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.

NZ first Deaf MP welcomes decision to fund notetaker

Deaf MP Mojo Mathers is welcoming a decision to provide her with fully funded support in the House as a "significant step forward for the disability community in New Zealand" reports TVNZ (09/03/12). 

Speaker Lockwood Smith this morning announced he had directed Parliamentary Services, which funds support for all MPs to do their jobs, to provide the legal authority to fund electronic note-takers for Mathers.

"This support will be in addition to that to which she is already entitled, to ensure she may fulfil her role as a member of Parliament," Smith said.
 
"The cost of these services will be met from the Parliamentary Service's baseline and is additional to the funding provided to support all members."

The decision appears to be a victory for Mathers, who had previously claimed that Smith had asked her to find funding for note-takers out of her Green Party's existing allowances.

"This decision means that aspiring MPs with a disability or hearing impairment will be able to run for parliament confident that they will get the support they need," Mathers said.

"It means that parties don't have to put people with disabilities low on their list or on unelectable positions for fear that they will have to cover the full cost of their participation."
 
The Greens obtained a legal opinion from Chapman Tripp which suggested the additional funding could be legally provided by a new allocation from Parliamentary Services, rather than taken out of existing allowances for individual members.

The advice was taken to a meeting of the Parliamentary Service Commission, which met on Wednesday night.

Smith said the commission had proposed a mechanism whereby the Speaker would have "the flexibility" to fund "the needs of any disabled or impaired members" out of the allocation he had to support all MPs.

"I am disappointed that we have not been able to find a solution that gave me that flexibility," he said.

After finding no resolution on Wednesday night, Smith had decided to find a way for Parliamentary Services to legally provide funding.

Smith said his office had been funding support for Mathers in the interim, but that could not continue. The new funding from Parliamentary Services would provide the permanent solution.

Separately, Smith said he wanted to develop a captioning service to make proceedings of the House more accessible to the hearing-impaired.

"I intend working with the Office of the Clerk to develop this service and will raise this with the Standing Orders Committee which deals with such matters," he said.

Online protest over 'deaf MP' decision

NZ Parliamentary Services refuses to fund support for deaf MP Mojo Mathers reports Voxy.co.nz (20/02/12).

A 22 year old Wellington student has upped the pressure on Speaker Lockwood Smith by triggering an online protest against his decision not to support Green MP Mojo Mathers.

In a new twist to the social media storm that has broken out over the issue, the Speaker has been inundated with more than 1000 emails from people signing a Change.org petition protesting his refusal to cough up the required funding.

VUW media design student Merrin Macleod started the petition late last week when she heard news reports that Dr Smith was refusing to have Parliamentary Services pay for the electronic notetaker that would allow Ms Mathers to participate in Parliamentary debates.

"It just seemed so bizarre that the woman who had made history by becoming the first profoundly deaf MP was being forced to use her own staffing hours to participate in Parliamentary proceedings in the same way every other MP can," said Merrin.

"It was such a clear case of discrimination, I felt I had to do something about it."

Merrin decided to start a petition on Change.org, recently described by The New York Times as "the go-to site for web uprisings". The petition calls on the Speaker and New Zealand Government to pay for live closed captioning of Parliamentary proceedings. Merrin said not only would this provide a solution for Ms Mathers, but it also would benefit the thousands of New Zealanders who are deaf or hearing impaired.

Merrin shared the petition via Facebook and Twitter and emailed a number of disability groups seeking their support. By 2pm Monday, support for the petition had grown to more than 1000.

Comments posted on the petition site indicated the depth of feeling about the issue.

"It is a very simple human rights issue of equity of participation," wrote one supporter.

"It is critical that democratic representation is available to all New Zealand citizens. People with disabilities have been too long marginalised from representation at this level," wrote another.

Merrin said she was also disappointed the Minister for Disability Issues, Tariana Turia, had refused to speak out on what was an important issue for the disability sector.

