need of the 1 in 7.

I can understand the need for some 'norm', if only so that support can be directed in the general areas of loss, but this 'scatter gun' approach has been at the sacrifice of people with real issues who don't fit the A,B or C descriptions. I totally despair at deaf or loss awareness campaigns, because most have failed miserably, mainly because people can see it doesn't apply in any general term. Deaf culture refutes deaf awareness as per AOHL descriptions they don't allude at all to 'loss' or db things. They go their own way, but because of the mass acceptance of deaf do this and 'Deaf' do that and 'HI' do whatever it is they do, an real hole is apparent in the support area and too many are falling through the gaps.

Only people WITH loss understand the difference, the problem being awareness is aimed NOT at them but mainstream, if awareness is flawed, so is support undermined and access difficult. In part AOHL re-branded to right this, but, still stuck to the stock definitions invented 10-15yrs ago and not moved forward from these PC definitions via their awareness campaigns, they have accepted the descriptions without real question and it is time they were all challenged.

AOHL is in a position to LEAD and just follows the PC definitions of years ago, if they inform mainstream incorrectly then the money they receive,and the support they develop, goes not to areas of real need.

NOTE AOHL is an leading charity for those with hearing loss in the UK.

Canadian VRS to be wound up.

2012-01-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

A video relay service trial that allows the Deaf to easily speak over the phone through an interpreter is ending and that has patients concerned.

The 18-month trial was commissioned by the CRTC and will end on January 15. The CRTC will then study the impact of the video relay system, or VRS, and decide within a year whether if should continue.

Mark Duncan has been Deaf since birth and is one of 300 deaf taking part in the Alberta-B.C. trial. Duncan uses VRS to contact an interpreter in Edmonton. He then uses sign language to communicate and the interpreter verbalizes his conversation to the party on the other end, "All I have to do is dial the number, relay it to the lady, she answers right there," said Duncan.

People who are Deaf have traditionally used a Teletypewriter, or TTY to communicate. "TTY takes a long time, you call, back, call. But video phone, no, no, no, same time, you can call anytime you want," said Duncan. The United States has been using a similar video relay service for the last decade and hard of hearing Canadians now want the system implemented here.

"Some of the things we learned is that obviously the product is superior to the standard text to talk, because it's a lot more comfortable to make a call using sign language as well," said Chris Gerritsen, from TELUS. The new systems is expensive and upwards of 60 interpreters are needed to accept calls around the clock.

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Deaf sign language users pick up faster on body language

2012-01-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

Deaf people who use sign language are quicker at recognizing and interpreting body language than hearing non-signers, according to new research from investigators at UC Davis and UC Irvine.

The work suggests that deaf people may be especially adept at picking up on subtle visual traits in the actions of others, an ability that could be useful for some sensitive jobs, such as airport screening.

“There are a lot of anecdotes about deaf people being better able to pick up on body language, but this is the first evidence of that,” said David Corina, professor in the UC Davis Department of Linguistics and Center for Mind and Brain.

Corina and graduate student Michael Grosvald, now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Irvine, measured the response times of both deaf and hearing people to a series of video clips showing people making American Sign Language signs or ”non-language” gestures, such as stroking the chin. Their work was published online Dec. 6 in the journal Cognition.

“We expected that deaf people would recognize sign language faster than hearing people, as the deaf people know and use sign language daily, but the real surprise was that deaf people also were about 100 milliseconds faster at recognizing non-language gestures than were hearing people,” Corina said.

This work is important because it suggests that the human ability for communication is modifiable and is not limited to speech, Corina said. Deaf people show us that language can be expressed by the hands and be perceived through the visual system. When this happens, deaf signers get the added benefit of being able to recognize non-language actions better than hearing people who do not know a sign language, Corina said.

The study supports the idea that sign language is based on a modification of the system that all humans use to recognize gestures and body language, rather than working through a completely different system, Corina said.

SOURCE

Deaf-Mutes were animals.

2012-01-13T00:42:00.000-08:00

How Victorians and others saw them, women didn't get off too lightly either. "Lips are for speaking, and isn't speech our supreme distinguishing ability? The great philologist Max Müller was eloquent here,
arguing against "even so great a general" as Darwin: speech rendered evolution from apes "impossible, or, at all events, unscientific".

How about deaf-mutes then? Unlike true humans, they could not sing out praises to God. Reynolds' Miscellany 1855 had to pronounce them essentially animals. "Lacking rationality," observes Bourke tartly, "they were excluded from voting, along with 'idiots', infants and criminals. And, of course, women."

Source

Stars and stripes or Good Old Brit Apathy ?

2012-01-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

UK Urged To Follow USA On Support For The Deaf. The Government is being urged to give more attention to the deaf and hard of hearing in the UK after a school in California was given a $1.2 million grant to fund the training of specialised teachers for deaf students.

The area has a large number of deaf residents and with a shortage of teachers trained to deal with students with hearing problems, the grant is a major boost for the CLU Graduate School and for the deaf community in California.

The UK is now under increased scrutiny regarding the help given to the deaf and hard of hearing, with funding for the training of qualified teachers a particular point of note. The Government also came under fire earlier this month for providing insufficient funding for deaf athletes and are being encouraged to do more.

The UK is home to around 10 million people who are deaf or have experienced some hearing loss, representing a significant portion of the population. Hearing aid technology is continually improving and is already improving the lives of great numbers of people.

The UK should follow the 'American Way' ? Hmmm !!!! My money is on British Apathy, it's never let us down yet. Both countries have huge issues of deaf inclusion in education, but the United Kingdom lacks a basic civil right law for deaf people and a lack of any commitment to recognise sign language to the point it is a compulsion in deaf education, and deaf schools the Government is determined to get us rid of.

Including deaf children in mainstream demands specialisation, but there is no funding whatever available to train such people in the UK or any desire by the state to fund it, charity would have to do it, and maintain it, but they really haven't any agreement on what qualifications are necessary. You have the pro-deaf lobby rejecting the curriculum on the basis the ADULTS lack the necessary basics via culture and to insist is discrimination.

You have to feel sorry for the kids the adults are too entrenched to get progress made. Most schools here do not have deaf children in any number mainstream-wise, it would be difficult to prove a need on such a small number in each school now most are mainstream. The American school has enough deaf children to make such training essentially and economically viable, and their rights laws actually work..

UK rights laws make Mickey Mouse equal Einstein, and not worth the paper they are printed on, and the UK wants out of Human rights law via Europe anyway. The UK won't fund anything unless there is a huge outcry and significant numbers of deaf children are identified, and they are dedicated to ensure the spread of deaf children make the numbers too small to fight for, in most part aided by parental right. Basically the UK are not interested in deaf rights. To get it discussed in Parliament in London you need a minimum of 100,000 people asking for that via a petition, that is 30,000 MORE than all the deaf that exist in the UK.

Basically with no agreement on what qualifications are needed, the UK would not consider such a system,who would really on that basis?

Play it again Max...

2012-01-12T01:09:00.000-08:00

Max von Sydow is expected to earn a supporting-actor Oscar nomination for his heartfelt portrayal of The Renter, a mysterious mute who comes to the aide of Oskar (Horn).

Oskar is a desperate nine-year-old searching New York City for the lock that matches a key his father (Tom Hanks) left behind after he died in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Based on the bestselling novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, the film also stars Sandra Bullock as Oskar's grieving mother.

It's a complicated story to tell, especially for von Sydow, who has to project a range of deep emotions without speaking. He has only a 'yes' and 'no' written on each hand to communicate, while occasionally scribbling his thoughts on a notepad.

If the Swedish-born thespian earns an Oscar nod for his non-speaking part when the Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 24, he could join some illustrious actors who went on to win.

Other Hearing actors who did our bit:

Jane Wyman earned the best-actress trophy for her portrayal of deaf-mute Belinda in 1948's Johnny Belinda.
In 1970's Ryan's Daughter, John Mills won the supporting-actor award for his portrayal of a mute village fool.
Holly Hunter scooped up the best-actress statue for playing the mute Ada McGrath in 1993's The Piano.

In an interview in a Manhattan hotel, von Sydow, age 82, downplayed the difficulty of his latest performance.

``He speaks, but he doesn't talk,'' said the actor, who previously picked up an Oscar nomination for his role in 1987's Pelle the Conqueror. "(The Renter) is not that different than any other performance. I just try to imagine what's going on in a person's mind.''

Sporting Chance ?

2012-01-12T00:56:00.000-08:00

This week SEE HEAR the UK deaf program for '9 million' with hearing loss (!) ran a program about deaf access to the London Olympics, which looked pretty fair, but seems to have missed the cruel irony in that deaf people are NOT participating in the Olympics because they were told to join the Paralympians instead, and deaflympic funding was taken away from them as was the means for them to utilise the training sessions Hearing and disabled got.

Some deaf went to Japan to train to get signed access, unbelievable ! So OK, you can now WATCH how the others do it. SEE HEAR also failed to investigate the fact many deaf were deemed NOT sufficiently aware or had enough experiences to act as access people in London, and many jobs went to hearing instead. Why waste a deaf program plugging an event many deaf are not allowed to participate in ?

Cultural Deaf Films under threat ?

2012-01-11T00:30:00.000-08:00

Most films with cultural deaf slants with signing, gain funds from arts councils and state funds, today the prime minister is insisting funds should ONLY go to films with a mainstream or wider appeal, does this then mean funding for films to cultural deaf via sign are to get massive funding withdrawn ? They are hardly 'mainstream'.

News Item: UK films urged to be more 'mainstream' in new report. The British film industry should back more mainstream movies, a report is expected to recommend next week. Prime Minister David Cameron said the film industry should support "commercially successful pictures".

Mr Cameron praised the UK film industry but said "we should aim even higher, building on the incredible success of recent years". He acknowledged the British film industry had made "a £4bn contribution to the UK economy and an incalculable contribution to our culture".

The report follows the abolition of the UK Film Council last year, which handed over its funding responsibilities to the British Film Institute (BFI).

It is debatable BSL films are 'mainstream' to all deaf people at present, and as far as any body overseeing that, they appear to promote on a very singular level that is mostly not topical, not accessible to all, or mainstream at all under culture, how long will Cameron let that go on I wonder ? Should we promote minority whilst the majority go without ? and should film content be more accessible and relevant to people NOT deaf so they start with a chance of getting money ?

Near all BSL films never leave the deaf communal area and not intended to do so. Art for arts sake ? maybe not much longer via the public purse. As an aside the Kings Speech an state funded film which was viewed as having little chance of making its funding back went on to do 15 times that, so how do you view WHICH film the public is going to like ? What we DO know is 98% would not bother to watch a film about deaf people ! we can hope the deaf film-maker appreciates films should get a wider audience and make MONEY too, how will we break into mainstream whilst minority BSL films are they way they are ?

They are surely still annoyed the most successful films with deaf in it, were made via TV and near NON-deaf actors. Nothing has happened since Marlee Matlin has it ?

Glove application can aid sign users.

2012-01-10T00:34:00.000-08:00

show&Tell glove - introduction from sarohm on Vimeo.

Three developers, Oleg Imanilov, Zvika Markfield, and Tomer Daniel, have come up with a glove that interprets sign language and turns it into text using a custom Android app. The glove, which is still in its very early stages, would let someone who knows sign language speak in their native language while allowing someone to read the text version of what they’re saying on an Android app that it’s hooked up to. It’s a brilliant idea and the demonstration makes it seem like this product could have a future.

SOURCE

The British Museum via BSL

2012-01-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

British Sign Language descriptions of over two hundred objects in the British Museum collection. Downloads available too.

SOURCE/LINK

Irish Deaf Village on schedule ?

2012-01-07T03:03:00.000-08:00

Anyone have an update ? is it progressing ? and are Gallaudet still consulting on it ? Construction work at the Deaf Village Project in Cabra, Dublin, has commenced. SISK has been awarded as the principal building contractor. It is estimated that the Phase One of the project will be completed in July 2012, which will include:

• Administration Centre
• Social and Recreation Club
• Sports Centre, including Swimming Pool and outdoor all weather pitches
• Deaf Museum
• Citizens Information Centre
• Autrim
• Chapel
• Centre for Lifelong Learning

Phase Two and Three will include amalgamation Deaf schools and residences for boys and girls, relocation of St Joseph's Home for elderly Deaf from Stillorgan, Co Dublin and new independent living facilities. These will incorporate the Phase One developemtn by 2015.

