Settlement Agreed for US Deaf patients

A federal judge in ST. LOUIS, USA has approved settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 1,000 deaf Missourians over mental health services for the deaf reports BND.com (11/05/12).

U.S. District Judge Matt Whitworth approved the settlement Thursday in Jefferson City in a suit filed by the Missouri Association of the Deaf and 13 named plaintiffs. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say about 20 percent of deaf persons in need of mental health services are children.

The suit accused the state of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide adequate mental health care for the deaf. Among many provisions, the settlement requires greater availability of sign language interpreters and development of outpatient and inpatient centers staffed with clinicians and case managers trained in aiding the deaf.

Deaf users campaign for video relay service

After a decade of having their needs neglected by telecoms providers, leaders of the UK's deaf community have written an open letter published in today's Times newspaper writes Jack Schofield for ZEDNET (11/05/12). 


They are campaigning for a universally-accessible video relay service of the sort that the Americans have operated successfully for the past 10 years. This would enable British Sign Language users to make and receive calls at any time, with no pre-booking, and at no additional cost over a normal phone contract.


The revised EU Electronic Communications Framework, rubber stamped by UK Government, sets out a legal requirement to ensure that disabled end-users enjoy access to telecommunications that are functionally equivalent to those enjoyed by other end-users. 


Unfortunately, the UK government appears to have done nothing substantial to meet this requirement for deaf users, simply handing off the problem to telecoms suppliers such as BT, O2, Vodafone, Three, Talk Talk, Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere and BSkyB.


The deaf organisations say they talked to communications minister Ed Vaizey, and that in November, he "repeatedly called on the telecommunications industry to work with the deaf community to find solutions which meet their communications needs". 


In their letter to The Times, they tell the telecoms providers: "You have failed to meet with us in open forum in response to the Minister’s request and your silence has been deeply disappointing," and that "Positive action by the industry is long overdue. You are delaying the introduction of modern relay services, and exacerbating the isolation and disadvantage which is faced by deaf people who are denied equal access to telecommunications."


The UK does have an experimental video relay service (VRS) called MyFriend, but it requires pre-booking of calls. However, this is a pilot project run from the University of Bristol with the financial backing of the EU. It may well close this summer when the EU funding runs out, and it seems extremely unlikely that the UK government would, if asked, stump up the trivial amount of money required to establish as a permanent service. 


In parliament, Vaizey said, as an aside: "I have been struck by the lack of engagement from business and telecoms companies, which is unbelievably frustrating. In that respect, we would, for example, like to have video technology that enables deaf people to use sign language, and I have told all the telecoms operators, 'Please come to me with a cost-effective solution,' but they have not done that. Eventually, of course, I will have to regulate through Ofcom to make them do that, but it would be so much simpler if they came to me and did it." (17 Jan 2012 : Column 245WH)


The organisations backing the campaign include the UK Council on Deafness, TAG (Telecommunications Action Group), the British Deaf Association, the National Deaf Children’s Society, Sense, the National Association of Deafened People, and the Royal Association for Deaf People, as well as companies and individuals.


This week is Deaf Awareness Week in the UK, and it continues until Sunday, 13 May.

Deaf Awareness Week 7-12 May

During Deaf Awareness Week (May 7-13) Action on Hearing Loss are highlighting the barriers facing patients who are deaf and calling on local health services to commission interpreting services that use only appropriately qualified sign language interpreters reports The Belfast Telegraph (07/05/12).
New research shows that 41% of surveyed people who use British Sign Language (BSL) as their first language have left a health appointment feeling confused about their medical condition, because the interpretation was not of an adequate standard.
A total of 68% said they have asked for an interpreter to be booked for a GP appointment, but did not get one.
People who are deaf have the legal right to experience the same level of service as other patients in the UK.
So, to avoid unnecessary confusion, anxiety or embarrassment, it is vital that they can access communication support best-suited to their needs.
To sign our petition calling for local health services to use only interpreters registered with the National Registers of Communications Professionals (NRCP), which shows that they meet the required standard for communicating essential medical information, please click here.

Deaf Action will be taking an information stall around Edinburgh and the Lothians to mark Deaf Awareness Week, which starts on Monday reports The Scotsman (04/05/12).

It will be at Gala Bingo, Meadowbank, on Thursday, and at the Livingston, Musselburgh and Danderhall libraries on Friday.

Staff will be handing out information and answering questions about services and hearing aids or equipment.

There will also be a British Sign Language taster session at the charity’s offices in Albany Street on Wednesday afternoon.