For live signature updates on Merrin's petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/speaker-of-the-house-of-representatives-pay-for-live-closed-captioning-of-question-time-debates-in-the-parliament

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”.

Deaf MP pushing for tech upgrade

Mojo Mathers takes her place in Parliament as New Zealand's first profoundly deaf MP writes Adam Bennett for New Zealand Herald (15/12/11).

She will be relying on the "far from ideal" solution of electronic note taking to follow proceedings but Ms Mathers hopes a more advanced "cap relay" service providing near real time captioning for Parliamentary TV, which would also allow the other 700,000 hearing impaired New Zealanders to follow Parliament better, will be provided before long.

Ms Mathers became profoundly deaf after being starved of oxygen at birth, but has led an active public life as a candidate for the Greens in three elections.

Named for the song Got My Mojo Working by bluesman Muddy Waters, Ms Mathers became the Greens' 14th MP after special votes were counted last weekend.

Since arriving at Parliament for caucus meetings and induction, she has been in discussions with the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk about arrangements to allow her to participate fully in the House.

"In the short term, what's immediately available is electronic note taking," she told the Herald yesterday. It will not be ideal because there's a bit of a time delay and it's not verbatim."

That initial arrangement means Ms Mathers will have a screen showing Parliament TV, enabling her to lip read when the House is being addressed by an MP sitting behind her. At the same time she will receive a text feed on her iPad provided by a notetaker watching proceedings on a video feed.

"My goal is ultimately captioning, because that then becomes a service for all 700,000 hearing-impaired New Zealanders."

She said that could be achieved via a "cap relay" service which is an advanced form of the telephone relay service now available to enable the hearing and speech-impaired to use the telephone.

The current service allows hearing impaired users to receive the other side of a telephone conversation via text, typed out by a relay assistant who listens in.

Ms Mathers said that in a cap relay service, the relay assistant would speak the response into voice recognition software to convert it into text, giving a faster service and therefore an easier conversation.

At present insufficient people have signed up for the service for it to be set up in New Zealand. But Ms Mathers hopes that will happen soon, and that the same technology can be used to provide real time captions on Parliament TV.

Ms Mathers said she had encountered few problems during public meetings when she campaigned for the Greens as other candidates were usually experienced in public speaking "therefore articulate in a way that's easy for me to lip read. At those meetings she was accompanied by a note taker who wrote down questions from the floor.

DR Congo election: Deaf anger at ban on texting

Deaf people in the Democratic Republic of Congo say a ban on texting threatens their lives because they no longer receive warnings of violence writes Thomas Hubert for the BBC News (15/12/11).

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.
'Disturbing'

"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.

I met him as a centre for deaf and mute people in Kinshasa that I had visited to guage reactions to the election.

A group of friends at the centre kept giving their SMS service another try, switching on their mobile phones, typing a message, hitting send... but transmission still failed.

Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu said he had been "forced to suspend all cellular [mobile phone] text messaging services to preserve public order" because they had been used to "incite ethnic hatred, insurrection and xenophobia" around the 28 November presidential and parliamentary elections.

The measure means deaf Congolese people have been condemned to indefinite isolation.

"Our members are scattered across the city, some are ill in hospital, others are dying. Without communication we don't even know about it," Mr Kisangala said.

"Few of them have been coming here, whereas with text messages, many used to come to church here on a Sunday."

As electoral violence spread across Kinshasa in the days following the election, deaf people could not hear gunfire and were dependent on family and friends to tell them when it was safe to go out.

"When shooting started in the city I wanted to contact those who were sleeping here and tell them not to go out," said Freddy Mata, the co-ordinator of a cultural centre for deaf people.

"I tried to contact them but messages didn't go through. Then I remembered text messaging had been suspended. It was very disturbing."

Essential tool

The community groups who support deaf people have been losing touch with each other.

The president of the Deaf People's Association in Kinshasa, Ngoy Mwanza, said he only heard about a deaf person being beaten up during electoral turmoil several days after the incident.