A demolition work of St Joseph's School for Deaf Boys that stood on Cabra site for 154 years took place. It paves the way for the most important development in the history of the Deaf community in Ireland. It is the end of the era but a new beginning that would provide a core hub of the Deaf community with a gateway to society. It would lead a sustainable social harmonisation and integration for Deaf people within a wider society.

Anyone know what happened to Laurent ?

SOURCE

Deaf football player sent off.

2012-01-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

Deaf football (They call it soccer in the USA), player sent off after missing whistle. Kilsyth player PJ will miss next two games after being sent off. A DEAF footballer ended up being sent off in a Lothians cup tie because he kept playing after the referee had blown his whistle.

Philip John Dolan – known as PJ – went on to score a goal, not realising that he had been ruled offside during the Armadale vs Kilsyth match on Hogmanay.

As he turned to celebrate he was immediately given a yellow card for failing to stop playing. The card stood despite protests that he could not have heard the whistle and, when PJ picked up a second yellow for allegedly diving just moments later, he was sent off, leading to a probable two-game suspension.

SOURCE

Who Mentors the Mentors ?

2012-01-05T02:42:00.000-08:00

Having read this excellent blog regarding the search for mentors for deaf people, I suppose two questions immediately arise,

(1) the purpose of the mentoring. Is just to to raise self confidence As a deaf person in themselves and in their community ? or

(2) In establishing deaf people with enough confidence to get out into a hearing world and stand there as viable and visible equals ?

Consider the definition of a Mentor: "A mentor is someone who offers guidance, support and teaching and acts as a role model for the person being mentored. A good mentor will not say “I will teach you to be like me,” but rather, “I will help you to be whoever you wish to be.”

One problem I observed, found deaf mentors (There are some in the UK but nothing really organised), were not found with an real ability to take deaf 'interns' into the hearing area, they always seem to promote the deaf aspect from behind the communal wall and self-esteem and culture is the priority. Mostly when mentoring occurred NO hearing were about either.

I feel this does tend to reflect from the reasons some deaf feel so alienated from the mainstream. It has been left to 'deaf education' to 'Mentor' deaf youth re surviving an predominantly hearing world, but that has been done with no real two-way working with deaf adults who have managed to break in to the hearing world, but by hearing tutor, hence deaf obsessions with the very few deaf 'celebs' that exist.

In reality these celebs are so much an exception to any rule, they provide little impetus to grass roots as mentors, just 'examples'. In fairness I suppose Marlee Matlin is a supreme example of a deaf person holding her own in a hearing world, but how many Marlee's have we got at early learning and educational level ? If the object is to establish confidence etc in deaf people to get out there and make their mark (Regardless if cultural deaf or just deaf), then you need Mentors with that experience, and involved at day one, where do we find those ?

One area not explored or covered by those who wish to promote 'Deaf' mentors, is to look at deafened and those who acquire deafness, who surely HAVE that necessary experience having literally 'been there, done that'. Are there enough established avenues between 'Deaf' and 'deaf' to make this viable ? The problems appear to be the consolidation of being a deaf person via identity is not allowing the next step to take place. What examples of deaf mentoring are we seeing ? and where do those who have received mentoring gone on to ? Most seem to end up in specific deaf areas still....

Even a 2 yr old can sign....

2012-01-04T02:16:00.001-08:00

Gotta be the vid of the month....

Deaf parents Hearing Child helped by charity.

2012-01-03T10:56:00.002-08:00

Deaf parents worried their hearing child would develop speech issues helped by charity. Uncomfortable reading ? or acceptable norm ? A case where deaf parents could not help their child to speak ? A BRIGHT start to the new year has been secured for a special child thanks to Selby Times charity.

Selby Hands of Hope has provided a pre-school education lifeline to ensure the toddler continues to “come on in leaps and bounds” into 2012. Jerome Bell, whose parents are profoundly deaf, is greatly benefiting from first class care. The three-year-old is now speaking with newly-formed friends at Selby College-based Bright Start Day Nursery.

He is also increasingly using sign language to communicate with his devoted mum and dad. All made possible since SHOH stepped in to pay £700 five-month attendance fees. Charity chairwoman Wendy Singh played Santa to present Jerome (right) with a massive sack of gifts including remote-controlled car favourite toy. Mum Louise, of Volta Street, this week thanked SHOH and parent support advisor Judy Booker.

“A massive thanks to Judy who found the funding for my little boy through Selby Hands of Hope.

“When Jerome was born, I was so happy he could hear,” said the mum-of-two, who also has ten-month-old son Cody. He then developed sign language as he felt comfortable using this rather than speaking out loud. “This is because both myself and my husband Tom are deaf. “We are concerned for his future as we do care for his speech development.

SOURCE

Deaf Graffiti

2012-01-02T04:20:00.001-08:00

Should parents be able to select a deaf child?

2012-01-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

Is doing the rounds again it is an old chestnut, but one some deaf feel hits at the very core of culture. Of course it does, no deafness no deaf people, no deaf culture, although these facts always seems to get lost somewhere in the heated rhetoric of what really is an hypothetical non-fact at this time. Here is yet another 'no real news today' item from Sacramento... Given Two Gay Americans already created a deaf child for political purposes, I know where my view goes.

About one in every 1,000 children is born severely hearing impaired; more than half of these are a result of a genetic mutation.Let's say there's a medical test one could use to identify a fetus or embryo that would become a hearing- impaired child. Such a test would allow parents the option of selecting only pregnancies that would result in a child with normal hearing.

This sort of testing is part of our attempt to select the healthiest children we can – a thought some find objectionable. Some consider it an extension of the eugenics movement – selecting babies that are as close to perfect as possible. When non-deaf pregnant women were surveyed, a large majority reported they would want screening for a deafness gene although only 5 percent would terminate their pregnancy if deafness was known to be present.

There's another side to this issue. Let's say hearing-impaired parents want to use the same medical test to select a "deaf embryo."

Read more here

My Top 10 resolutions for 2012

2011-12-30T04:12:00.000-08:00

(1) To continue opposing VRS campaigns in the UK until someone actually proves there is a market for it, and deaf can actually see the point of paying through the nose for 7.5 minutes communication a week, and assuming you know deaf who have the equipment, can actually receive a call from them, and the UK government funds ALL the running costs,and can find enough regional interpreters to make it remotely viable.

(2) To NOT support glasses for use in the cinema that resemble Mr Magoo's cast-offs, or signing extroverts, with ADD at the side of the stage in theatres. One interpreter CANNOT act for a whole stage cast, get real, get captions.

(3) To never again read of an imminent cure for deafness based on sewing an ear on a rat's ass.

(4) To continue to treat deafhood with the disrespect it deserves and oppose the hatred it instils in its zealots, so we can get back to being nice to each other.

(5) To continue ignoring social medias as the saviour of the deaf community, it isn't, deaf people are, let's cut the crap input at least, if you cannot talk sense with 130 characters, then don't contribute at all..

(6) To view deaf charities with the complete apathy they deserve, and until someone deaf actually runs one.

(7) To oppose any attempt to set up an UK 'Gallaudet', it doesn't work, it doesn't pay its way, and it's just a clearing house for disaffected barrack-room lawyers, who hate decibels and anyone who can hear anything at all, and who spend their wasted time developing terminological warfare to justify their course-work.

(8) To oppose segregated communication options for the deaf, like BSL or lip-reading, as we use either or both, or those and a dozen others, and the hearing community are the main pupils of both courses, what is the deaf point ? Let's integrate both modes and then some, it's about communication, you want politics join a a political party, and wear a funny hat.

(9) To encourage the total integration of deaf people with hearing at educational and all other levels, and to oppose deaf educationalists who advocate deaf are kept apart for 'cultural and language' reasons, when its just an excuse to maintain an defunct segregationist system, so the one-eared deaf can run the show again.

(10) Peace, goodwill, and a real cure for my deafness so I can listen to music, and my son talking to me. I have a bet the first thing I hear will be he wants more pocket money....

Happy whatever for 2012.

Culpepper claim thrown out.

2011-12-29T03:26:00.000-08:00

"Experience of Listening" valid. Discrimination claim in Arkansas thrown out. (Background) : Ms Culpepper has suffered from a severe hearing impairment, which the parties agree qualifies her for protection from discrimination and retaliation under the Rehabilitation Act, since her early childhood. Culpepper began working for the USDA in 1979 and at the time of the filing of her suit was a loan technician in the Single Family Housing Section of USDA Rural Development's Little Rock, Arkansas office with a federal employee grade of GS-7.

Over the course of her employment with the USDA, she has filed numerous complaints of workplace discrimination. On January 17, 2005, she sent a letter to the USDA's Office of Civil Rights alleging discrimination against her because of her impairment and retaliation for her previous complaints. She raised a number of issues including her non-selection for a purchasing agent job announced in November 2004 for which she had applied. On May 22, 2006, Culpepper sent another letter alleging discrimination and retaliation related to the announcement of a loan specialist position in April 2006 for which she had not applied, claiming that the inclusion in the announcement of language referring to "experience in listening" was discriminatory.

The Office of Civil Rights never acknowledged these administrative complaints, even after Culpepper sent follow-up letters requesting final agency decisions, and later claimed first that it had not received the complaints and then that it had lost them.

After receiving no response to her first complaint letter, Culpepper filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on February 6, 2006, alleging discrimination on the basis of her disability and retaliation for her prior complaints. She later amended her complaint to include claims relating to her May 2006 complaint letter.

Some discrimination claims she made:

During a three-day bench trial, Culpepper alleged a large number of acts of discrimination or retaliation, including: (1) the 2004 failure to promote her to the purchasing agent position for which she applied; (2) the "experience in listening" language in the 2006 loan specialist vacancy announcement; (3) an inflation of the required employee grade level to be eligible to apply for positions to which she could otherwise have applied, allegedly in order to prevent her from applying to these positions; (4) the failure to promote her through the non-competitive "accretion of duties" process; (5) the use of an intercom system that she could not hear to make announcements to employees; (6) a failure to notify her of various computer issues via her telecommunications device for the deaf ("TDD"), instead relying only on email; (7) a failure to recognize Disability Awareness Month; (8) her omission from two employee telephone extension lists distributed in March 2004; (9) a supervisor's failure to include her on the initial copy of an email about a telephone conversion process; (10) the failure to provide her with an interpreter at a meeting in July 2009 called to discuss her request for sick leave; (11) a supervisor's demand that she take notes during a meeting in July 2009; (12) the failure to provide open or closed captioning for a number of informational and training "webinars" in March 2009; and (13) a delay in the issuance of her annual performance plan, due in October 2009 but not issued until April 2010. Culpepper also argued that the various actions taken against her cumulatively gave rise to a valid claim of discrimination.

SOURCE/BACKGROUND/MORE

Deaf-Blind student told no to accessible education..

2011-12-27T03:34:00.000-08:00

A YOUNG deaf and blind student has been left devastated after being told the £30,000 funding for her specialist college course is to be cut.

Caroline Potter, of Wolstanton, is currently in the second year of a three-year access course at Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education. But her family says the 20-year-old's social worker at Staffordshire County Council, which provides the funding, has told them it will not be available next year.

The authority says no decision has yet been made.

Twin sister Laura Potter-Dunn said: "When Caroline's social worker came round we thought it was a routine update but she said she'd come to discuss what the council wanted Caroline to do in the future. She said she'd been told by her manager Caroline wasn't going to get any funding for the next year of her access course.

"Instead she said the proposal was for Caroline to live in a flat on her own here in Staffordshire and given direct debits to pay for support workers, which would mean her education and her social life would be taken away."

Laura, a second-year student at the University of Gloucestershire, added: "It was a shock – Caroline was crying, saying 'this is what I want to do, I want to learn how to work on my own and get a job'.

SOURCE

VRS Fraud rife in USA ?

2011-12-26T11:10:00.001-08:00

What safeguards are in place for the UK ? Allegations of backhanders have already been mooted with 'donations' to VRS BSL campaigns in the UK from American hardware providers...... Why WERE American reps of Sorensons at UK VRS meetings ?

LINKS

NO!

Social Media, anti-social ?

2011-12-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

Social media, the be-all, end-all, yet many deaf are just as isolated as they were prior to its inception, in that they still have tremendous issues communicating on the ground and face to face. This vblog extols the virtues of social medias in levelling the playing field, assuming of course you do NOT Use sign language as the tool in social medias to do that, at least not without effective captioning, and narrowing your field of response at the same time.

