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

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".

Protest at cuts to education services for deaf in Warwickshire

A PROTEST has been launched over cuts to education funding for deaf children in Warwickshire writes Martin Bagot for the Coventry Telegraph (30/01/12).

The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) parked its Listening Bus in the centre of Stratford on Saturday to kickstart a petition over cuts to specialist school services for 100 deaf pupils in schools across the county.

The NDCS submitted a Freedom of Information request to Warwickshire County Council which revealed schools would now be charged for specialist teaching support for deaf pupils with “lower levels of need”. This would apply to 100 of the 230 deaf children in the county.

Jo Campion, NDCS deputy director of policy and campaigns, said: “The support that Warwickshire County Council is refusing to fund for many deaf children is not an optional extra – it is vital for deaf children to be able to achieve at school.
“We’re calling on the council to reverse the move to charge schools for a service that deaf children rely on to learn.”

The NDCS says the cut means schools are now charged for time with specialist Teachers of the Deaf and teaching assistants. It means schools could stop providing these services.

The charity claims the council has “kept parents in the dark” about the changes, and says mums and dads only found out when the support staff were withdrawn.
At least 63 schools will not receive funding for specialist staff who help pupils develop language skills and access to education.

Affected schools would have to pay for up to £85 for hourly support from an expert Teacher of the Deaf and £285 for daily support, the charity says.

Nuneaton mum Emma Guest’s five-year-old twin girls, Daisy and Melissa, have already lost their specialist teaching assistant. She said: “Without all the specialist support that Daisy and Melissa have received, they would not be where they are now. “If the support is taken away my daughters will fall behind at school.”

A county council spokesperson said: “The council is committed to providing support to deaf children who are not yet in school and those in school with higher levels of need. We have to focus those resources on children who have the highest needs. “It is the responsibility of schools to provide for children with lower levels of need. We are to meet shortly with representatives from the NDC Society to discuss with them our provision.”

Liverpool's DaDaFest wins prestigious prize

The DaDaFest in Liverpool has won this year's prestigious £10,000 Lever Prize reports the Guardian (30/01/12).

Just over a year after I wrote about fears over the festival's future funding due to Arts Council cuts, the UK's largest disability and deaf arts festival, which attracts international artists was chosen by senior representatives of the 30 largest companies in the north west to receive the prize.

In 2011, DaDaFest celebrated its 10th anniversary, having begun in 2001 as a community arts event. Over the last decade, it has attracted 100,000 visitors.
When it started, there were a handful of performers; last year the number of artists has swelled to 313, with a total of 1,200 participants and visitor numbers expected to reach at least 11,000.

The festival's aims are simple – to inspire and celebrate talent and excellence in disability and deaf arts. The performances took part in mainstream venues – Liverpool's theatres, art spaces and galleries, so the festival was accessible to all audiences.
At the time, festival's artistic director, Garry Robson, explained its ethos. He said: "DaDaFest is here to present the work of deaf and disabled artists, whose work is on a par with mainstream artists.

"Disabled and deaf people are not simply passive consumers of a tragic destiny but active participants in all areas of life, with a unique and valuable cultural perspective that we plan to share during the festival."

In 2011, there was an international feel to the festival with performances from north and south America, Europe and Australia, as well as the UK. American writer and director Christine Bruno is performing Screw You Jimmy Choo, a play "about a woman obsessed with men she can't have and shoes she can't wear."

Ugandan hip-hop artist Rockin Ronnie, who is involved with Krip Hop Nation, a collective of musicians based in Berkeley, California, wrote and performed a festival theme song.
The festival's CEO, Ruth Gould, said that research undertaken to evaluate the festival shows that 75% of participants have gone on to get employment in the creative arts sector.
"At DaDaFest we know that the arts give us a voice; give us a hope in a world where we feel excluded, forgotten and ignored," she says.

Previous winners of the Lever Prize, named in honour of 19th soap magnate and philanthropist William Lever, include Liverpool Biennial, Tate Liverpool and Manchester International Festival.

Each year the prize is judged by the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) in partnership with Arts & Business North. Arts groups, buildings, events, festivals, libraries and archives are all eligible and in addition to the £10,000 cash prize the award opens the door to collaboration with the region's top businesses. Last year's winner of the Lever Prize was the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester.

Gould said: "We're delighted the NWBLT have acknowledged the unique work DaDaFest does in representing disability and deaf culture in the north west and internationally.
"The award and resulting creative collaborations with NWBLT members will allow us to present an even more relevant and enticing festival later this year."
Geoffrey Piper, chief executive of NWBLT said: "DaDa's success in landing the 2012 Lever Prize is a truly outstanding achievement having seen off an extremely impressive range of the north west's other well-known arts organisations to win this major accolade."

