England’s biggest deaf friendly football competition breaks down barriers for deaf children report FC Business (01/02/12).
Deaf young people from across England will be putting their football skills to the test at the National Deaf Youth Football Tournament. The biggest annual tournament for deaf football clubs and deaf friendly football clubs takes place on Sunday 4 March in Liverpool and on Sunday 18 March in Reading.
Hundreds of deaf young footballers will enter the tournament, organised by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), the charity for deaf children and young people. Teams can be made up of deaf and hearing children as long as three or more players are deaf.
The tournament takes place as NDCS celebrates the major milestone of 100 football clubs in England to signing up to the NDCS Deaf-Friendly Football Club (FC) pledge.
NDCS has been working with clubs all over the UK, including Norwich City FC, which was the first club in England to join the project in April 2007. Manchester United and Arsenal have also signed up to the project and are looking forward to competing at the Tournaments. Now 100 clubs have signed the pledge to increase playing, coaching and socialising opportunities for deaf children and young people.
Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United and England International, said: “It’s fantastic to know that 100 Clubs have now signed the Deaf-Friendly Football Club Pledge. Just because you are deaf doesn’t mean you should be denied the right to play football. All children deserve the chance to play football and enjoy sport and at Manchester United we’re really proud of the fact that our Foundation has a Deaf Friendly team playing in a mainstream league. With the support of so many Clubs, hopefully we can encourage even more deaf children to take up the game.”
Deaf children are often excluded from mainstream sports activities because clubs fail to consider their needs and find out how they could make their club accessible. For deaf children, the communication barrier can make football clubs intimidating environments, denying them the same opportunities as other children to take part.
NDCS Hayley Jarvis, NDCS Inclusive Activities Manager, said: “This tournament is a great way for us to celebrate the success that the clubs and the coaches have reached in making our beautiful game accessible to deaf children.
“The Deaf-Friendly FC project has created unique opportunities for more than 1,000 deaf children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to enjoy football. The milestone we have reached is a great success, but there is still a long way to go – only 100 out of 120,000 teams are registered as deaf friendly. “
Victoria Wenman, GB Deaf Ladies Footballer, said: “The National Youth Deaf Football Tournament is a brilliant event for deaf young people. It is fantastic to see the continued growth of deaf-friendly football. It was only through playing with my deaf team that I really thrived as a confident player. My coach knew how to communicate with me whereas in other teams I’d played in, communication had been an issue. It is so important that deaf young people have the same access to sport as other young people.”
The NDCS Deaf Friendly FC Project was set up in 2007 with the help of a grant from the UK’s largest sports charity, the Football Foundation (FF). An additional grant of £129,623 has been awarded by the FF, and the Football Association has also provided £10,000 towards continuing the project in 2010-2011.
The tournaments will take place at two locations at the Goals Soccer Centre in Reading and in Liverpool. Teams which would like to send their entries, please email football@ndcs.org.uk or visit www.ndcs.org.uk/football for details.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Lifesaving advice at roadshow for deaf people in Ellesmere Port
DEAF people from Ellesmere Port and Neston can learn about protecting their homes from fire at a roadshow rolling into town next week writes Laurie Stocks-Moore for Ellesmere Port Pioneer (01/02/12).
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Deafness Support Network are running a series of events across the county to provide potentially life-saving advice to people with hearing loss.
The service’s hi-tech community roadshow vehicle will next be stationed outside Ellesmere Port Market from 10-3pm on Thursday, February 9.
The roadshow is co-ordinated by Melanie Pitts, deaf persons advocate.
She said: “It can be much harder for someone with hearing loss to be alerted to a fire so we’re working hard to reduce the risk of fire in their homes.
“Visitors to our roadshow will be able find out about the specialist support available to them to make their homes safer, look at equipment designed to alert them to a fire and use the on-board computer terminals to complete an online home safety assessment. There will also be lots of information about how the Deafness Support Network can help.”