Social media as an tool to make a point, which I would not disagree with, I would disagree it enhances communications to deaf people face to face on the street with anyone hearing. So in that respect I don't find social media of use. In exchanging views putting forward opinions in text certainly no-one can tell if you are deaf or not, but, is that levelling any playing field if you have to 'suggest' you are actually hearing ? Or have you swallowed the myth of the 21stc ? we don't have to say any more ? Well, let us suggest we don't have to tell some social medias we are, we still HAVE to inform mainstream generally, having an Cinderella disablement means they can't mind-read us.. In reality it is still par for the course deaf gravitate in social areas like to like anyway. where there are deaf, there is the ready made clique, few hearing would butt in.

We must not forget although hearing utilise social medias considerably, they have the back up of basic oral and hearing communications and interaction, when they switch these electronic medias off, we don't, we are stuck with the reliance on the technology. While this suits some deaf areas it doesn't suit everyone.

Social media may enable by proxy, but not directly, it is if you believe integration without actual face to face, is really that, or an acceptable alternative. It's a fallacy to assume we are using social media the same way hearing are. E.G. Deaf people could always write letters to medias etc expressing a view, social media is the modern update to that, it provides more avenues to do it. For deaf people, direct communications is pretty essential, and basic a want, we don't want to end up with thousands of 'followers' we will never see, never meet and if we could, would still not be able to communicate to them as a norm.

Whilst twittering away nonsensical asides and not having to mention you are deaf seems very liberating, but is it ? In the UK isolation is even MORE pronounced than it was prior to social media, so what has gone wrong with it ? I'm sure at some point you can marry, have kids and divorce then die via text, but it's not 'life' as I would see it. It makes nasties of some of us too, we can be more aggressive than we usually are face to face, build up a persona that basically is not what we are, or worse show a side that nobody likes to see, as all inhibitions and frustration spill out.

Surely the hype is social media opens up the world to everyone (Assuming they read and write of course and own a computer), mostly these users deaf will be stuck in their homes posting texts to people they may never meet. Billy no-mates ? not exactly, because the modern train of thought is the more unknowns you know (?) the more popular you are, but who is seeking popularity anyway,unless you are an budding celeb ? The modern view is talking to the world whilst remaining on your own, or still outside the scheme of things is now the 'Norm' for everyone. How many can name their own neighbours ?

As regards to ASL or BSL medias socially, there are still HUGE gaps of understanding, Americans cannot follow BSL, British have issues with ASL, and the whole vblog thing hinges on dual access most do not provide. In essence any huge jump in access via social media is via non-signed output. Would deaf people provide signed vblogs for hearing consumption ? suicide unless captioned. Would they dwell on deaf issues ? again an literal 'social' suicide as no-one wants to be bored with 'issues' unless topical.

Top youtube vid is a dog chasing some reindeer in an UK park. One doubts that the pros of social media in those respects have any validity except as a novelty of some kind. Not a single deaf vblog is listed anywhere as 'viral' unless you count the resent CI switched on lady who was left in tears of joy. Deaf are typically non-connected to topical issues despite this vblog suggesting social media has levelled the field, I ask where has it levelled the field.

Deaf-Deaf social media by its nature tends to inwardly focus and not make them with any hearing viewing in mind. The very nature of deaf media is isolatory,and simply because you utilise these medias does not level any field for the deaf since you are not competing in like for like,in fact excluding hearing to an large degree. Hence I use no social media at all, I prefer real people in real time. In reality no-one here really posts blogs for social interactional reasons. They simply make personal statements. I am not bothered if I get x amount of responses or not that's not the point of the blog. Indeed if you wait a week to respond there is no avenue to do so.

SOURCE

Going deaf makes you an better musician... we have proof.

2011-12-21T02:18:00.000-08:00

This should silence those who suggest deafness is an negative thing.....I think I'll start composing now. Beethoven’s deafness could have been cause of greatest works, claims study. (NO truth in the rumour this study was commissioned by the British Deaf Association.).

BEETHOVEN’s deafness may have helped inspire some of his best-loved compositions, according to new research.

Experts believe that by 1820, when the German composer was almost completely deaf, he wrote some of his greatest works.

Medical experts said his deafness meant that Beethoven favoured lower notes in his later string quartets, as these could be heard more easily.

Music experts said the composer’s deafness actually improved his later works, with one claiming that it “shielded the composer from the disturbance of the outer world and forced him to live in his inner world.”

Ludwig van Beethoven, who died in 1827 aged 57, first reported a hearing impairment in 1796 when he was just 26.

As the years progressed, his deafness worsened, leaving him unable to hear woodwind instruments and reducing him to communicating through note books.

By 1826 the composer was completely deaf, with scientists from the University of Amsterdam claiming his disability had a profound effect on his later string quartets.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, showed that as his hearing failed Beethoven used more middle and low frequency notes, as these proved easier for him to hear.

And when his hearing disappeared completely, he was able to disappear into an ‘inner world,’ composing music using the same vivid imagination that had marked the early stages of his career.

SOURCE

Meet Mr Hearing CEO

2011-12-19T10:43:00.001-08:00

Guess Americans need all the laughs they can get.... at mark 1:48 the UK gets the most laughs :)

Silent Night

2011-12-19T02:15:00.000-08:00

Deaf Video Trial ends

2011-12-18T03:25:00.001-08:00

Not captioned and the CC option is dire but......

Greek Deaf Support Abandoned

2011-12-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

Evanthia Plakoura's life recently became a lot more complicated. Conversations with her boss switched to email only. Visits to the doctor require additional planning. She feels helpless in Greece's bureaucratic labyrinth.

"It's like someone flicked a switch and turned off your voice," said Plakoura, a deaf woman who works at the Education Ministry. Plakoura joined some 2,000 disabled demonstrators at a rally in central Athens this week to protest sweeping benefit cuts imposed in Greece's economic crisis that have deprived her of sign-language translation.

In August, a five-year-old program providing deaf people with interpreters was suspended after the government abruptly cut its funding to less than half. Overnight, 15,000 deaf people around Greece were left without help to report a crime to the police, rent a house or go to a job interview.

SOURCE/MORE

Congo Bans deaf from text messaging...

2011-12-15T02:08:00.000-08:00

Deaf people in the Democratic Republic of Congo say a ban on texting threatens their lives because they no longer receive warnings of violence.

The government banned SMS messages more than a week ago to preserve "public order" following disputed elections.

President Joseph Kabila was declared the winner, but his main rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, rejected the result.

There are an estimated 1.4 million deaf people in DR Congo, which is recovering from years of conflict.

Last month's elections were the second since the 1998-2003 war which claimed about four million lives.

Four people were killed in the capital, Kinshasa, after Mr Kabila's victory was announced. He is due to be inaugurated for a second term next week.

The official results gave him 49% of the vote against 32% for Mr Tshisekedi.

The opposition says they plan to organise mass protests, alleging the polls had been rigged. " When shooting started in the city I wanted to contact those who were sleeping here and tell them not to go out” Freddy Mata/Deaf cultural centre,
"Since 3 December, we've been unhappy," said Pastor Kisangala, the deaf community's religious minister in the capital, Kinshasa.

"We're finding it very hard to communicate. All our communications used to go through SMS messages," he says.

SOURCE

The UK's 'Hearing Times'

2011-12-12T10:07:00.001-08:00

Poor title or what? Interested ? 0845 code: HEARING line ?

Deaf MP hasn't all her faculties...

2011-12-11T12:28:00.001-08:00

Seems we are not over the assumptions yet re being deaf, foot in mouth time again. Green MP-in-waiting Mojo Mathers has accepted an apology from a Conservative Party member in New Zealand, who questioned whether the deaf Ms Mathers should be an MP because she didn't have all her "faculties".

Kevin Campbell, who was previously a member of the Act Party, made the statement on his Facebook profile, but later emailed Ms Mathers an apology. He told the Herald he had "goofed". "It was a mistake and I recognise that." Ms Mathers will become the Greens' 14th MP after the official election result on Saturday boosted their party vote to 11.06 per cent. In the email, Mr Campbell said his comments were "a poor lapse of judgment".

Ms Mathers accepted his apology and said she was not offended.

Hypocritical blog of the week..

2011-12-11T04:50:00.000-08:00

Pots, kettles and the whole damned thing.... Biased, surely not !!! This is a blogger who refuses to accept feedback too...... how about 'hard of listening John ?'

Who is deaf ? Who isn't ?

2011-12-10T03:27:00.001-08:00

This is an never-ending debate, who IS deaf who isn't, it's all about decibels and whether any decibel use you have is effective enough for you to follow unaided OR with alleviating aids/CI/BAHA's. I think the debate is probably more about the latter category, i.e. hearing use WITH these 'aids'. Then it comes down to how YOU feel that effectiveness IS, on an personal level. Ignoring of course those born deaf who STILL use hearing aids and insist they are still in the former category of total deafness. I think profound and total ARE totally different categories, and personally I would like to see clarifications, because I'm not happy with the db argument which in reality is superfluous in that personal perception determines, not the db rating and even cultural arguments overrule loss accuracy and effectiveness.

Follow so far ?! Happily (Or not !), I AM in the total loss category since medically an CI/BAHA would not be viable and, there is virtually no register at all re db. I'm as deaf as anyone is likely to get. In that respect I can feel able to challenge those claiming total deafness who then walk about clearly able to 'hear' to an significant degree with aids or such. Are THEY now deaf ? yes and no ! yes they are deaf if the aids fail, no if they don't. In short they have an choice of some degree, I don't. You base an culture or loss degree on if your battery fails or not. ? At worst some would still qualify as HoH and not deaf at all as we understand it. I am talking basic loss, not other medical areas that can affect comprehension of what you hear.

Really speaking people with hearing loss often have NO idea how much they are expected to hear. I've seen many with hearing aids complaining they still cannot hear 'everything', in reality those classified as 'Hearing normally' do not get everything either. I found people going deaf were more attuned to feeling they are missing more than they are. I'm a total stickler for details to the point of excess, and to the point I never was when I had full hearing, go figure, perhaps an desperation not to be left out ? Last year I attended an audiology meet, and there was an deaf woman there (Born that way), who related she was issued with an digital hearing aid, and was able to hear, she was put into shock, and consistently returned the aid to the ENT convinced it was set 'too loud'. After changing her settings and 3 digital aids, she decided hearing wasn't for her and told the ENT she didn't want to hear any more.

I would suggest that is good enough reason to ensure children assumed born deaf had access a lot earlier than they actually do, so as to avoid "Hearing phobia" when they might decide later to try an aid or CI. It is however fraught with political overtones in the 'Deaf' world as many are painfully aware ! I attend an deaf club fairly regularly despite being born hearing, and an snap survey of members of that deaf community put me and only 4 others in the total deaf catagory out of 46......... and 30 of them attended deaf schools apart from hearing. You have to wonder sometimes don't you how many in deaf schools are actually erm.... deaf or was it just an case they didn't get assessed and supported a lot earlier before the mind-set was entrenched ? How did I feel that 5 of them always removed hearing aids prior to attending the deaf club..... confused or annoyed ?

Hands ON hands out Deafhood plug

2011-12-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

My way or the Highway ?

2011-12-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

In responding to Liz's blog (Mainly because I was unsure she would print my response !), I would like to suggest why I think Liz is naive in her approach. Liz:

"Let me first suggest, there is an total lack of cohesion in the UK regarding support or campaigns. There is too much division. Too many loose cannons, too many clique's. I've blogged for years, I do not fool myself in the scheme of things, the world is watching and waiting with bated breath to read what I post next. Hell in some UK quarters they post warnings about my blog. Do I care ? no. 4 BILLION blogs exist, 99.999999999% of online have never, nor will ever, read about us. Blogs are an expression of frustration little more, we rattle around in our own micro-cosmic world while the world revolves regardless. It would be comforting to believe a few texts online and a few blogs we write get read now and then, but being realistic ......

We CANNOT as late-deafened campaign as any sector with just a few friends, there is but one option sadly, every one for him or herself. I have been acquired deaf 38 years, NEVER in that entire time has any late-deafened sector made ANY significant move to campaign on our platform. Charities are more interested in making hay while we stay with issues or trying to belittle us by stating to the world you are better off hearing, as if we aren't painfully aware already, and your blog gives them air time, I would attack that premise and certainly NOT give the air time to pontificate it, under the view they 'support' us, whilst consistently telling the world deafness is bad and hearing is good. Neither of us chose to be late-deaf. I'm damned if I am going to be sitting there feeling guilty about it.

I don't allow the "Deaf" to post here stating the opposite, not interested. Dogma is for religions and atheists have it all going for them.. Isolation affects us ALL, strange to say I get it as well. You can do one of two things, you can roll over and cry woe is me, or you can stand up to be counted and fight your corner, mostly that is determined by your own character, where I was brought up you don't take crap thrown at you, you fight back. It wasn't easy, it still isn't, and it took me 11 years to realise if I don't fight, I am finished. Where I am able I fight other people's corners as well, I try, I cannot fight the entire planet. I target specific areas I can make headway with.