This year's DaDaFest takes place from July 13 to September 2 2012.

Access to music venues for deaf and disabled people

Matthew Hancock MP calls on the government to do all it can to break down the barriers that make live music inaccessible to all writes Matthew Hancock for Politics Home (17/01/12).

For most people, watching live music is a thrill, a joy, and a great way to escape from the day to day. For some it’s a passion. For many disabled people, live music can be all the more important. But it's also that much harder to access.

In the recent past, a new generation of music venues have shown that creative, thoughtful disabled access to venues not only helps the lives of those with disabilities, but is good business too. Research shows that disabled attendance is rising sharply - this is a growth market.

But not all venues are up to scratch. I know well, from personal experience of taking a disabled friend to the theatre and gigs, what a difference is made by putting some thought into access.

It's not just about wheelchair access, but loos and hearing aid loops.

I am the patron of Attitude is Everything - a charity that exists to improve access for disabled music-lovers to see the bands they love. At the end of last year, they released the first comprehensive report into the state of access to Britain's live venues.

The report used the findings of 100 deaf and disabled ‘mystery shoppers’ who visited venues across the country and rated them on their accessibility. Their findings form the basis of their proposals:

First to improve enforcement of existing rules that say that reasonable steps should be taken to improve access, by making access a condition of license.

But perhaps more important, to promote best practice, and sign venues up to the Attitude is Everything Charter that is used by some of the top venues and festivals like Glastonbury and Latitude in Suffolk.

Most of us can enjoy live music just by turning up. We must do what we can to break down the barriers that make live music inaccessible to all.

Matthew Hancock had been Conservative MP for West Suffolk since 2010.

Deaf Crash Victims Should Recover

Three deaf people who are mainstays of the volunteer corps at the Deaf Cultural Center in Olathe are recovering after being hit by a car reports KMBC (18/01/12).

The three had just left a meeting at the Deaf Cultural Center, across from the Kansas School for the Deaf on East Park Street.

Police said Robert Garrison, Sue Gordon and Eva Johnson didn't see the car and the driver didn't see them. After the incident, the driver ran into the cultural center to get someone to call 911.
"It doesn't register with you immediately that someone you know and love might be hurt," said Sandra Kelly, a friend of the crash victims. "And (the driver) said, 'They're in the street! They're in the street!' and that's immediately when you kick in to action."

She said that she and others at the center ran out to cover the three victims with coats and blankets until paramedics arrived. While the victims were badly hurt, Kelly said she has heard that all three will recover.

Kelly said it appears the crash had nothing to do with the fact that the three victims are deaf. She said it was likely they were conversing among themselves and never noticed the car on the dark street.

The crash remains under investigation.

Enabling communication is vital in families of deaf children

Families need to learn to sign for the sake of their deaf children – yet they are often denied the chance, writes Charlie Swinbourne for the Guardian (15/01/12).

In the last few weeks, a video of a deaf mother and her two year-old daughter Ava having a dinner conversation in British Sign Language (BSL) has gone viral. It has been tweeted, shared and blogged to the extent that the clip now has more than 150,000 views online. The video shows the level of understanding and communication that a child using sign language can reach when they have access to language from an early age.

Ava's parents are deaf, so they knew how to sign with her. However, 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, and at the moment it is incredibly difficult for them to access courses so they can learn to sign. A National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) telephone survey last summer found that 56% of councils did not provide any services or support for parents of deaf children wanting to learn sign language, and the councils that do often require parents to pay for the course – which can cost up to £600.

Gary Morgan, professor of psychology at City University, London, told me that a delay in access to language and communication "can have severe and long lasting effects for a child's cognitive, social-emotional and academic skills. Many deaf children arrive at school with the task of learning a first language rather than learning about the world through already developed language."

Anna Lewis, from Dorset, is learning BSL in order to be able to communicate with her three year-old daughter, Belle, who is profoundly deaf. She told me: "communication with Belle is difficult. Due to her late diagnosis she had two and a half years of a silent, unsigning world. We use a mixture of BSL, speech and pictures with her. Every day is a struggle to communicate."

When Belle was diagnosed as being deaf, their council provided only an introductory course in signing communication. No further support was offered so now, at their own cost, Anna is taking a BSL level one course, travelling 30 miles every week for a two-hour class. The cost of the course is £200 and the family could not afford to pay for her husband to join her.