A British Sign Language interpreter will be on hand to help and information cards will be available showing the signs and signals that can be used to communicate with a deaf person in an emergency.
The roadshow team can provide details of the service’s SMS emergency alert system and education events planned for children of deaf people.
For details, visit www.cheshirefire.gov.uk and click on the ‘partnerships’ link on the homepage or visit the Deafness Support Network website www.dsonline.co.uk.
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Deafness Support Network are running a series of events across the county to provide potentially life-saving advice to people with hearing loss.
The service’s hi-tech community roadshow vehicle will next be stationed outside Ellesmere Port Market from 10-3pm on Thursday, February 9.
The roadshow is co-ordinated by Melanie Pitts, deaf persons advocate.
“Visitors to our roadshow will be able find out about the specialist support available to them to make their homes safer, look at equipment designed to alert them to a fire and use the on-board computer terminals to complete an online home safety assessment. There will also be lots of information about how the Deafness Support Network can help.”
A British Sign Language interpreter will be on hand to help and information cards will be available showing the signs and signals that can be used to communicate with a deaf person in an emergency.
The roadshow team can provide details of the service’s SMS emergency alert system and education events planned for children of deaf people.
For details, visit www.cheshirefire.gov.uk and click on the ‘partnerships’ link on the homepage or visit the Deafness Support Network website www.dsonline.co.uk.
New TV assistance for deaf viewers
Deaf and hearing-impaired Kiwis are about to get a lot more choice in what they watch on television thanks to closed captioning being introduced on 10 new channels reports Stuff.co.nz (01/02/12).
Tomorrow, Sky Television will launch closed captions via its digital decoders on 13 channels: TV One, TV2 and TV3, Animal Planet, Disney, Disney Junior, TCM, Cartoon Network, Crime & Investigation, Discovery, Nickelodeon, UKTV and National Geographic.
Closed-captioning information will be displayed on the on-screen electronic programme guide, and viewers will be able to select closed captions for a single programme, or a global setting to show closed captions whenever they are available. Viewers will also be able to search the guide for content which has closed captions available.
Sky Television chief executive John Fellet said the company had wanted to offer the service for some time but failed to get NZ On Air funding.
The company had so far spent about $250,000 on sourcing the caption information for its programmes and setting up a system to monitor the service.
National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) chief executive Louise Carroll said New Zealand's level of programme captioning was among the lowest in the world but that the 10 new channels would "open up new horizons" for the hearing impaired.
Captions are currently available for shows on TV1, TV2 and TVNZ 7 as well as TV3 through Freeview or Teletext.
"Think of an elderly person who's been able to hear for 60 years and suddenly they can no longer hear the television news properly - they could go to TV1 and TV2, but they lose the option of all the great movies and even watching cartoons with their grandchildren," Carroll said.
"Imagine a child coming through at school age - they want to watch the cartoons with their mates but they just can't understand what's going on."
Carroll said Sky's new captions meant it was now a meaningful option for the one in six New Zealanders that had a hearing impairment. That amounts to a new market of about 700,000 people who may find the captions as added motivation to join Sky.
"I'm hearing impaired and definitely I miss the dialogue sometimes," said Carroll, who also chairs the Captioning Working Group which lobbies the government for public funding.
The faces in the shows are too fast so you can't lip-read properly and if you've missed an important chunk of the programme it's really frustrating. Carroll also said advertisers were missing out on a huge opportunity, and she hoped Parliament TV would eventually be captioned.
Deaf Aotearoa, also part of the working group, said a survey of 400 mostly deaf people showed the overwhelming majority would not subscribe to Sky unless it had captions.
Deaf Aotearoa president Kellye Bensley said excitement had already spread through the deaf community with the announcement of Sky's testing phase.
Sky Television's head of communications Kirsty Way said live content captioning - mainly for news bulletins and sports - could also be in the works but Sky was still asking NZ On Air to consider funding such content on its free-to-air channel Prime, if not its pay- television channels.