That means standing up to everyone not just hearing people. This has made many of us either apathetic or angry at that fact, (Mostly anger which is an perfectly natural reaction to being late-deafened), some of us caved in and some gave up. 40% of us are said to have mental health issues as a result. I say its time we took over the asylum. So whose 'fault' is it support is poor ? and representations worse ? It's ours ? Many of us live nowhere NEAR any group at all, are isolated and unless WE DIY, we will get nothing, we also have to compete (Which is utterly unfair and wrong), with more strident sectors of the Deaf or deaf, which we are NOT members of . I'm not creating divisions, they already exist and I recognise them.

No-one will act in unison, no-one will support the 3rd sector i.e. us, and worse we don't support each other because we either can't or there is no body of real representation so to do, and even the RNID accepts 'social' networking has added nothing in representative terms to any of us, petitions are an cruel joke, campaigns allotted to some 'que' along with thousands of others, and when people need to stand up to be counted, they revert to social sites and fudge it. If you want to put the late-deafened world to 'rights' then it's an very lonely proposition, and you need to understand no-one is going to support you except on some pathetic 'social' level of posting an 130 character text. Mainly because it is ALL about breaking the isolation and LESS about fighting your corner, I cannot see ANY Future in online socialising, as an person I prefer real people, I can talk direct to, I am sure you do too.

What else is your blog stance about ? All I read is this 'credo' of of pat explanations "deaf" do this "Deaf" are that, it is irrelevance to me, I'm past caring about what they need, it's time for awareness to appreciate what late-deaf need, their need is no greater than mine, we all have the same rights. I put our sector first because for sure no-one else will. Pigeon-holes are for pigeons not people. The value you say in meeting others albeit in print, for me that would not be valid unless you met face to face and could still carry any interactions on meaningful, I don't want hypothetical friends I prefer real ones. We could all post to social areas and have a love in, but any relationship stands of falls in REAL time. You or I are judged on what people read, they don't or cannot judge you any other way. To be totally honest you admit you tried setting up social areas, (All credit to you), and it fails. Why ? because you haven't understood the nature of them. Social areas do not want 'hard luck' stories, or descriptions of discrimination. They are swamped online with millions of them they talk Justin Beiber or TV. It's a no-contest you can compete with that, unless JB is contributing TO your site, even then readers would ignore your message..

You can be yesterday's chip paper in 30 seconds or less. We are THE largest sector of ANYONE with hearing loss, and, the most impotent. The message may seem to be negative, but the message is real and factual. Truth hurts. Late-deafened isn't fun... do we tell that as a truism ? or play to their sympathy ?"

For Kids, Be Safe with your mobile...

2011-12-06T01:18:00.000-08:00

Deafhood, the scourge is here now....

2011-12-02T10:14:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought it was safe....... For years we in the UK either ignored, laughed at, or generally and benignly indulged those who mentioned Deafhood or read a few pages of it, obviously this enforced our view deaf signers had no issue with English which is all it is in anyway....... we assumed most lived in Bristol or at the Deaf study enclave there, had hearing, or a few decibels spare, or were making money at it, by grabbing funds for cultural things instead of keeping deaf clubs or schools open where the culture base really was...... and what happened to Bristol Uni ? weren't they closing these people down ? Now it looks like an worthy deaf charity the BDA, an life long supporter of common sense and supporting deaf people, has officialy recognised this weird 'sect' up, and is bowing to this insidious alternative to equality, created by Paddy Ladd's ramblings.

I suppose any bandwagon British deaf still have rolling, is worth a punt (Definition: "Punt" means to gamble in British slang. If it's worth a punt, then it means the odds are reasonably good or it's worth the risk.). Will we now see the American approach to deafhood, where basic deafies are herded into various for and against deafhood camps ? Audism is an actual WORD ? God forbid ! Paddy Ladd as 'Deaf President Now !' ? we know what happened to the last one.....Take heart deafies.... Being a Brit I have complete faith it will NOT catch on here, and British apathy (for which we deaf are famous in the UK), will ultimately prevail. I would urge the BDA to stop playing to this silly gallery of divisions, take note of the hate it has created in the US of A, and get back to basics of support, not deaf politics which a charity should NOT be involved in anyway.

Deaf Genetics again ? After 8 years that got nowhere except some weird suggestion we should create MORE deaf people by choice once the option exists..... . One consolation, no-one joins the BDA any more... now they know why..... perhaps they are hoping for more members this way, which might prove pointless given they have nowhere to go.... Deafhood will make being deaf an academic pursuit where people talk about how deaf used to be, to people who are no longer deaf in that sense and cannot relate to it, however may be able to make a few quid at it.......

How many times can you reinvent a wheel ?

Deaf Couple divorce via Text... 200 of them !

2011-11-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

Many a marriage has broken down after partners accused the other of never listening to them. But the problems warring couple Wang Hong and Zhang Hai went beyond that - both are deaf and mute.

This also created a dilemma for a judge - who has now finally overseen what is thought to be the first divorce by text message.

The pair, both in the forties, married four years ago - but Hai demanded a split from her husband three months ago, on the grounds of incompatibility. But he tried to resist, since both were already on their second marriage - as well as having difficulties related to their disabilities. Using sign language, he said: 'It is hard for disabled people to get married and I wanted to make it work.' Judge Xue Lixin tried to broker a compromise at Dagang Court in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin - but struggled to get over the communication pitfalls.

But she revealed: 'In the end we found using mobile phone text messages was an effective way of communicating. 'The case was not complex but it was hard to judge because they were both deaf-mute. 'I made some phone calls and met with Wang's relatives and friends and asked them to change her mind, but they failed. She came to court four times and confirmed in writing she was determined to divorce. 'Zhang lived a long way from court so I sent mobile phone text messages to inform him of our thinking and how the court operated. I think this was a good way of communicating.'

Zhang eventually accepted his wife's will to divorce, and agreed to the split - though it took 200 texts to finally reach a conclusion. He added: 'I was so grateful the judges made such an effort to mediate in my case. They showed a lot of care.'

SOURCE

Caron's Story

2011-11-29T00:17:00.000-08:00

Being Deaf in New Zealand has its drawbacks too. I have never heard my son's voice, but sadly an CI is an non-option.

Deaf Librarian claims 32yrs of discrimination.

2011-11-26T04:16:00.000-08:00

An deaf/disabled librarian from Orange County, has claimed she was forced to resign from her job after 32 years of discrimination. One asks WHO would suffer that length of discrimination for that length of time without taking it further ? Who would tolerate being told never to talk to people in case she frightens them ? and let that situation carry on ? She is now threatening to sue... I don't buy it, would you ?

"I am not allowed to talk to any people in the library because I have been told that I might scare them," Sager wrote. "So for 32 years, I have been unable to communicate with anyone at my job. As you can imagine, this has been very difficult for me." She also states that she disagrees with details of the book-throwing incident. "There will never be a record of my account of the incident in my employee file. This is wrong," she writes. "I can only pray that someone will read this letter of resignation and try to make changes so that no deaf worker will have to bear the discrimination I have had to endure for 32 years."

Background

Australia to include sign language in Curriculum.

2011-11-25T08:06:00.000-08:00

Couldn't happen in the UK.... could it ? We'd be expecting an comprehensive approach and not convinced supporting one mode and not the rest, is an positive step forward, would others agree, only an comprehensive approach to supporting those with hearing loss and deafness, is the only fair way forward ? Or is supporting sign language at the expense of other means, and at the expense of other signing modes to focus only on Auslan/BSL is meeting the real need ? Why are 'deaf' continually forced to campaign twice, for access fully acknowledged as a right to the 'Deaf' ? Even the awareness has to be campaigned for on a different level, and twice over too..

Deaf Australia claims each deaf child has a right to education in their own language, but, the inclusion in the curriculum doesn't state that, it states as an additional language hearing can learn.

Story: Sign language as well as 14 other languages would soon become a part of Australia's National Curriculum.

This development is the result of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority's (ACARA) issuance of a final paper which aims to have primary students spend 5 per cent of total teaching time learning another language. By the time Australian students reach years 7 and 8, the amount of time spent on learning a second language would go up to 8 percent.

At 5 per cent, that would be the equivalent of 350 hours, while even at 8 per cent, the total amount of time would actually go down to 160 hours for older students.

ACARA said that the Italian and Mandarin languages would be the first to be developed for the new curriculum, plus there are 13 more under consideration including sign language. Other languages being considered are Hindi and classical languages.

Although some states have expressed apprehension about the plan, the federal Ministry for School Education assured parents, students and educators that the second language would not be mandatory. However, it wants to ensure that Australian students are entitled to learn another language from their kindergarten years, onwards.

Deaf Australia said it was happy with the inclusion of Australian Sign Language (Auslan) in the curriculum.

"We believe every deaf child has the right to communicate in the way that suits them best, and for many deaf children, this means being bilingual in both English and Auslan," Deaf Australia Executive Officer Karen Lloyd said in a statement.

"The announcement brings up a step closer to realizing this goal for young deaf Australians and will change how Auslan and deaf people are perceived by a new generation of Australians, both deaf and hearing," she added.

SOURCE

The AAD foundation..

2011-11-25T01:03:00.000-08:00

Today, there are thousands of deaf people in our country who have no working ears, who have to watch a TV via subtitling and captioning, and go to private 'clubs' to meet in up in darkened rooms, desperately trying to develop a culture, a language, and somewhere to have a really good moan, and recant endlessly what happened last week.. Apart from TV and each other, nothing to communicate about... AAD provides an third way...

While the majority of these disenfranchised deaf people are looking quite earnest and determined, their access to the real world, is in reality, quite limited, and often non-extant. This situation is not isolated; in fact, it is growing at an ever-increasing pace, and deaf people are falling through the net, and beginning to suffer real exclusion, there's been no deaf darts matches or domino tournaments in Wales for 5 years now, and we're reduced to skittle matches...suffering is real..

In contrast, there are thousands of hearing people in our country desperately trying to help deaf people, but they are faced with a complicated and cost prohibitive enablement process, bolshie deaf people, sign language lessons that do not come cheap, awareness courses that can cost thousands and run by egotistical deaf adjudicators, and many hugely biased and corporate run for vast profits, yet you may still find you're none the wiser, because the deaf and HI may lip-read or use signed English. This is where AAD comes in. What IS AAD ? it is Access a Deafie.

As the gap continues to widen and more deaf people gain hearing aids, cochlear Implants, and those who genetically had the decibels driven out of them get less, so pro-deaf families struggle to find the resources to adapt to deaf people. AAD will rid the system of its ineffective awareness courses, and chaotic communication approaches. Deaf awareness doesn't work, AAD DOES !

The AAD Foundation is bridging this gap by creating deaf-friendly AAD centres (All with a terp in-house and complete with flashing door-bell too), which are to be conveniently annexed to deaf clubs and deaf bars, with an generous grant from the national lottery, to provide a healthy supportive and nurturing environment for deaf people to thrive in an hostile and oral hearing environment. The aim ? to get deaf people out there and its healthy, getting deaf out there increases their Vitamin D levels too..... (No pun intended).

Already we have seen some deaf people benefiting, while living in this highly supportive and hearing oriented environment. Just think, no more struggles with a telephone, seeking the holy grail of an easily available interpreter, dicing with death, suffering huge frustration while you struggle to call an ambulance or undertaker, or even trying to communicate, or endlessly campaigning for access no-one can really afford to give you, now, a hearing and adoptive AAD co-ordinator will do all this for you, but we still need your help.

Next year CIN (An UK TV sponsored telethon), will for the first time ever give over an entire televised evening to D.I.N (Deaf in need), and hope to raise millions to help deaf people participate equally in the hearing society. For the first time EVER on this planet an entire telethon will be given over to nil sound and signed/captioned access, so total awareness, and signing presenters too !

With your help, we can do even more, there are 90,000 deaf people out there desperate to get into mainstream. AAD can prevent deaf introspection, cure depression, reduce isolation, build real bridges of communication, and be a deaf person's real hope and sense of belonging in this world. Please support the AAD Foundation.... you would be silly not to....

Note NO such foundation exists, but wouldn't it be nice to have one....

Alleged Deaf man tasered, now dead.

2011-11-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

Deaf man Tazered ? A 61-year-old Halifax County man died Tuesday, a day after police shocked him with a stun gun while he was riding his bike, family members said.