She said: "We just can't afford for us to both do it and pay for the childcare. My husband feels like he is being denied his fundamental right of being able to communicate with his child. It is disappointing and just plain wrong that we are penalised for Belle being deaf."

There is a huge irony here, in that signing classes for non-deaf children have become hugely popular. Just before Christmas, my three-year old daughter's pre-school was visited by Singing Hands, who perform children's songs using signs. I was amazed at how many children knew how to sign along with them, and it struck me that just as hearing parents across the country struggle to learn to sign with their deaf child, thousands of non-deaf children are benefiting from being exposed to sign language from a young age.

To try and give parents of deaf children everywhere access to a course that gives them the signing skills they need, NDCS has developed a family sign language course, which is specifically aimed at families of deaf children who want to use BSL. It teaches the signs and phrases needed for nursery rhymes, stories, games, as well as tools for practical communication (on topics such as food, sleeping and nappy changing, for example).

After piloting the course in two regions in July 2011, 83% of the 123 families who took part reported that they felt confident communicating with their deaf child, compared to 37% prior to the course. At the end of this month, the charity will submit a proposal that the DfE rolls out the course to all nine regions in the UK. The charity have launched a petition for fair access to the courses which now has over 2000 signatures.

At a time of deep cuts to services everywhere, it is hard to gain extra funding – but nothing could be more important than a deaf child being able to start to build their communication and understanding skills as early as possible. As the video of Ava shows, deaf children are capable of everything a hearing child is capable of, if they are just given the chance.

Deaf not being heard, activists tell MPs

APPROXIMATELY 93 percent of deaf South Africans are out of work writes Deon de Lange for Cape Argos (18/01/12).

This came to light yesterday during a parliamentary hearing into the proposed SA Languages Bill. The bill aims to give effect to language rights provided for in the constitution, as according to the National Institute for the Deaf (NID), Deaf people suffer three times the average unemployment rate.

While the constitution requires the government to “promote and create conditions for the development and use” of sign language – as with the Khoi, Nama and San languages – it stops short of recognising it as an official language.

This was despite the fact that users of sign language constituted the fifth-largest language group in SA, surpassing the number of people who spoke official languages such as Ndebele, Venda and Tsonga, according to NID director Ernest Kleinschmidt.

NID executive director Deon de Villiers said on the sidelines of the discussion that there were about 4 million hearing-impaired South Africans, of whom about 1.5 million were “profoundly deaf”.

He complained that last year’s census failed to collect information on the number of deaf people, hampering efforts to improve policies which affect the deaf and hearing-impaired community.

De Villiers said 47 schools for deaf children produced just 17 matriculants last year because most of them could accommodate only primary school pupils. This left deaf and hearing-impaired pupils with the daunting prospect of entering regular high schools which could not meet their needs.

De Villiers said many deaf pupils simply “gave up”, falling out of the education system long before Grade 12.

Kleinschmidt made an impassioned plea for “the oldest language in the world” to be granted its rightful place among the country’s many languages, pointing out that sign language was “not a luxury for those who use it”.

Worlingham couple raise over £100,000 for Norfolk and Suffolk charities

A Waveney couple who have dedicated years of their lives to raising money for Norfolk and Suffolk charities are celebrating passing the £100,000 barrier writes Richard Wood for EDP24 (20/01/12).

Michael and Sylvia Porter, of Ellough Road, Worlingham, have spent many hours sorting through countless numbers of postcards as part of an effort to help deaf children across Norfolk. But they have also helped many more charities across the Waveney region with dog shows, talks, videos and books raising money for good causes since 1973.
And at the end of 2011 their annual count-up revealed that they have now raised a total of £101,531.87.

The couple are best known for selling postcards for the Norfolk Deaf Children’s Society. Every week Mrs Porter, 70, spends hours sorting through postcards that are donated at the offices of the EDP, in Norwich, and Radio Norfolk, or dropped off at their house. The postcards are divided into a number of categories, with particular ones kept aside for customers, while others taken to fairs where collectors buy them.
Mrs Porter inherited her father’s sister’s postcard collection in 1973, but the interest was only turned into a fundraising idea when the couple were inspired in 1981 by a friend’s deaf daughter.

They heard about the Norfolk Deaf Children’s Society’s work and started raising money for them by selling donated postcards. They made their first donation of £1.15 in 1981.
Decades later, they have helped to raise over £83,000 for the charity, and their efforts have been recognised with thank-you cards as well as an invitation to the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace in 2004 and being awarded the Robert Ellwood Memorial Plate from Beccles Town Council.