For more information visit www.deafaction.org

The East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre has a programme of events planned for this week to raise awareness of the hidden disability that is deafness reports The Sussex Express (05/05/12)

On Friday afternoon, there will be a chance to relax and listen to some poetry, a short story or perhaps an extract from a novel. A member of the Read Aloud scheme, run by the library service, will be visiting the Resource Centre to entertain everyone. A loop system will be used for the benefit of hearing aid wearers with this facility. All are welcome. The session starts at 2.30pm and should last for an hour.

For any further information contact Teresa Davis, 8 St Leonard’s Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3UH. Tel: 01323 722505 or email: teresa@eshrc.org.uk

Deaf Embassy dream

This is the vision for an ‘embassy’ to the world’s deaf community being planned by a Preston charity reports the Lancashire Evening Post (24/04/12).

Deafway is proposing to build the centre at its base on Brockholes Brow in Fishwick which it believes will attract members of the deaf community from across the world.

It will house art galleries and a theatre to show the work of deaf people and provide facilities for people attending courses at the centre. Chief executive David Hynes said the striking design of the proposed building was “a statement of intent” by the charity.

He said: “If you look at any other group in the world which has its own language and its own culture, it has a country it is based in and within other countries there are embassies to promote that culture and language.

“The deaf community globally has as rich a culture and language as any other community and yet it has nowhere to positively promote that, it needs an embassy as a place to do that. What we are planning here is a building which deaf people from across the world will come to and be proud of to celebrate their culture.”

Plans, drawn up by Fulwood-based architects MCK Associates, will be submitted as a formal planning application to Preston Council in the coming weeks.

The charity has appointed Philippa Merricks as an ‘animateur’ for the project to develop projects to promote deaf culture from the centre. It is hosting a number of events at the centre.

Deafway will hold a public exhibition at Brockholes Brow between 1pm and 6pm next Thursday.

Deaf-blind speed skater to represent Canada

Ottawa athlete Kevin Frost almost seems more concerned with raising awareness of impaired speed skating than winning gold medals reports Metro Canada (02/05/12).

The deaf-blind speed skater who suffers from Usher Syndrome will represent Canada at the Impaired Skating Championship in Scotland on May 12 and hopes to help raise awareness about getting the sport recognized as an official Paralympic sport.

More countries need to practise impaired skating before the International Paralympic Committee will consider adopting it. “If I can get another 10 people who come from different countries, that’s a gold medal to me.”

He has been training for seven years, but it hasn’t been easy. He describes his vision as looking through two plastic straws and sound has to hit 90 decibels in order for him to hear it. Yet that doesn’t stop him from training and enjoying other sports.

“At the beginning it was very difficult, but with anything in life, when you do 1,000 laps you get a hang of things,” said Frost in the middle of a training session at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orleans.

The race in Scotland is a key step in his mission to get countries, including Canada, on board to raise awareness about impaired skating, attract new skaters, and get it sanctioned as a sport in the Paralympics.

To help fund his accommodations in Scotland, Toppers Pizza at 5497 Jeanne D’Arc Boulevard in Orleans is throwing a fundraiser Wednesday and will donate $4 for every large pizza sold.

Gestures speak volumes

Silence was beckoning up and down the halls of a Marlborough primary school yesterday as pupils were learning to communicate without saying a word writes Ian Allen for the Marlborough Express via Stuff.co.nz (02/05/12).

Year 5 and 6 children at Rapaura School had a special class with Deaf Aotearoa tutor Hilary Foister and learned to sign their names and express their feelings.

The visit was part of New Zealand Sign Language Week, which ends on Sunday.

Teacher Hayden Van Lent said the lesson was to teach pupils awareness and an appreciation of what deaf and partially deaf people go through daily.

No verbal communication was allowed during the class from the outset, he said.

"From the very beginning, the tutor started to use sign language and the children had to respond. They really enjoyed it."

Non-verbal communication was an important part of teaching, he said.

"It goes on in the classroom anyway, particularly with behaviour management. Maybe it's a click of the fingers or a look, they are just as effective."

Patrick Neal, 9, said having a totally quiet classroom was different.

He planned to show his new language skills to his older brother after school.

Classmate Brayden Carter, 9, said his favourite sign was for "toy". He might use it on his parents.

New Zealand Sign Language Week is run by Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand and is designed to celebrate it as an official language as well as raise awareness about the deaf community.

Deaf Aotearoa acting chief executive Tony Blackett said the week was a great time for hearing New Zealanders to think about how hard it was for deaf people to do things often done instinctively, such as describing an ailment, talking to a teacher about their child's progress or asking for something at a shop.

"If more hearing New Zealanders learnt a couple of simple signs, this would greatly help to break down communication barriers. It's a fun language to learn," he said.

Through greater use of sign language and easier access to qualified interpreters and other resources, life for deaf people would be less restrictive and they could be equal members of society, Mr Blackett said.