Scotland Neck Police Chief Joe Williams said they received a call Monday night about a man who fell off of his bicycle and injured himself in the parking lot of the BB&T bank, 1001 Main St. The caller was concerned that the man was drunk.

When Officer John Turner arrived, he saw Roger Anthony pedaling away along 10th Street. He followed Anthony in his patrol car, briefly put on his sirens and lights and yelled out of the window for him to stop, but Anthony continued to ride away, police said.

Williams said Turner then saw Anthony take something out his pocket and put it into his mouth. At that time, Turner got out of the car and yelled for Anthony to stop. When Anthony didn't stop, the officer used a stun gun on him, causing him to fall off of his bike.

Anthony was transported to Pitt County Memorial Hospital, where he was declared brain dead, his sister Gladys Freeman said. He was taken off of life support on Tuesday.

Freeman said her brother was disabled, suffered from seizures and had trouble hearing. She said he was riding his bike home from her house on Sunday night. Anthony lived alone in an independent living community.

SOURCE

When Lip-speaking support is Unreasonable.

2011-11-22T00:24:00.000-08:00

Much has been made of an deaf diplomat being denied support to do her job, here, is why. We also read of an deaf student in University having sign language support at a cost 5 times his University fees per year, at what point do we deem access is 'Unreasonable' ? Is it access at ANY Price ? Clearly NO !

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (“FCO”) has successfully defended a deaf employee’s claim that it had failed to make reasonable adjustments. The FCO withdrew an offer of a posting to Kazakhstan when the cost of providing the employee with lip speakers became apparent. The combined cost would have been £250,000 - five times the entire annual wage budget of the Kazakhstan embassy and more than twice the cost of similar support that had been provided to the employee at the Polish embassy.

Read Here

Here

Tinnitus sufferer commits suicide...

2011-11-20T10:23:00.001-08:00

Father-of-two Robert McIndoe, 52, was unable to sleep for three months after attending a concert that left him with a permanent ringing in his ears. But he was put off and turned away several times by doctors. A letter of referral to a hospital ear, nose and throat specialist finally arrived the day after he is believed to have stabbed himself to death.

His wife Shirley McIndoe told the hearing that the day after he went to see the band Them Crooked Vultures last July, her husband was ‘cross with himself’ for not taking ear plugs. She said: ‘When it first happened he wasn’t too bothered about it because he thought it would subside, and the friend he had been with also had ringing in his ears that day. ‘But it was a constant irritation. He didn’t get a night of sleep after that.’
Mr McIndoe, a management consultant and a keen guitarist, visited his GP surgery three times and was referred to see an ear, nose and throat specialist at King’s College Hospital in London.

But when he went to the hospital, he was told it had no specialists in the field.

Read more

More Deaf club closures...

2011-11-18T05:56:00.000-08:00

Following the pattern of many welsh deaf clubs, yet more English deaf clubs are set to go, Middlesbrough the latest... The closure of a deaf centre in Middlesbrough would have a devastating effect on the lives of its users, it has been claimed. Middlesbrough Deaf Centre has been earmarked for closure as part of the council’s wide-ranging cost-cutting plan.

More than 80 people attended a highly-charged public meeting at the centre in Park Road South yesterday to discuss the proposal. Dave Walker, a user of the facilities, speaking through signing, said: “I was born and bred in Boro - for over 65 years and what people need to realise is that there are two worlds. “There’s the hearing world and the deaf world. Moving us out of our world and just telling us to get around in the hearing world is not simple. It’s not helpful and it’s not what we want.

“Splitting us up would be like you moving to Nepal and just when you started feeling part of the only English speaking club, finding out the club could close or move to another part of the country - and without any language skills you have to find your own way there.” Brenda Moore, whose 93-year-old aunt, Marjorie Johnson, uses the centre, said: “Shutting this centre will shut people out of the only world they know.”

Read More

Patti Durr, arrests unconstitutional...

2011-11-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

An RIT professor who was arrested as part of the Occupy Rochester protests is calling these arrests unconstitutional. As someone who is partially deaf, Patti Durr, of Brighton, also feels that police weren’t properly equipped to deal with deaf individuals.

Durr said that the Rochester Police Department handcuffed her from behind.

“It should be protocol to handcuff deaf individuals from the front to allow for signing. I had requested this numerous times as did others on my behalf to no avail,” she said.

Rochester Police Department Public Information Officer Stephen Scott said that protocol for all arrests is to put the hands behind the person who is arrested. Scott said that this is done even for deaf individuals because it is a safety issue.

Durr added that the jail is not equipped with a videophone and that she was not allowed to use her phone to text her husband to come and bail her out.

“Instead I had to depend on someone in the jail to call my house for me because they only had a TTY (Text Telephone), which is outdated, and hardly any deaf people have TTY's in their home anymore,” she said.

According to Monroe County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Helfer: "The TTY has been the industry standard for many years and is still widely used."

SOURCE/MORE

Video relay restrictions, CRAZY !

2011-11-18T01:31:00.000-08:00

Video telephonic relay access campaigns rumble on, but is universal access for the BSL user unlikely to be universally adopted unless the deaf pay for it themselves ? or at best such a service would be barely used and restricted to being pointless ? Who meets the cost ? Where is the broadband to deliver ? and who pays to offer these services to vast parts of the UK that cannot access the service BB speeds required ?

There are rural areas here STILL on dial up parity. Will it be a service only city areas can use ? Where will they get interpreters ? off the street ? So many questions, so much expence so little response in the shape of answers.... and worse NO surveys of potential uptake. Even a tiered system of video relay access creating an have, and have not, access for the deaf ?

The 1:1 system (Which isn't VRS), will be expensive, VERY expensive. Technically not an vital service to access emergency or medical help, who monitors content to filter out potential abuse ? What child protection is in place ? we haven't seen any mentioned...... Ms Daniels claim it is penny pinching, the fact is calls would cost an minimum of £3 ($1.9), a minute, Skype and other areas online FREE..... BB speeds to make the system function effectively, do not exist in many areas...... It requires an telephonic cabling most still do not have. Unrestricted access costs to be met by.... whom ? I trust parents of deaf children have deep pockets since they need the equipment too...

PLANS for a hi-tech service enabling deaf youngsters to talk on the phone were last night at risk from “penny-pinching” telecom chiefs.

The video relay link, in which users with a computer and webcam see messages delivered by a sign language interpreter, is due to go nationwide next year. But regulator Ofcom wants to limit monthly usage to just 30 minutes per per month. It says the four telecom giants fear they will have to pass the “substantial” cost of their own scheme on to other consumers – just days after they posted record quarterly profits of nearly £1.12billion.

But even its top estimate of £113million a year for the service represents less than two weeks’ profits for BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Sky combined. The National Deaf Children’s Society branded the snub to Britain’s 45,000 deaf youngsters “penny-pinching and preposterous”. Chief executive Susan Daniels said the companies were not meeting their legal obligation of “equal access” for the deaf. She added: “The cost of this link is a drop in the ocean compared with their profits.”

Student Sonia Choudhary, 16, of East London, would be hit by the move. She said: “The only telephone I can use is my mobile to text. This link could let deaf young people using British Sign Language like me make any phone call.

“Limiting it to 30 minutes a month is just crazy.”

Read more

Deaf Teen confesses to stabbing by text...

2011-11-15T06:33:00.001-08:00

A deaf teenager has admitted repeatedly stabbing a 12-year-old boy in an attack in Ayrshire.

Gareth Young, 16, pleaded guilty to attempted murder after the attack on the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - in Kilwinning in June.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Young - who also comes from Kilwinning - wrote his confession on his phone and showed it to police.

Sentence was deferred until Monday 12 December.

Advocate Depute Andrew Brown QC, prosecuting, told the court that Young pounced on the victim and his friend after they had sneaked out of a house in Kilwinning just after midnight on 19 June.

As Mr Brown addressed the court, a sign language expert stood in court translating the proceedings for the benefit of Young.

Mr Brown said the boy will face lifelong psychological trauma as a consequence of being attacked.

The prosecutor said the boy had six stab wounds to his body.

One wound led to a loop of intestine extruding from his abdomen and another wound to his chest led to a collapsed lung.

Young was taken to Saltcoats Police office at 04:50 and he typed a message on to his mobile phone which he then showed to the police officers.

The officers noticed that the accused had typed the message: "I hide my knife and shoes and jacket cupboard in my house."

The police then went back to Young's house and found the weapon used in the attack.

Spot the Difference

2011-11-14T01:13:00.000-08:00

The original idea for 4 deaf Yorkshireman perhaps ?

2006

Four Deaf Yorkshiremen

Released 2007

Deafness, a listening problem ?

2011-11-14T00:32:00.000-08:00

Surprising the things you can come across online. This blurb uses 'Listening Disability' to describe some children with hearing LOSS.

Listening to speech requires hearing. All in all these people are not alone in misleading the populace on deaf or hard of hearing people, they should know better. An inability to hear, is NOT an inability to listen, it depends on the communication. Time they clearly identified those with an inability or issue of concentration or retention and not we are all "Deaf to reason," or worse, not attempting to listen.

Listen is relative a term, as most depend on visuals not sound. Don't know why we bother to raise awareness..... What they describe is THIS which can affect anyone deaf OR hearing. An inability to listen is also misleading, and in part derogatory to deaf, and readers unaware of what they are actually saying, will assume, "Deaf never listen". That is an very negative image of deaf people.

Quote: "Parents of deaf children find themselves in a difficult position when they try to find appropriate schools for their youngsters. There are very few schools available to cater for children with a listening disability."

This comes via an department of the Carel du Toit School in Bloemfontein, situated at a National Hospital.

SOURCE & MORE

Testing, Testing ?

2011-11-13T02:20:00.000-08:00

Do or die for UK signed relay systems ?

Sign Video blurb: SignVideo is pleased to announce the signing of a trial with BT providing their deaf customers, for the first time, access to their customer services from anywhere in the UK. This will be delivered through our innovative web based solution - BSL Live.

BSL Live is our unique cloud application that connects deaf people, unable to use the phone with customer contact centres via an on-line interpreter. It works in conjunction with web-cams and enables communication to flow in real-time over the two links - the on-line video link and the phone line.

Warren Buckley, managing director customer service, BT, said: ‘We hope that the trial will make it easier for our customers who prefer to communicate in BSL to contact us. BT is determined to be inclusive and we hope that through this trial, the innovative use of technology will mean that deaf people need no longer suffer the frustration that can occur when trying to manage their communications services.’

Customers can access the new contact facility via bt.com. They will be connected to the SignVideo Translation Service and a BSL interpreter will make the connection to BT’s customer-services. The interpreter will then relay BSL to voice and vice versa. Customers will need to have a computer with video capability and broadband. The call will be free of charge, as it is to any BT customer-service number and it will be available Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm.

The REALLY important small print.

The service will be promoted amongst the deaf community for a six month trial and it will be testing whether BSL access to customer services will really work and that customers will want to use it.

Signvideo

Article link

Wales has NO system to test

13yr old Singer provides BSL access.

2011-11-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

Help for Heroes, and access for the Deaf.

A YOUNG singer has impressed the judges with her heartfelt song about life as a soldier.

Heather Cameron-Hayes from Winkfield Row, has made it through to the under-16 area final of OpenMic UK when she performed Frontline in support of people who have served in the armed forces.

The 13-year-old is planning to sell copies of the song to raise money for the charity Help for Heroes and is hoping to generate more support when she performs at the southern area final in Portsmouth on November 27.

Heather, who performed Frontline at the OpenMic UK regional final on Ocober 30 in Aldershot along with a British sign language interpreter, said: "I am so pleased to have got to the next round, it is just amazing.

"The publicity from being in OpenMic UK will raise so much awareness for Help for Heroes as well as the deaf community. I decided to use a BSL interpreter

and try and open up my song 'Frontline' to the deaf community as many people who serve in the armed forces suffer problems with their hearing."

SOURCE

Re-Branding for Deaf Charities....

2011-11-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

How I do it......... (And save a shed-load of cash too....)

Sign language clips from NHS not captioned ?

2011-11-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

Yet advertised via SIGN HEALTH because lip-reading is 'less effective', so what happens if you are deaf and DON'T sign? or are NOT able to lip-read an deaf translator of BSL ? most 'Deaf' signers are unable to be lip-read at all, they form few if any words orally.