Mr Porter, 74, said: “We don’t think about it, we’re just happy to be able to help people. We don’t set a target, we never have. We take life as it comes and do what we can while we can.”

Before this, the couple had already held other fundraising events after being inspired to help others when Mrs Porter’s father was ill. As keen members of the Norfolk and Norwich Canine Society they decided to hold a charity dog show in Beccles, and it proved so popular they continued from 1973 to 1984, raising money for a variety of charities including All Hallows Hospital in Ditchingham, the Friends of Beccles Hospital and the St John Ambulance.

Although they stopped to concentrate on the postcards, they have raised money for many other charities with talks about their postcards and books on Beccles and Bungay. Among the charities to benefit recently are Beccles May Centre, Waveney Stardust, Waveney Enterprise Workshop, Beccles Sea Cadets, Waveney Centre and Beccles Royal British Legion Welfare Fund.

Deaf pupils give AMs an insight into the need for better acoustics

ASSEMBLY MEMBERS were given an insight into the challenges facing deaf children in a classroom with poor acoustics writes Gareth Evans for Wales Online (19/1/12).
Two pupils from Cardiff visited the Senedd on Tuesday to talk about how noisy, echoing rooms make it difficult for youngsters with hearing loss to learn.
Politicians were played audio simulations showing what it can sound like for a deaf child in a classroom with substandard acoustics.
It follows a campaign by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) Cymru to make schools more accessible to children with hearing loss.

The charity has so far enlisted the support of 29 AMs who have signed a “New Year’s resolution” to improve provision in new school, college and nursery buildings. It is hoping to encourage more members to sign up.

Pupil Daniyaal Munir, 15, said: “I struggle to hear well and can’t concentrate in noisy and echoing classrooms. I can concentrate better when there is no background noise, and it is a lot easier to hear my teachers and friends.” 
“Deaf children are not stupid,” said Kurtis Olding, 15, “they just don’t hear so well and if they are given the right support, then they could get more qualifications and better jobs in turn.”

Research published by NDCS Cymru reveals that acoustic regulations in new school buildings are often ignored, leaving children across Wales struggling to learn in noisy and echoing classrooms. Less than a third of schools built in Wales between 2003 and 2010 received any input from an acoustic expert and just 11% of schools built were tested to check they met acoustic standards.

In last week’s Education Questions, AM for Vale of Clwyd Ann Jones asked what the Welsh Government were doing to ensure schools have the appropriate acoustics for children with hearing impairments. She welcomed a requirement to incorporate provision into all 21st Century School projects and asked Education Minister Leighton Andrews whether he had plans to roll-out acoustics into nurseries and colleges.

Responding, Mr Andrews said: “Obviously, we took the step of incorporating guidance on this into the 21st Century Schools programme and that work continues. We will continue to provide support for that programme and we will also look at the implications of that for buildings in other parts of the education sector.”

Russell George, Tory AM for Montgomeryshire, said the Welsh Government should use its newly-acquired extra powers to ensure building regulations were robust. “We should not allow poor acoustics in the classroom to be a barrier preventing deaf pupils from achieving their potential," he said.

Mr Andrews said capital cuts imposed by the Westminster Government were restricting what the Welsh administration could do. He added: “I think that we provide significant guidance to local authorities to undertake this [acoustics] programme. Clearly, we do not have all the capital that we require to provide local authorities with the support that they need to undertake this programme on a rigorous basis, but at the end of the day we are doing what we can from our resources.”

Jayne Dulson, director of NDCS Cymru, said she was delighted so many AMs had signed up to support their campaign.

Norwich Theatre Royal praised for its signed performances

A Norwich arts venue has been praised for its signed and captioned performances that give deaf people the opportunity to enjoy a range of top theatre shows in Norwich writes Emma Knights for Norwich Evening News (20/01/12).

Legally Blonde, Swallows and Amazons, and Oliver! are among shows coming to Norwich Theatre Royal this year which will have performances with translations by British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters. Other shows will have captioned performances, where the words of the show’s scripts are displayed on a screen.

Sue Moore, from Deaf Connexions which is based in Norwich, has praised the theatre’s efforts to open up theatre opportunities to people with hearing loss.
She said: “The signed performances give deaf people equal access to the theatre which is brilliant. I know lots of people have really enjoyed the shows, and some people particularly look forward to watching specific interpreters.” She said the number of deaf people watching shows at the theatre was increasing, and this year’s line-up of signed shows was really exciting.