Sky was also looking at providing audio descriptors to make it easier for blind and sight-impaired people to understand television programmes, probably for TV1 and TV2 initially. Fairfax NZ
Tomorrow, Sky Television will launch closed captions via its digital decoders on 13 channels: TV One, TV2 and TV3, Animal Planet, Disney, Disney Junior, TCM, Cartoon Network, Crime & Investigation, Discovery, Nickelodeon, UKTV and National Geographic.
Closed-captioning information will be displayed on the on-screen electronic programme guide, and viewers will be able to select closed captions for a single programme, or a global setting to show closed captions whenever they are available. Viewers will also be able to search the guide for content which has closed captions available.
Sky Television chief executive John Fellet said the company had wanted to offer the service for some time but failed to get NZ On Air funding.
The company had so far spent about $250,000 on sourcing the caption information for its programmes and setting up a system to monitor the service.
National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) chief executive Louise Carroll said New Zealand's level of programme captioning was among the lowest in the world but that the 10 new channels would "open up new horizons" for the hearing impaired.
Captions are currently available for shows on TV1, TV2 and TVNZ 7 as well as TV3 through Freeview or Teletext.
"Think of an elderly person who's been able to hear for 60 years and suddenly they can no longer hear the television news properly - they could go to TV1 and TV2, but they lose the option of all the great movies and even watching cartoons with their grandchildren," Carroll said.
"Imagine a child coming through at school age - they want to watch the cartoons with their mates but they just can't understand what's going on."
Carroll said Sky's new captions meant it was now a meaningful option for the one in six New Zealanders that had a hearing impairment. That amounts to a new market of about 700,000 people who may find the captions as added motivation to join Sky.
"I'm hearing impaired and definitely I miss the dialogue sometimes," said Carroll, who also chairs the Captioning Working Group which lobbies the government for public funding.
The faces in the shows are too fast so you can't lip-read properly and if you've missed an important chunk of the programme it's really frustrating. Carroll also said advertisers were missing out on a huge opportunity, and she hoped Parliament TV would eventually be captioned.
Deaf Aotearoa, also part of the working group, said a survey of 400 mostly deaf people showed the overwhelming majority would not subscribe to Sky unless it had captions.
Deaf Aotearoa president Kellye Bensley said excitement had already spread through the deaf community with the announcement of Sky's testing phase.
Sky Television's head of communications Kirsty Way said live content captioning - mainly for news bulletins and sports - could also be in the works but Sky was still asking NZ On Air to consider funding such content on its free-to-air channel Prime, if not its pay- television channels.
Sky was also looking at providing audio descriptors to make it easier for blind and sight-impaired people to understand television programmes, probably for TV1 and TV2 initially. Fairfax NZ
Monday, 30 January 2012
Charity move will improve services
A LONG-running Worcester charity move allows it to improve services for the deaf and hard of hearing reports the Worcester News (30/01/12).
Deaf Direct, which supports people in Worcester-shire, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire, has been based in Worcester since it was founded in 1935.
Today it will move from its Sansome Walk base and open the doors of its new premises at Vesta Tilley House in Lowesmoor. As well as disabled access and visitor parking, chief executive Philip Gerrard explained that the building is fully deaf-friendly – right down to the fire alarm system that has a flashing light in every room to alert those unable to hear it.
The move will also allow the charity to introduce new facilities and services over the coming months. As well as facilities for social groups and new confidential one-to-one advice rooms, it will have a range of equipment on display for clients to try out.
Mr Gerrard said: “We are pleased to be relocating to a more suitable building that will be deaf-friendly and allow us to offer many new services. “It will also help us to continue to campaign and promote the positive aspects of deafness and raise awareness of how we can help to support local deaf people, their families and friends. With one in seven people suffering hearing loss, most people know someone in their family, at work or socially who is affected.”