It looks like sacrificing one form of access for another late deaf won't understand. It's not as if they have EVER put up an lip-spoken video anyway. Does nobody else see the weird understanding some people have of deaf awareness or communications ? Why isn't it a given ALL signed videos carry captions ? Especially those designed to INFORM, this is PUBLIC INFORMATION awareness but focused on one sector of deaf only, and they are not offering the rest access. Which I think is a poor show from SIGN HEALTH and the NHS who should be ignoring 'selective' access demands..

What it means in reality is late deaf and hard of hearing have to go back to the NHS and make another plea for access, for the same information, when £10,000 has already been spent elsewhere and they are unlikely to get it. when WILL these people start acting in unison ? I think they need to understand even BSL users need captions too. You expect a shop that sells cabbages not to understand needs, you do not expect the NHS or SIGN HEALTH to be totally unaware of near 9 million people. It looks deliberate. I suggest the NHS is violating access laws by its non-provision of captioning.

Report: "Deaf people from this month (November, 2011) onwards are being given access to important health information in British Sign Language (BSL) thanks to a partnership between SignHealth and NHS Choices.

Supported by Tesco Charity Trust, the healthcare charity for Deaf people has created the clips to give Deaf men and women access to information about cancers, diabetes and heart disease.

Steve Powell, Chief Executive of SignHealth, said: “We are targeting some of the nation’s biggest health-related killers and have produced the BSL video clips with NHS Choices, which were very kindly funded by a £10,000 grant from Tesco Charity Trust.

“For many Deaf people English is not their first language and health information often contains words and concepts that are complex and unfamiliar.”

However adept they are at lip reading, a Deaf person will rarely take in the full detail of a discussion.

Steve added: “This is the first time that Deaf sign language users will be able to access information on the NHS Choices website.

“We have covered topics on breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, lung cancer and prostate cancer in these first film clips. They have been launched on the video section of the NHS Choices website, www.nhs.uk* and will also be launched on our website, www.signhealth.org.uk."

“The five health areas were chosen because they affect a lot of people in the UK. NHS Choices produced the scripts for the topics and once these were agreed, Remark!, which is the largest Deaf-run and Deaf-led film company in the UK, did the filming.”

Late deafened screwed by equality again !

UK Lip-Reading Bill dumped ?

2011-11-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

Looks like the UK Parliament aren't interested in validating lip-reading as an essential skill. Why isn't lip-reading classed as an essential means of communicating, and sign language is ?

Background Proposal: A Bill to require lip-reading to be classified as an essential skill for the purpose of skills funding; to require the Secretary of State to ensure that people who are deaf or hard of hearing have access to lip-reading classes provided by local learning providers at no cost to the learner; and for connected purposes.

Response: The Bill was not moved for debate on 4 November 2011. The order to read the Bill a second time has lapsed. There is no indication when the Bill will progress further.

LINK

Back to the drawing Board ?

When do we need Hearing Aids ?

2011-11-07T00:49:00.000-08:00

Depends on to what degree you loss of hearing is, is one suggestion I read recently. It isn't a plug for sign language, but a look at those with hearing loss who want more and more powerful aids despite them contributing to more hearing loss and even Tinnitus onset as an side issue.

It is many years since I was able to benefit personally at all from a hearing aid, mostly in my time you would be better off at that time not wearing the NHS free ones, which were crude amplifiers and not much else. I am told today's digital and all singing, all-dancing hearing aids, are a step forward but there are still a few around that really depend on amplifying sound and are not discerning, whilst our newspapers are still allowing adverts for 'Miracle Amplifiers' that allow you to hear a whisper 100 feet away, yeah..... right !!!

When I had hearing I couldn't do that, (Why would anyway whisper at you knowing you have hearing loss at that distance ?) maybe you want to listen to others talking without them knowing !! There was a debate by an deaf charity recommending powerful aids as I recall, and they were condemned for it, mostly the issue is US at ground level. We need to be informed what we are NEVER going to really hear and balance it with what we might be able to, and get an aid and attitude that is with this premise. Why anyone gets issued an aid without appropriate counselling is a mystery. Or, that private providers of aids aren't monitored and include counselling too. Basically they will sell you whatever they can and advertise you get your hearing back ...... at a price.

No place for a free market in that respect I think, it's promoting false hope, and dare I suggest is illegal advertising too ? We know there isn't an aid or an operation that will ever do that, and the only cures held out as possible mean neither. The issue is one of realism and acceptance, a lot of those with hearing loss are simply too terrified to accept loss and grab as may straws as are apparently available. As our hearing gets worse we abuse volume controls to compensate, we turn up TV's, radios, ipods, car sound systems, amplify telephones, whatever.... which effectively hastens hearing loss by noise damage, certainly older aids contributed to tinnitus too. As for silence making tinnitus worse, this is not really true, many profound deaf people manage quite well, and not a high percentage of them have tinnitus either, it's one of those assumptions.

The issue is only in as much as people tend to over-focus, especially on Tinnitus, the key as ever is to use whatever means that are available to distract you from that inwardly focusing, because overdoing that creates stress, which is catch 22 and can make tinnitus worse and peace of mind less likely. It's attitude, acceptance, and a realisation no aid is really going to make you hear as you used to. As one charity was quoting recently, 3 MILLION of people in the UK will not even accept they need an aid.

(How do they now ? anyway...). The next issue is then to Identify which aids suit, which aids won't and prevent adverts that promise what they cannot deliver. Manufacturers are hoping our fear of deafness will keep them in business aren't they ? It's worked the last 50 years....

Captions can violate Copyright.

2011-11-06T02:38:00.000-08:00

Will this mean those that attempt to improve poor captioning (Or even provide captions for the deaf where they don't exist ?), will face an legal challenge preventing that ?

The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of implementing the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Passed by Congress last year, the CCVA requires the FCC revise its rules to mandate closed captioning on IP television, and the Commission is running a proceeding on how to implement the law. Not surprisingly, copyright questions are coming up fast in discussions between the agency and video providers, especially when it comes to enhancing captions in various ways.

Under the FCC's proposal, video programming distributors and providers "would not be required to improve caption quality," the agency's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking explains. "[R]ather, they would be required to ensure that the quality of captions does not decline when delivered via IP as compared to when shown on television. To the extent that VPDs/VPPs have permission to alter captions on the programming so that they improve the viewing experience, we propose that they be permitted to do so."

But some IP video distributors and their representative trade associations insist that intellectual property restrictions require the FCC to tread gingerly on this requirement. Expressions of caution have been submitted by AT&T and Microsoft. Here is the National Association of Broadcaster's commentary on the matter:

"'[E]ncouraging' captioners to provide high-quality captions (a goal fully supported by NAB and its members) should not be confused with a rule that would impose a quality mandate," the NAB notes. "To the extent the Commission takes any action regarding performance objectives, it should establish a safe harbor by which a covered entity that uses the same or substantially the same captioning used on television will be deemed in compliance."

In various contexts, VPDs would be unable to provide captions better than those available on television "because any alteration to the captions would violate the VPOs [video programming owners] copyright to those captions."

SOURCE & MORE

Let's Be Friends

2011-11-04T01:41:00.001-07:00

Takes a Kid to say it...

Sign Language, who needs it ?

2011-10-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

This week we are reading of more help on accessing videos and vblogs (Not deaf ones !), to make them more accessible via captioning or subtitles. I'm a great fan of both, but it has occurred to me there is little or NO comprehensive attempt by the Deaf signer nor those interested in 'Deaf' access, to make videoed access via sign language, be it ASL or BSL, there seems no area offering to sign access video output unless it is strictly an 'Deaf' vblog, something the system puts out, or it's a deaf program. OK that's the point about fair access made.

'Lessons' abound online on free captioning on how to do that, but personally on my own vblogs I find it not all that hard to do. OK it takes time, you need patience, but the end result is helping other deaf people, (And it covers up my crap sign!), you scratch their back, they might even scratch yours.... I've never understood dedicated signed output with no other access, or, people who do that, objecting to freelance transcribing of what they say. OK there 'may' be an reason 'Deaf' don't 'Do' English, but I find mostly it is political and stubborn mindedness more than an inability.

Current bugbears are Deafyou, which is some sort of 'flagship for the paranoid few', with occasional output about real issues from genuine deaf to suggest what it isn't, but there are others who resist access on the grounds they are some special exemption or something. They aren't, if you can, DO, if you can't, allow others to..... I like Carl Schroeder, I didn't always agree with him, Don G also talks a lot of sense when he isn't on the road to deafhood every other sentence... (HEY DG there's another 'road' movie there)....Carl has a lot to say, he is an very intelligent person and knows his sign as I gather, sadly he talks mainly to himself or a few that can follow him.

This will not carry the relevant message about the specialisations in sign and culture his output covers. I admire his signing ability, I do not admire him, and his fan club following the "Access unless it IS sign, is an attack on culture..." stance,it's silly,it isn't awareness, or even promoting culture/sign. You would think with so much to impart to the deaf community and bearing in mind British/world deaf haven't a clue what he is saying, or any American using ASL much, he/they would make the views accessible ? Yep we have to step up to the plate too. What Deaf.read has done is invited in world deaf to American ASL and deaf people, now it presents the issue of access to ASL.

We are in the position we can't debate views, or even learn about this aspect of American signed culture, because we do not KNOW what that view is. Yes we can read blogs, but text isn't sign is it ? and, not accessing ASL signers clearly either. Look on captioned/titled access as an awareness thing and not a threat, we can then move on...

Lip-reading, is it a lost cause ?

2011-10-30T03:24:00.000-07:00

The current state of Lip-reading in the UK. Including one exponent that can lip read in 5 different languages... Despite near 76% of hard of hearing stating a preference to lip-read as averse to sign, lower class attendances, fewer classes, and an elite of lip-reading experts making a mint with court work is telling a very bleak story about the whole concept.

Not least, in that those who profess to want to learn, are not turning up to do that. Mostly the issue of lip-reading ignores many basics, deaf do not prefer this mode, hard of hearing class attendances are by people with residual hearing, and the success rate even for them is less than 28%,and given many are elderly and the classes ill-equipped to deal with those with hearing loss still. It's become an 'Tupperware' set up for the few.

4,700 out of an potential 9 million, you do the maths.... If lip-reading is advantageous, why aren't people turning up ? could it be the class tuition is useless and ill-formed ? I found it pointless for ANYONE with an serious loss, regardless of age or class availability, it is geared against those who most need it.. 2 hour sessions for the MOST able to hear ! Perhaps should carry an waiver "NO use if you have hearing loss..."

Quote: "Lip-reading for a court requires meticulous record-keeping, from the moment an inquiry is received, with a lengthy and detailed written report submitted to the court, supported by cross-examination from the opposing side," explains Ms Lannin, a qualified teacher of lip-reading to adults and a deaf-awareness trainer who has been working as a forensic lip-reader for eight years.

She can lip-read English, Japanese, German, Spanish and Arabic. "Lip-reading for the media requires a fast turnaround and willingness to lip-read colourful language. Lip-reading socially often involves 'live' lip-reading and reporting at an event, or lip-reading a video recording of an event."

Such expertise comes at a price: forensic lip-readers charge in the region of between £40 and more than £100 for an hour, or about £600 for a full day covering something such as a sporting event or the royal wedding.

Yet, despite the growing exposure of lip-reading as a commercial skill, the provision of lip-reading classes is falling. A national charity, is urging the Government to recognise lip-reading as a valuable skill.

The number of classes in England fell by 8 per cent this year compared with 2010. There was also a 10 per cent decrease in learners. In June last year, there were 451 classes in England and Wales, with an estimated 4,739 learners. A separate report suggested there were 63 lip-reading classes in Scotland, with an average of 11 people per class."

(WALES)

SOURCE and More

Trick,Treat or Menace ?

2011-10-29T02:42:00.001-07:00

Halloween is an nightmare for deaf people as we get targeted by children and get flour and eggs thrown at us. We were issued with posters by police so that trick or treating people are NOT welcome to our homes, and they will be reported if they attempt to harass deaf people and refuse to leave when asked to, we had children here as young as 8 demanding money or they would cause damage to our home.

They come in gangs of 5 or 6 and very threatening they stop you on the street, and block your access until you give them money. When you go shopping you also get Guy Fawkes gangs collecting 'penny for the guy' which mostly is an plastic shopping bag stuffed with old clothes, the object is clearly to get money and has no link to anything traditional. They can stand at bus ques preventing you getting on them, or even at car park entrances, unless you give them money too, it is in reality demanding money with menace, highly organised, and very cynical... and children are getting younger every day doing it.

There were so many attacks on disabled and elderly, they banned the sale of eggs and flour at local shops. Time to call time on trick and treating I say.

You get just 3 Attempts..

2011-10-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

To guess what this charity vblog is about.