Freelance BSL interpreter Andy Higgins, who last did a signed performance of Avenue Q at the Theatre Royal and will be returning to sign Oliver! in August, explained the interpreter’s role was not always about literal script translations, but also about conveying the subtext and overall meanings. He said interpreters often added an element of characterisation to differentiate between the characters and to direct the audience to watch the actors during visual moments such as slapstick in pantomime. He said: “It is a privilege to interpret for the shows. It is about equality for deaf people, and it really does raise awareness.”

The theatre’s recent pantomime Sleeping Beauty included a sequence where the cast did a signed Abba medley.

Signed performances at the theatre include: Legally Blonde (March 2), Swallows and Amazons (March 17), Propeller (May 12), and Oliver! (August 3). Captioned performances include: English Touring Opera’s Eugene Onegin (April 11), Birds of a Feather (June 14) and Oliver! (July 18).

Headsets to amplify sound and a necklace sound enhancer which taps into the T setting on hearing aids are also available.

For more details and to book tickets visit www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk or call 01603 630000. For details of other signed performances in Norfolk and across the country visit www.bsltickets.co.uk

Blind and deaf runner to get a helping hand

A DEAF and blind woman is training for the London Marathon tied to a friend who will be her guide for the 26 miles reports EDF24 (10/01/12).

Caroline Boulding, 40, from Dartford, faces a tougher challenge than most having been born deaf and gradually losing her sight since she was 26.

On Sunday, April 25 she is due to take part in her first marathon, guided by her work colleague friend Kerry Southwick, from Swanley.

The couple, who work at Acacia Fitness Centre in Dartford, will raise money for the deaf and blind charity Sense.

Caroline Boulding said: "I'm really pleased to be braving the London Marathon for Sense as it offers a vital lifeline to deaf and blind people, offering them support and skills to live as independently as possible. I would like to thank all of my friends who have sponsored me for my marathon run so far and I am still appealing for sponsorship for my run so please dig deep and support me today."

With very limited vision she can see only in a restricted form of tunnel vision. She suffers from a condition called Usher type 2 syndrome, meaning people are often born without hearing and gradually begin to lose their sight.

Acting as her eyes and ears during the race, her guide revealed the pair have been become quite an eye-catching sight in during training.

A spokesperson for Sense said: "They have both been training hard around Dartford and are getting a lot of attention. Kerry tells us they are turning a lot of heads and getting a lot of support during their training around Central Park."

Click here to sponsor them or to find out more about the charity visit Sense.

Deaf and blind man Roger Mulholland in Duke award

A man who is deaf and blind was among 109 young people in Devon who have been awarded Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards reports the BBC News (07/01/12).

Roger Mulholland, 24, from Tiverton, walked 24 miles of coastal path in Pembrokeshire, Wales, over two days.

The award offers people aged 14 to 25 the chance to serve others and acquire new skills and takes an average of two years to achieve.

Mr Mulholland was among 50 people who received their awards at County Hall in Exeter on Saturday.

His walk raised money for the charity Sense, which made him the Deafblind Person of the Year in 2011.

He also volunteers as a waiter at Cafe 55, Sense's cafe in Exeter, which is staffed by volunteers who are deaf and blind.

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards are run in Devon by the county council, along with 70 schools, colleges and voluntary organisations.

Each participant has to cover five different areas of achievement, a volunteering project, skills, physical recreation, expedition and residential experience.

Coffee shop: a new project for the deaf is launched

In Hawaii, there is a new coffee project which has many benefits for the local community reports World Coffee News (10/01/12).

As we all know, the world has fallen in love with coffee and the DiB Coffees has a range of gourmet coffees which will give the visitors a good cuppa when they pop in for a drink.
But this coffee house is different from regular coffee houses. What is this difference? The DiB (Deaf in Business) Coffees outlet is run by those who are hard of hearing. The project is designed to empower this section of society and allow them to develop the business. This will encourage many different skills – it will build confidence in those who run the business successfully, as well as teaching many business skills in the process. The coffee house is intended to empower the deaf staff and also to allow them independence.

The coffee shop was launched in Damansara Perdana. As well as selling gourmet coffee, the shop also has a selection of cakes and pastries. The project is owned by Allen Teh, who has more than 25 years’ experience in working with the deaf. He has been quoted as stating that the new coffee house, if successful, is intended to be a platform for more DiB outlets.

Once the initial project has a series of well-trained and experienced coffee owners, they can work on spreading their skills to a wider consumer base in other coffee shops.

Partially deaf BBC dancer gets breakthrough underwater hearing aid

A partially deaf dancer is one of the first in the UK to wear a new waterproof hearing aid reports the Sutton Guardian (10/01/12).