Its contact details will remain unchanged and it can be reached by calling 01905 746301, texting 07725 244127 or e-mailing info@deafdirect.org.uk
Deaf Direct, which supports people in Worcester-shire, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire, has been based in Worcester since it was founded in 1935.
Today it will move from its Sansome Walk base and open the doors of its new premises at Vesta Tilley House in Lowesmoor. As well as disabled access and visitor parking, chief executive Philip Gerrard explained that the building is fully deaf-friendly – right down to the fire alarm system that has a flashing light in every room to alert those unable to hear it.
The move will also allow the charity to introduce new facilities and services over the coming months. As well as facilities for social groups and new confidential one-to-one advice rooms, it will have a range of equipment on display for clients to try out.
Mr Gerrard said: “We are pleased to be relocating to a more suitable building that will be deaf-friendly and allow us to offer many new services. “It will also help us to continue to campaign and promote the positive aspects of deafness and raise awareness of how we can help to support local deaf people, their families and friends. With one in seven people suffering hearing loss, most people know someone in their family, at work or socially who is affected.”
Its contact details will remain unchanged and it can be reached by calling 01905 746301, texting 07725 244127 or e-mailing info@deafdirect.org.uk
Olympic torch honour for deaf Scunthorpe teenager
A profoundly deaf Scunthorpe teenager is chosen as an Olympic torchbearer writes V J Slack for This is Scunthorpe (30/01/12).
Mathew Slator, who is educated at the Doncaster Deaf Trust, has been chosen from tens of thousands of nominees to be a torchbearer in the countdown to the London Olympics this summer.
The 16-year-old from Scunthorpe last year became one of only four deaf football referees in the country, and is also the youngest. He was nominated for the Olympic honour as a result of his voluntary work, his positive outlook and attitude and his footballing accomplishments
Alan Robinson, Executive Principal at Doncaster Deaf Trust said: "Mathew has been studying with us since 2007 and during that time has proven to be an inspiration to his peers and tutors alike.
"Mathew has a profound Bilateral Sensori-Neural hearing loss but his disability hasn't stopped him living his dreams."
Last year Mathew won the Young Disabled Volunteer of the Year Award at the North Lincolnshire Leisure and Culture Awards for all coaching work on a voluntary basis with younger children at Scunthorpe United.
He said: "I love sport, mainly football, so to be given the honour of carrying the Olympic torch is just a dream come true and will be the best birthday present ever!"
Mathew, who will turn 17 at the end of May, added: "I don't believe I have done anything special - I have just lived my life as I've wanted to and nothing has held me back."
The Olympic Flame will be carried by 8,000 inspirational people as it journeys across the UK. London 2012 organisers have described the torchbearer's role as a "moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide".
Mathew Slator, who is educated at the Doncaster Deaf Trust, has been chosen from tens of thousands of nominees to be a torchbearer in the countdown to the London Olympics this summer.
The 16-year-old from Scunthorpe last year became one of only four deaf football referees in the country, and is also the youngest. He was nominated for the Olympic honour as a result of his voluntary work, his positive outlook and attitude and his footballing accomplishments
Alan Robinson, Executive Principal at Doncaster Deaf Trust said: "Mathew has been studying with us since 2007 and during that time has proven to be an inspiration to his peers and tutors alike.
"Mathew has a profound Bilateral Sensori-Neural hearing loss but his disability hasn't stopped him living his dreams."
Last year Mathew won the Young Disabled Volunteer of the Year Award at the North Lincolnshire Leisure and Culture Awards for all coaching work on a voluntary basis with younger children at Scunthorpe United.
He said: "I love sport, mainly football, so to be given the honour of carrying the Olympic torch is just a dream come true and will be the best birthday present ever!"
Mathew, who will turn 17 at the end of May, added: "I don't believe I have done anything special - I have just lived my life as I've wanted to and nothing has held me back."
The Olympic Flame will be carried by 8,000 inspirational people as it journeys across the UK. London 2012 organisers have described the torchbearer's role as a "moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide".
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