Too easy wasn't it ! It was actually about an UK Charity who have developed an online NVQ Level 6 programme in both BSL and BSL-English interpreting in the hope of increasing the number of qualified BSL interpreters in the UK.

Of course we all knew that, even if it wasn't actually signed at all or captioned and the CC option made it complete gibberish !!!

Post a link ? You must be joking....

Hit me Baby 8m more times....

2011-10-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

No disregard intended, just noting it has now got 8,210,884 hits, which I am not going to add to, and is 8m more hits than the top leading advocates of deaf power, 8m more than Gallaudet, 8m more than...... Are they missing the message here ? Has the social model really replaced the medical one ? looks like it hasn't..... back to the drawing board, and good luck Sarah !

French Discover their Deaf Community...

2011-10-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

Ooh-lal-la c'est magnifique!!.....DEAFI (!), a French organization working to improve the landscape for deaf people is one of the finalists this year for Paris’ Grand Prix de l’Innovation, a city-sponsored award recognizing entrepreneurship and innovation. The company is one of the only organizations in France that helps train businesses to cater to the hearing impaired while helping deaf people gain greater access to more varied careers.

Some 4 million people in France are either deaf or hearing impaired, but services directed towards this community have not been widespread. More importantly, few organizations directly hire deaf people to work in communications sectors that deal with the hearing impaired. A law passed in France in 2005 mandates hiring a certain number of employees with disabilities but companies were not universally prepared for deaf workers.

Founded in 2009, DEAFI – a hybrid of the English word “deaf” and the French word “défi” for challenge – originally sought to help deaf people access services previously unavailable to them. The organization uses webcams to allow deaf people to communicate through a signer to a person on the receiving end, allowing the same communication available on a telephone. DEAFI helps implement this and similar strategies in major businesses.

Over time, director Jean-Charles Correa realized that the deaf were disproportionately unemployed and wanted to help them find jobs working with other deaf people. “Instead of having hearing people who can read sign language, why not train deaf people to answer questions of other deaf people?” Correa said.

The organization began in Paris and quickly started to work with other businesses to develop awareness-programs, training initiatives, communication services, and eventually a sort of work-insertion program where DEAFI helps members of the deaf community find jobs within major corporations. The idea is to create a culture of customer service that is as welcoming to people no matter how much or little they can hear. “My strategy is first to show companies that businesswise it is a good thing to open themselves up to deaf people and to encourage them to hire these people,” Correa said.

Already partnered with major communications companies like SFR and Free, Correa hopes that his employees will eventually move away from DEAFI to pursue larger careers. “We want to promote the employability of deaf people,” he said.

Certain obstacles still remain as the small team of 19 tackles a rapidly changing communications terrain. Webcam signing services are currently only available for desktop or laptop computers for practical reasons, but Correa hopes to go mobile soon. “Even though using sign language from a mobile phone is not that easy, it’s something we are considering now,” he said.

DEAFI also addresses problems that are often overlooked among the deaf community. Especially among those born deaf, reading online text is not a given. Correa explains that sign language and written language can be drastically different. “French Sign Language is very different from French; it’s closer to German. There’s no tense, no gender,” he explained.

With his colleagues Correa has implemented a DEAFTAG, an icon located next to pages of text where a deaf person can watch a video of a signer signing the text, allowing for more comprehensive understanding of the oftentimes foreign-looking language.

SOURCE/MORE

Why are emergency numbers not deaf accessible ?

2011-10-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

Background: Imagine you are visiting an EU country or at home and you need to contact an ambulance, the fire brigade or the police. Would you know which emergency number to call?

As Europeans are increasingly travelling for business or leisure, millions of people could be faced with this problem. Fortunately, there is no need to look up and remember the emergency numbers for each EU country you are visiting. Just remember 112!

112 is the European emergency number, reachable from fixed and mobile phones, free of charge, everywhere in the EU.

except deaf say it isn't !!

Calls to test language skills of all non-UK health staff.

2011-10-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Whilst on the face of it not relvant to deaf, I have to ask why nursing and medical staff in UK hospitals are still unable to communicate to deaf people ? Clearly their training with the 'bedside manner' ignores the fact an patient could have communication issues. This situation has existed 60 years, and not addressed.

What they said: "Patients face “unacceptable risks” to their safety as a result of laws that allow medics to practise anywhere across the EU", peers have claimed.

Such risks in fact, deaf people experience every time they attend an Hospital or an GP or picked up by an ambulance or the police, once again it takes 'topical' and profile issues before the system of Health makes a decent comment. What do deaf people have to DO to be either ?

In a recent report they claim the wrong balance is being struck between allowing healthcare professionals to operate freely with the Union’s borders and protecting the safety of patients. So deaf are not only faced with UK and English-speaking medical staff who cannot communicate effectively, but foreign ones too, and here is the downer.

If you complain, you are racist and abuse human rights of others...... Clearly deaf haven't any,.

If you are Deaf, HONK !!!

2011-10-20T00:39:00.000-07:00

Deaf people are aware they cannot hear behind ! so should they should adopt some form of identification so people know ? However, this type of 'road rage' is unacceptable. The issue goes beyond the road as I often get bruises to my legs whenever I go to town shopping, as disabled (Yep them too), in wheelchairs/buggies, and mothers with prams ram me from behind because I didn't hear them ask me to stand aside for them.

It happens in shop ques, bus ques, on the street, anywhere, and I've had people walking into the back of me oblivious to everything on a mobile phone, so 'mobile rage' too, a few will just push you out of the way, or hit you on the back and shout at you, It's hell out there. Is it our fault for not letting people know we can't hear ? how can we let people know from behind ? perhaps put an sign on our backs ? To be scrupulously fair they won't know will they ? or is it theirs for being rude ? It isn't hate crime I don't think, as this poster suggested, just sheer bad manners and ignorance. Anyone out there with an cure for ignorance ?

Suggestions please on how to let people know you are deaf when they aren't facing you... if only to save me the bruising and aggravation.

Free sign lessons..

2011-10-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

For deaf Filipinos, OK it's the Jehovah people my Dad used to set his dogs on, and I do the same in the UK but....... Deaf people, whose families could not afford to send them to special education classes, have been learning sign language for free and beyond classroom walls. Sign language volunteers of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been bringing classes right at the doorsteps of the hearing impaired since 1994, preferring to educate them in the comforts of their homes.

Some sign language teachers are themselves deaf. All of them have been spending their own time and money to reach out to the deaf community. More than 2,000 volunteers, from the mountain town of Buguias in Benguet to the coastal villages of Mindanao, go from house to house to seek out the hearing impaired.

If the deaf family member has not undergone formal schooling but is willing to learn sign language, volunteers would be assigned to his or her home. Once the deaf learns the basics, he or she can also take part in Bible classes offered by Jehovah’s Witnesses for free. Among the students who successfully finished home schooling program is Rosemarie Peralta, 21, of Caloocan City.

Peralta is the only deaf member in a family of six. Her parents could not send her to a special education school. Her father, Rodolfo, is paralyzed so the household relies on mother, Jocelyn, a factory worker. “When I was growing up, I did not go to a regular school. I was left alone in my own quiet world because I could not communicate my feelings. I was extremely shy. I felt isolated,” Peralta said in sign language interpreted for the Inquirer.

In April 2005, two volunteers knocked on her door and offered sign language lessons, but Peralta said she felt embarrassed to admit that she was illiterate and could write only her name. She was convinced that sign language can open up her world. Peralta agreed. “I wanted to read, write and express my thoughts. I wanted to have friends who understand me,” she said.

Peralta’s teachers combined gestures, notes, drawings and pictures to convey a word or expression. They taught Peralta how to name everything she saw through sign.
Soon, she learned to interact with the deaf community in her neighborhood. She was taught how to commute from her house, learning to explore Metro Manila on her own after several weeks.

SOURCE

Disclaimer: Whilst this is an deaf report, the blog owner does NOT endorse any religious grouping. (Certainly not this lot !), but news is news..

Deaf Brothers rack up $201K phone bill.

2011-10-19T06:08:00.000-07:00

A South Florida woman got a shock when she opened a recent cellphone bill: she owed $US201,000 . It was no mistake.

Celina Aarons has her two brothers on her plan. They are deaf and cannot speak, so the easiest way for them to communicate is by texting. Normally, that's not a problem. Aarons has the appropriate data plan and her bill is about $US175

But her brothers spent two weeks in Canada and Aarons did not change to an international plan. Her brothers sent over 2000 texts and also downloaded videos, sometimes racking up $US2000 ($NZ2507) in data charges.

T-Mobile told Aarons the bill was correct. She called Miami TV station WSVN, which contacted T-Mobile. The station reports that T-Mobile cut Aarons' bill to $US2500 and gave her six months to pay.

SOURCE

UNcaptioned video

Why loss awareness still fails (II)

2011-10-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Read my latest input to an leading UK charity that acts as advocates and supplies support to those with hearing loss.

"HEAR to Help depends on ENT not doing their job properly. Basically ENT diagnose clinical level of loss then you are on your own. Most have no loss aware doctors who can communicate and if we are to believe AOHL Cymru, patients leave not knowing which ear to put an hearing aid in or know how to remove wax in tubes either, even to the point if you use 2 hearing aids you have to mark them L&R. i.e. left and right.

Statistics re ENT are available online somewhere, and an FOI request can tell you how many are diagnosed with loss and get hearing aids. Any correlation would achieve nothing, the ENT job is to determine level of loss and if necessary suggest which aid will help. -X decibels will mean Y aid is best to address that, end of.

After care and follow up is left to others. I'm dubious about American statistics being compared here, as British are notoriously coy about loss, and we are told 3 million are already in denial, with an further 2 million more young people who won't listen to any warning. British stiff upper lip has an lot to answer for.

Here I think the RNID approach the issue the wrong way in flooding online with hearing tests and talking about noise. If you are an young person with an ipod or whatever, you are NOT going to listen (Literally !). 'Better deaf than old' was an recurring theme I read. 'Loud and proud' another.

The RNID will never connect to or warn this sector. You need legislation on equipment and noise levels enforced in law, in fact the law IS there, but nobody is following it up. Clubs/pubs can be closed if too noisy, how many actually are ? equipment (Including a lot of sound advantage equipment), far exceeds safety levels on volume. This appears to show that the RNID doesn't understand noise/loss issues. More volume is detrimental to hearing loss, so, you just do not manufacture noisy equipment, right ? NHS Medresco hearing aids created more deaf people and Tinnitus than any loud noises did.

As regards to ipods, and music equipment, the Americans laugh in our face re regulating volume output, their courts rejected the RNID claims, all we can do is put an decibel limit on imported stuff, which I am surprised they haven't done, given the RNID has insisted the levels are dangerously abused.

Be it CD/TV or any other sound equipment I find it ludicrous you can easily buy and use this equipment at 60 watts plus in your own home. I used to play in a band many years ago and used a 25 watt amplifier, we've home TV systems that can push a hundred, and in quad speaker format and more, most basic band amplification is now at 25,000 watts output and up.

We're losing the noise war in a big way. Next RNID campaign should go along these lines, an ban of equipment that exceeds safety decibel limits, simples, if you cannot turn it up loud it's sorted. It will be unpopular, but what is worse people not liking you, or being deaf ? I think its time to TELL people not ask them because the effect isn't localised just to them. New York's roads are amongst the noisiest in the world with an average we are told at centre of 86db up EVERY day, and that is just cars. You would have to be deaf to live there."

Superhero SONAR to the rescue !

2011-10-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

A new superhero calls on young people to join his mission: to improve the world for people with hearing loss (And he wears an CI too)....

"Sonar is a research scientist who happens to be Deaf. He also has extraordinary powers including superhuman intelligence and super strength. Like many young Deaf people, Sonar wears a Cochlear Implant but Sonar’s Implant has a very special “super” feature – it warns him of impending danger. Sonar has a new mission – he has pledged to find ways to improve the world for people who are Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing and he wants young people, including other Deaf young people, to help him by contributing their ideas on new avenues of research, new technologies and inventions that could help improve life for people with hearing loss."

SOURCE AND MORE

Gibraltar launches BSL..

2011-10-15T05:14:00.001-07:00

The Gibraltar Hearing Impaired and Tinnitus Association has welcomed the launch of British Sign Language in Gibraltar.

A spokesman for GHITA said: “Following a meeting of the Gibraltar Hearing Impaired and Tinnitus Association and The Gibraltar Disability Society at the request of a group of profoundly deaf people, it became apparent that there was a total absence of British Sign Language in Gibraltar and that there were many people in our community who would benefit greatly from BSL as the first language of deaf people”.