Kirsty Swain, 30, from Hackbridge, finished fourth in the BBC talent show, So You Think You Can Dance, this summer.

She has now been unveiled as one of the first people in the UK to wear the Siemens waterproof and shock resistant hearing instrument, Aquaris.

The hearing instrument has opened up a whole new world to the jazz dancer who has spoken out against the stigma associated with hearing loss.

As a child she was excluded and embarrassed to wear her hearing aids and her active lifestyle as a dancer, teacher and performer has posed a number of issues.
Unable to find a hearing aid that could withstand the sweat and rigours of dancing, she preferred to dance without.

As a result, her dancing career has been shaped by the struggle to hear rhythm and she has learnt to dance by music vibrations and copying others to pick up routines.

She said: “I have had trouble in the past with hearing instruments getting sweaty, slipping and being uncomfortable when exercising, but with the Aquaris I can run along hearing everything, without the slightest problem. “I’ve been swimming with it and couldn’t believe how amazing it was. I could hear people standing beside the pool chatting as I swam underwater, more than most people, which made me feel quite special.

“Aquaris is absolutely brilliant. It adjusts to any situation I am in whether it’s the bar, the studio, on stage or watching TV on the couch. I can also swim, dance, run and jump in the shower without thinking. When I’m in the studio, I am able to hear the music and teacher’s voice clearer than ever before.”

She was also fitted with a miniTek, which uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly communicate sound between her Aquaris hearing instrument and television, mobile phone and MP3 player.

Deaf football player sent off after missing whistle

A DEAF footballer ended up being sent off in a Lothians cup tie because he kept playing after the referee had blown his whistle reports The Scotsman (05/01/12).

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.

The 24-year-old’s father told the Evening News he is furious at the decisions taken by referee Gavin Duncan during the Scottish Junior Cup third-round replay at Albyn Park in Broxburn.

He said the referee was told the Kilsyth player – who also plays for both the Great Britain and Scottish deaf football teams – was deaf before the first game and should have been aware of the issue.

Mr Dolan, 64, said: “The whistle went and Philip carried on. The linesman put the flag up but he didn’t see it and he kept going and scored the goal but he was offside.

“He is profoundly deaf and usually plays further back in right midfield, where he can see what’s going on but on this occasion he was brought on as a sub and was playing up front for the centre forward.

“Before he got his first yellow card, it was explained to the ref why he hadn’t stopped playing but the ref obviously didn’t care and gave him it anyway. Everybody was raging.”

Mr Dolan, who lives in Chryston, said PJ had been left “upset” by the incident. He added: “He’s a good player but would be an even better player if he wasn’t deaf. All he loves in life is football. I was upset by what happened at that game and so was he.

“He will be suspended now for about two games so that’s making him worse.”

A whistle is rarely used in games between all-deaf teams, with referees using a bright flag.Mr Dolan said the Kilsyth manager, Eric Sinclair, always explained to referees that PJ was deaf. Mr Sinclair told Mr Duncan – who is understood to be part of the SFA Referees Edinburgh and District – about PJ during the original tie four weeks ago, but did not mention it again before the game on Hogmanay, which Kilsyth won 2-0, as he thought he would remember. It is not known whether the club will appeal the decision but the SFA declined to comment. Referree Mr Duncan could not be contacted for comment.

Canadian deaf fear loss of video relay service

A deaf woman is campaigning in Canada to prevent closure of  a video relay service reports Shaheed Devji for CTV News (08/01/12).

For the last year and a half, Lisa Anderson-Kellett has been able to speak to her mother over the phone by sitting in front of a camera and communicating in sign language with an interpreter. The interpreter then verbalizes what she is saying to her mother, and also signs back to Anderson-Kellett what her loved one is saying.

"I could visualize her emotion, her excitement and facial expression through the interpretation, and she then also received that energy from me," Anderson-Kellett told CTV News with the help of an interpreter.

The U.S. has been using a similar system for about a decade, but Canada is still in a trial run commissioned by the CRTC that ends Jan. 15. The CRTC will then study the impact of the video relay system, or VRS, and decide within a year whether if should continue.

Anderson-Kellett is very concerned about the service ending and being forced to use a text-based system for making phone calls.

"To go back would be difficult; it's just not as easy," she said. "Even for the hearing person."

Ryan Ollis, who is also hearing impaired, fears he will lose autonomy after the testing phase ends next week.

"I think if VRS stops, then I'll be back to the old ways of depending a lot on hearing people for communicating," he said. "Having VRS makes me independent, and I much prefer that."