"Every day, deaf New Zealanders are prevented from doing something that hearing New Zealanders take for granted, because of restrictions in funding or the availability of resources, like interpreters.

"It's hard work to be continually fighting for your rights."

Mayfesto: Moving loud and clear

THE deaf community has an eloquent spokesman at this year’s political theatre festival, Mayfesto, writes Mark Fisher for the Scotsman (01/05/12).

Ramesh Meyyappan is telling me about his early childhood in a village near Chennai in southern India. He can’t tell me the name because it is a very long word. He gestures with his hand to indicate how long. For most people, length would not be an obstacle, but Meyyappan has never heard the word spoken out loud and cannot spell it. He is deaf and so the place he lived until the age of five looks to him like little more than a long series of letters.

Today, he’s talking to me through an interpreter, but it’s not the only way he communicates. The actor, now based in Glasgow, is a vibrant presence on stage and equally animated off. He talks not only with sign language but with a vivid sequence of facial expressions, as if he’s not just telling his stories but acting them out.

It’s consistent with the imagistic storytelling he brings to Snails and Ketchup, a one-man show based on Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees, revived for Mayfesto at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre. He describes it as neither mime nor dance, but as visual storytelling for everyone. “In my work, it’s not deaf or hearing, it’s just an audience that enjoys theatre. It’s about a visual vocabulary not a sign-language vocabulary.”

I ask if it’s a cliché to say people who are deprived of one sense often compensate by developing one of their remaining senses. In his own case, he has no way of knowing the reason, but he certainly has a heightened awareness of sight.

“I have always thought visually,” he says. “I think visually and I want to communicate visually. Some folk say I’ve got a good eye for detail. I can feel little bits of vibrations and sense a bit of what’s behind, but I’ve got to work harder with my eyes to see everything, and I work on what I can see.”

Given the choice, Meyyappan would rather be talking about art than disability. He doesn’t want to be defined by his deafness or pigeonholed into a special performance category. All the same, Snails and Ketchup has been programmed as part of Mayfesto, a festival of political theatre and he admits there’s a political dimension to what he does. It’s not in the story in itself – it’s about a boy who escapes his dysfunctional family by taking to the trees – but in the very fact of having a deaf performer on stage.

“I don’t necessarily see Snails and Ketchup as being political, but I know all artists have a sense of having a voice and so have something political to say.

“I’m interested in telling a personal story, something that’s accessible and something where there’s an audience of both deaf and hearing, because that doesn’t always happen. Deaf and hearing are two insular worlds and there are not often times for them to merge. From my point of view, I’m not saying anything political, but the work is involved in bringing communities together.”

Perhaps the greatest political message is embodied by Meyyappan himself, living proof of the power of positive thinking. Any actor needs extra reserves of confidence to survive in such a competitive business, but doing that while tackling the prejudice of the hearing world is doubly impressive.

Taking inspiration from his forward-thinking mother, who moved her three children (two of them deaf) to Singapore for better opportunities, Meyyappan exudes optimism. “I’ve got to be very positive,” he says. “There have been lots of obstacles in the way – personal life, work life – but if you become negative, you don’t get anywhere.”

Having no artistic background, his family assumed he would get a job in something like IT, but as a teenager, he was inspired by Hi! Theatre, a company dedicated to deaf performers, and he resolved to become an actor. After gaining experience on the stage in Singapore, both with Hi! and a hearing theatre company, he made his directorial debut with a visual version of Macbeth. Wanting a qualification, he left Singapore in 2000 to study for a degree in performing arts at the University of Liverpool, eventually moving to Glasgow with his Scottish wife.

He’s too modest to call himself a pioneer, but that’s how Meyyappan is regarded by deaf artists internationally. True to form, once he realised theatre for the deaf was less developed in Scotland than elsewhere in Europe, he set about trying to change things.

Encouraged by organisations such as Tramway, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, he is increasingly confident about the future.

“The Scottish deaf community are fairly insular and don’t quite grasp what’s going on in the arts within the international deaf community. They don’t have that knowledge, so they’re a little bit behind. I’m surprised, because the international deaf theatre community is very wide – they work with a lot of hearing companies and with deaf artists, and they look for ways to make it possible.

“Here in Scotland, there are great opportunities for crossover audiences because of the physical theatre stuff that’s going on and the openness of the theatre community.

“There’s a lot of excitement here in terms of what can be possible on stage. The deaf community haven’t engaged with that yet, but the hearing community in Scotland are definitely interested in being open and working with deaf and disabled artists, doing quality work that’s not patronising.”

• Snails and Ketchup is at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 1-2 May. Mayfesto runs until 19 May.