“The Minister for Family, Youth and Community Affair graciously agreed to open the first day of the course at Bleak House, on Monday 10th, where he commended the hard work put into making the dream of Gibraltarian woman, Jacqueline Jarman-Brugada, a reality.

“This the Minister felt meant that Gibraltar is moving with the times and will be able to provide BSL trained interpreters to “hearing impaired and deaf residents” of Gibraltar as well as any Care Agency Services Users. The Minister concluded by stressing the need for this sector of our community to be able to feel a part of the community and be afforded a fundamental right with regard to accessing all services available as and when the need arises.

SOURCE/MORE

Petition to have Dornan Prosecuted

2011-10-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

Petition to have Dimity Dornan prosecuted. Opened on October 12, 2011

A petition is being organised to stop the Deaf Culture Genocide due to Dimitry Dornan's goals for Deaf people and deafness in the future.

It is said Dornan is breaching UN Conventions. Australia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 24.3 states that “States Parties shall enable persons with disabilities to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in education and as members of the community. To this end, States Parties shall take appropriate measures, including..

24.3:b) Facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community..”

Deafness is a scourge that can be eradicated and consigned to history, just like polio, according to Queensland's newly crowned Business Woman of the Year.

Petition HERE

Scottish MP SIGN-VIDEO first

2011-10-12T03:24:00.001-07:00

An Scottish politician has provided sign access for his constituents to discuss issues with him without language, or communication barriers, one down, 629 more to go!

Mike Crockart MP for Edinburgh West is the first elected member in the UK to make Deaf Action’s SignVideo available at his constituency office.

The service provided through Deaf Action in collaboration with SignVideo, means that Deaf BSL constituents are able to visit Mike to discuss their concerns without having to worry about a language barrier. The latest technology means that a translator joins the meeting via a webcam and provides simultaneous translation.

The online interpreting service for deaf people will provide instant access to experienced SASLI registered BSL/English interpreters using the most advanced technology in the field.

Commenting Mr Crockart said:

“Throughout the UK there is a shortage of British Sign Language/English interpreters; this is a particular problem throughout Scotland with the ratio of qualified interpreters to sign language users estimated at around 1 interpreter for every 200 sign language users."

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The Scourge of deafness

2011-10-11T00:08:00.000-07:00

Oh dear !!!! Fodder for the purists....... Deafness is a scourge that can be eradicated and consigned to history, just like polio, according to Queensland's newly crowned Business Woman of the Year.

Dimity Dornan was awarded the title in a gala luncheon this afternoon at the Sofitel in Brisbane. She earned the award for her work in founding Hear and Say, which helps deaf children hear through early diagnosis, advanced hearing technology and therapy.

Dr Dornan used her speech to talk about her hopes for the future – a world where deaf children are able to hear. "I think deafness is at the same stage polio was..." she said. "It is a scourge in our world but it can be almost completely eradicated. I believe we can truly make this happen ... thank you for your help."

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BBC Subtitling ludricous

2011-10-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

The BBC has been criticised by deaf groups over "ludicrous" computer-generated subtitles which have labelled the Labour leader "Ed Miller Band" and announced "a moment's violence" for the Queen Mother.

The subtitle blunders have become so regular that a dedicated website has been set up by bemused viewers. Hard-of-hearing viewers have been left "utterly perplexed" by errors in the live captions – which have also renamed the Ireland rugby team "Island". Deaf people have expressed their shock at being told a town was expecting a visit from the "Arch b**** of Canterbury" during one local BBC news broadcast.

In another embarrassing faux pas, a reporter visiting a farm spoke of how the pigs "love to nibble anything that comes into the shed, like our willies." Unfortunately the subtitles alongside the report changed the last word to to a rather childish homophone. After one viewer captured it on screen the error became an internet sensation.

During the Queen Mother's funeral, the solemn words "We'll now have a moment's silence for the Queen Mother" became "We'll now have a moment's violence for the Queen Mother" in one BBC broadcast.

SOURCE/MORE

2011-10-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

Two Munich-based social entrepreneurs have developed a new smartphone transcription service that allows people with hearing impairments to communicate without relying on sign language or live interpreters.

The motto for Michaela and Robin Nachtrab's company could very well be 'life with subtitles.' Using technology they have developed over the past three years, the couple hopes to give the more than 300,000 hearing impaired and deaf people living in Germany the ability to communicate in an everyday environment – without sign language and without interpreters.

The system is useful for doctor's appointments
"When I was 19, I did a social work year and my heart went out to deaf and hard-of-hearing people," Michaela said. "I saw that more needs to be done to integrate these people into our society and I wanted to do something against these barriers."

Michaela then spent eight years helping unemployed people with hearing find jobs.

"I saw that there are many problems, especially getting the right interpreter for the hearing impaired on the right day, at the right moment and at the right place," she said. "So finally, I went home to my husband and told him about the problem. He said 'how about doing it via the internet?' And that was it."

Finding a solution

The technology Michaela and Robin eventually developed uses smartphones to help people with hearing impairments communicate with others who don't understand sign language.

At the doctor's office or in a class, for example, the user can simply press a button and the voice of the speaker will be transmitted to a central location where a transcriber "re-voices" the content word by word for a speech recognition program that is trained specifically for his or her voice. The software then transcribes the words spoken into written form and transmits them back to the smartphone for the user to read.

SOURCE & MORE

Lipseakers NOT reasonable adjustment ?

2011-10-08T05:02:00.003-07:00

Often we read about sign users not getting BSL or ASL access, spare a thought for the lip-reader, who unlike the sign user still does NOT Have their mode of communication seen as reasonable or essential access. So how do we follow lips ? guess ?

Jane Cordell, a former diplomat with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), whose appointment as the United Kingdom's deputy ambassador to Kazakhstan was revoked after the FCO said that hiring a lipspeaker to support her was too expensive, has lost her appeal against the original findings of the Employment Tribunal.

Ms Cordell is profoundly deaf, and is assisted in her work by "lipspeakers". She was told that the cost of providing lipspeakers was not reasonable and could not be justified.

AOHL criticised for downgrading effects of Tinnitus.

2011-10-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

An irate poster to the AOHL's Tinnitus open forum has complained of the sanitising of the effects of tinnitus, and promoting only 'good news' via lesser affected sufferers of this condition. No link can currently be provided as the site appears to have continuous looping problems that is now preventing people logging in.. Logically the poster should instead contact HERE as the AOHL charity is NOT qualified to give out advice. Far too few who use this site understand they are not centres of support or knowledge but act only as a link to those that DO. This charity needs to stop being ambiguous about what it does and send people where the help is.

"I have come to the conclusion that this site has been hijacked by people with mild T and only “positive” things to say. I hardly see posts by people in dark places battling to cope and when there has been the odd cry for help by and large it is ignored. Gone are the days when a post of that nature would solicit an almost instant barrage of people wishing the person well and offering kind words of encouragement.

It irks me because not everyone has T that lightly and softly that they can hardly hear it at times and can indulge themselves in back patting pronouncing that they have habituated and by implication anyone who cannot or does not is in some way lacking. I have even heard it said on here that some people will never habituate because they are always negative about their ailment, as if it is a given that if you have the right attitude all will be swept away eventually.

Nonsense!

I suspect that most of these people actually have very soft / mild T in the first place and have allowed themselves to work themselves into panic mode thinking that they have it badly. Then over time get a grip on their outlook and realise actually it is not so bad and miraculously habituate to a point where they can hardly hear it....I ask you! They probably never had it badly in the first place.munity, at a time when someone needs to be surrounded by others who understand, we allow this forum to be sterile and cold, not providing the platform many of us true sufferers of T need.

It is high time we took it back and make it perfectly acceptable for it to be used as a place to rant and rave when we feel down and then share in some of the crazy banter we used to enjoy when things were more open in the past."

Good News Week

2011-10-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

Hot on the exposure of the recent successful implant here is another. A BOY who survived five bouts of meningitis but was left deaf can now hear for the first time in years thanks to computer-activated implants.

Troy Probert, seven, broke his skull as a toddler and was left prone to the deadly illness, which robbed him of his hearing. But the little fighter – a green belt in karate – is enjoying the sound of his mum’s voice again after his cochlear implants were switched on. Delighted mum Nicola, 32, said: “They activated the implants from a computer. When they switched it on his face lit up. It was like a miracle.

“He said my voice sounded like music – like the beating of a drum.

“He kept laughing and saying, ‘Talk to me mummy – I can hear you’.”

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Afraid of deaf people...

2011-10-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Snowboarder: Michael Easton

A deaf personal trainer who represents England at snowboading has told of how he is unable to attract clients because they are “afraid” of his disability. Michael Easton, who will be part of Team GB’s attempt at a medal at the Deaf Snowboarding World Championships next year and represented England at the National Squash Deaf Association, gained a distinction in a National Diploma in Sports Studies at Cambridge Regional College as well as a Level 3 CYQ personal trainer certificate and qualifications in nutrition, swimming, basketball, football and sign language.

But the 22-year-old, who was born profoundly deaf and wears a cochlea implant to aid his hearing, says clients coming to his business, Back to the Fitness, often turn him down after the first meeting without “giving him a chance” after they realise he is deaf. The Bassingbourn resident, who has speech difficulties but has overcome them with a specialised sports-based vocabulary course, told the Weekly News he “wants to work hard and make Britain proud” but is astounded he can’t find enough employment in his own country to turn his talent into a full-time career.

The former Bassingbourn Village College student said: “I can teach anyone any sport that they like and help them improve their fitness. I have about seven clients but I need more. “When they meet me, often they don’t come back. Don’t be afraid of me because I am deaf.”

The reds under the bed.

2011-10-06T00:01:00.001-07:00

"deaf extremists does exist in deaf community... the holism-barry sewell, candy-gina sutton, kokonut pundit-mike mcconnell, ironteeth27-richard roehm, mm from wales uk, many more ... thats who they are the deaf extremists in our community."

So this anonymous raving idiot carries on in defence of the indefensible. He (No woman would type thus), attacks the leading academic deaf people on deaf.read, (I don't consider myself in that catagory), those who over many years and considerable personal involvements in the American deaf community, and who take an constant and genuine interest in exposing people like 'Anon' and the hypocricy of any unity led by these people. God forbid they are ever seen as their voice.

And yes the UK has its extremists too, except they tend to just evict everyone they don't agree with and that's it. We invented class issues and the deaf here are not immune to doing away with people whose faces don't fit either, we were told in the age of the internet that was over, but it didn't take long for some deaf to realise they could still operate closed shops and sites and even use moderation to make sure their boat was never rocked.

It is THEY who bring signing deaf into disrepute, bring ALL deaf into disrepute by continuing this divide. and lose no time in taking an genuine vblog concern by some other deaf person and then turn it into an rant against anyone in visual range. This vblog simply asked "Are there extremists in the deaf community", yes there ARE, and they are alive, well and being given complete freedom to be extreme at deafyou. Sadly we do not have an 'in' to why he sees that, or we could respond and try to answer his concerns.

It's called communication. I know some ASL vbloggers do not like their site under scrutiny, we don't have this issue in the UK because the UK has nothing like deafyou. Had it not been for some American bloggers translating, we would all be sitting here being attacked with no knowledge it is going on. No wonder some of them are very reluctant to be identified with an view and refuse captions, and no wonder the shield of invisibility via anon services these extremists so well, there you go vblogger, the site you are on, you sit next to them.

A word to the wise (Or not so) anon, do not even BOTHER to post your bile on my blog, then you can stay anonymous in real time. That's me exercising MY right.

Lib-Dems inaccessible to the deaf

2011-10-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

What do the Fukushima Earthquake, Christchurch Earthquake, Queensland Floods, Libyan Revolution, Egyptian Jasmine Revolution and the ongoing struggle in Syria all have in common? If your answer was death then unfortunately you would be correct, however, a more inspirational and uplifting answer would be Sign Language!

In all of these cases, the elected officials of Public Office have been broadcasted with a Sign Language Interpreter at the side of them as they make statements on life and death events. This breakthrough in accessible information is crucial for Deaf people who need to know what to do in an emergency and how to survive.

With this in mind, I am still perplexed as to how no provision of Sign Language interpretation was presented during Nick Clegg’s Leader’s Speech in Birmingham or Ed Miliband’s in Liverpool. What’s more ironic is the fact that trained professionals, only metres out of view from the party leaders, interpreted both speeches.

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Registering your mobile for SMS emergency help.

2011-10-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

The Classsroom Terp

2011-10-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

Complete with politically incorrect information....