Anderson-Kellett says being able to speak to someone through sign language and face-to-face enhances her ability to have a conversation because she isn't forced to rely on other people.

"I consider it a basic right for equal access; a human rights issue for in terms of equality," she said. 

New films released to help deaf people in area

A NEW series of short films have been produced to break down communication barriers and improve access to information about mental health services for deaf people reports the Doncaster Free Press (08/01/12).

The Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) South Yorkshire has made four short films for deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users.

Presented using sign language and with subtitles, the films provide mental health information for professionals, service users and carers.

They also feature information about the Care Programme Approach (CPA) and how to access mental health services.

THe films are available to view via a link on the RDaSH website, and are also in DVD format from the RDaSH service for deaf people with mental health needs.

RDaSH specialist mental health lead for the deaf Rebecca Walls said: ”The average reading age of a deaf person is nine.

“This is because BSL is different linguistically and structurally to English.

“BSL is not a written language so English is a second language to BSL users.

“This may provide a barrier to services, as the majority of information and communication is via written means.”

Fundraisers and four-legged friends get ‘waddling’

A CHRISTMAS “waddle” has raised more than £200 for charity reports the Spalding Guardian, Linconshire Free Press (04/01/12).


Organised by June Spouncer, who is a fundraiser for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, the two-mile walk at Frampton, attracted more than 100 people and their dogs.

It raised £220, which will be split between Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and Macmillan Cancer Support.

June said: “It was the first time that we have done this and it was fantastic.

“The support we got was brilliant and we are delighted with the amount of money raised.

“People came from all over South Holland with their dogs which ranged from a little pug to a huge Irish wolfhound.”

School For The Deaf records 100% fail rate

In their first Junior Certificate examinations, the School for the Deaf High School recorded a 100 per cent fail rate writes SIBONGILE SUKATI for the Times of Swaziland (04/01/12).


Their motto is ‘be the best you can be,’ however due to a some challenges the school faced, it struggled to perform to its best.

Interestingly in the Swaziland Primary Certificate the School for The Deaf Primary School attained a 100 per cent pass rate.

Fourteen pupils sat for the JC examination but none passed yet in the primary certificate six had sat for the exams with one of them getting a first while two got second class passes and three managed to get third class passes.

Explaining the outcome of the results, Director of Education Dr Sibongile Mntshali-Dlamini said there was still a lot of work to be done in order for the school to achieve better results.

"Some of the teachers we have are not properly trained in the Sign Language that the pupils use and, in some instances, you find that they only have one translator so we have a challenge there," said Dlamini.

She said they further had a lot of work to do with the Examinations Council of Swaziland in order to structure the exams in a manner that was more suitable.

"However, we are not too worried. This was the first year in which we had introduced the exams at the high school and we shall have to conduct more training and engage better-qualified teachers in order for the school to perform better," said Dlamini.

There was no immediate comment from the principal of the school Zodwa Thwala as she was reportedly not at the school yesterday and her phone rang unanswered for the better part of the day. The school is situated at Matsetsa.

Deaf couple launch pizza place in the Mission

There's a full house during the dinner rush at Mozzeria, a month-old Italian restaurant and pizzeria writes Paolo Lucchesi for the San Francisco Chronical (04/01/12). 

Every one of the 45 or so seats is full. There's a slight hint of smoke in the air, thanks to the huge wood-fired oven in the middle of the narrow dining room. Music is playing, but the din is noticeably muted.

A waitress carrying two full plates meanders through the crowd, stopping short of a standing patron blocking her path. With both hands full, she can't tap him on the shoulder. And before sidestepping and successfully swiveling by, she can't ask him to move, because the diner is deaf. And so is she.

Mozzeria may be the first restaurant run by a deaf couple in a major city. The owners, the husband-and-wife pair of Melody and Russell Stein, were both born deaf. Their children, 10-year-old Rylan and 12-year-old Taysia, can hear and are frequent presences in the restaurant. Russell Stein's mother helps out, too.

Yet Mozzeria is more than an endearing family effort. It's already become a beacon for the Bay Area's close-knit deaf community.

Melody Stein was born in Hong Kong and moved to Fremont at age 6. She attended Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University, where she met her future husband. He was from a similar big-city background, the pizza mecca that is New York.

After spending nearly a decade in South Dakota, working for a nonprofit organization serving deaf people, they decided it was time for a change. (Though one of their innovations would come in handy in their second careers.) When they moved to San Francisco, a restaurant wasn't in the plans. But that quickly changed.

"I couldn't see myself working at (nonprofit organizations) for the next 10 years, and traveling wasn't good for my family," Melody Stein said in an interview conducted by typing side by side on laptops. Instead, she decided to take after her parents, who are in the restaurant business. "Since I was a kid, I always wanted to run a restaurant," she said.

For training, she attended hospitality school, and went on a gastronomic tour of Italy. Both Steins are self-trained in the kitchen.

After two years of planning, fundraising, real estate bidding wars and the usual construction adventures, Mozzeria opened on Dec. 9, on 16th Street near Guerrero.

Opening a restaurant is never easy for anyone, but the current tech age made the bureaucratic process easier for the Steins, with tools like e-mail and iPhones. Melody Stein has chronicled the entire process, from the chimney installation to the health inspection, on her blog at mozzeria.com.

Technology is key to relating to customers, too. For deaf patrons who call the restaurant for takeout, Mozzeria uses a video relay service, a groundbreaking system that Russell Stein helped develop in his South Dakota career. It features an American Sign Language interpreter relaying a conversation between the two callers.

But for Melody, the biggest surprise of the opening process - aside from the difficulty of getting a small-business loan - was getting feedback from the hearing customers, some of whom have complained on Yelp about the lighting and the music. The Steins say the early reviews have been helpful in figuring out what people want.

The Mozzeria staff consists of eight rotating servers. All are fluent in ASL, and three are deaf. In the kitchen, two dishwashers are deaf, and the third knows ASL.

Most cooks can hear, and the ones who don't know sign language use creative ways of communicating, often jotting quick notes on a dry-erase board in the back kitchen.

There haven't been any major hiccups so far.

"Communication is not a problem, period," said line cook Franklin Grammar, who believes the universal language of restaurant kitchens trumps any potential hurdles. "With the dishwashers, you can look into each other's eyes and know."

The attitude extends to the entire restaurant. The goal is simply to be a great restaurant that all people - hearing and deaf - can enjoy.

"I want Mozzeria to be known for its pizzas and other Italian food, not for deafness," said Melody Stein, noting that they've already established regulars of all sorts.

Still, it's hard to ignore that, on many nights, the clientele is predominantly deaf.

"We are always the only deaf people in restaurants, always," Russell Stein said. "Now it's sometimes the reverse."

Yet the feeling at Mozzeria seems primarily one of locals enjoying a communal setting.

"It's simple cooking, which I love," Grammar said. "There's an aspect of family here. It's a lot bigger than any individuals."

Mozzeria, 3228 16th St. (near Guerrero Street), San Francisco; (415) 489-0963. mozzeria.com. Dinner Tuesday-Sunday; brunch Saturday-Sunday.

Anne Diamond: Thirty years of wearing an earpiece for television has made me deaf

She’s one of Britain’s best-known television presenters, but Anne Diamond has admitted that using earpieces for nearly 30 years has left her deaf in one ear writes Ted Thornhill for the Daily Mail (03/01/12).

She made the startling revelation on a video she recorded for the website of charity Action On Hearing Loss.

She describes how having her ‘talkback’ devices – through which directors communicate with hosts – turned up too loudly have taken their toll on her hearing.

The 57-year-old, who rose to fame in the 1980s presenting Good Morning Britain for TV-am, said: ‘I have some form of hearing loss right now, after 25, nearly 30 years of wearing a television earpiece. It’s what we call a talkback and I’ve always had it rather too loud.

‘While I don’t need to wear a hearing aid right now, I have been warned that I probably will need one quite soon.’

She explains that around four million people in the UK have some form of hearing loss and would benefit from a hearing aid – but don’t do anything about it.

She said: ‘I can’t possibly imagine not being able to do the job I love, or even the simple everyday things like sitting round a family table and enjoying a meal and being able to listen to the conversation around me.’ Ms Diamond explained that the charity can be a huge help to those suffering from deafness.

She added: ‘They provide a simple, free hearing check that you can do in your own home, explain what to expect from your doctor, and make the whole world of hearing aids so much simpler.’

Ms Diamond was recently embroiled in a row with comedienne Dawn French, who she accused of having gastric band surgery to lose weight.

Diamond herself had the procedure in 2006 and speculated that French's 'astonishing transformation' could have been the result of undergoing the operation.

However, French simply told Diamond to 'shut up'.

There are also video messages on the charity’s site from One Foot In The Grave stars Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie, EastEnders' Rita Simons and Genevieve Barr, an actress who was born deaf. 

Ms Crosbie uses two hearing aids and said: ‘I know what it’s like to go slowly deaf.’

She emphasises that Action On Hearing Loss is working hard to remove the stigma attached to the wearing of hearing aids.