Mananga Biala, the head of Kinshasa's main educational centre for deaf people, said as only a few people had access to email, the deaf community currently had no alternative means of staying in touch.

According to the Kinshasa-based African Association for the Defence Human Rights (Asadho), the texting ban has affected all Congolese people.

It said text messages were an essential tool for communities to maintain security, as they could spread alerts cheaply, quickly and discreetly to a large number of people who may be in danger.

Other human rights groups have warned that the ban could cost human lives in isolated regions with poor mobile phone reception, as emergency services could only be alerted to rebel attacks via text message.

Mr Mwanza says deaf people are considering what they should do to get the ban lifted.

"Let's enforce democracy and free up SMS messaging," he said. "If it continues, we may stage a protest march."

NDF congratulates NZ's first profoundly deaf MP

NZ Green Party's Mojo Mathers becomes New Zealand's first profoundly deaf Member of Parliament reports Voxy.co.nz (12/12/11).

"It's a fantastic achievement," says Louise Carroll, CEO of The National Foundation for the Deaf. "We are looking forward to working with her over the next three years."

Ms Mathers is one of over 700,000 New Zealanders who are deaf or hearing impaired. She is a wonderful role model, a shining example of how people who are deaf or hearing impaired can be positive, active members of their communities" says Ms Carroll.

The National Foundation for the Deaf hopes that the appointment of Ms Mathers may help make parliamentary information and debates more accessible for people who are deaf and hearing impaired.

"New Zealand has the lowest amount of captioning on TV in the western world," says Ms Carroll. "This is a good opportunity for parliament to make some much needed changes."

Deaf people march to demand sign language in courts and TV news

Around 150 deaf people marched to the House of Representatives on Monday to push for the passage of two bills mandating the use of sign language in court proceedings and television news programs.

Members of the Philippine Deaf Resource Center (PDRC) arrived at the Batasang Pambansa compound at 4 p.m. and attended plenary sessions after marching from a mall on Commonwealth Avenue to call for the passage of House Bills 4121 and 4631.

A sign language interpreter was flashed on a large screen inside the plenary hall to accommodate the deaf visitors — a first in the lower chamber’s history.

“The 120,000 documented deaf… Filipinos will definitely benefit from such practices, making it possible for them to [comprehend] timely and relevant information," the group said in a letter to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

The group was also able to gather during the past months more than 100,ooo signatures endorsing their call for the enactment of these measures.

HB 4121, authored by Bayan Muna party-list Reps. Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares, requires local networks to use sign language insets in their news programs.

Use of interpreters in court

The PDRC lamented how major Metro Manila news programs do not use subtitles or sign language insets, despite provisions in Republic Act 7277 or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.

“Although some regional stations have started utilizing sign language insets with the help of non-government organizations, this practice is unfortunately not carried out by their mother stations," the group said.

HB 4631 meanwhile provides for the use of interpreters in all court proceedings and public hearings.

The group said the measure should be immediately passed to address the “high" incidence of criminal cases involving deaf persons.

Casiño said in a privileged speech that Congress should make sure that the rights of hearing-impaired Filipinos are protected.

“Deaf Filipinos need empowerment and charity… They merely demand equal realization of their rights," he said. — VS/HS, GMA News

Warning over disability living allowance shake-up

Ministers must "learn the lessons" of past welfare changes or risk their proposed shake-up of disability support leaving many in poverty, it is claimed.

Plans to replace the disability living allowance (DLA) could lead to 85% of claimants cutting back on basics like food and transport, a charity warned. The Papworth Trust said there was also anxiety over the reassessment process reports the BBC (31/08/11).

The government says DLA is complex, inconsistent and that changes are "overdue", but stresses cash payments will remain.

The coalition is planning to replace the allowance, introduced in 1992 to help disabled people cope with the extra costs they face in their daily lives, with a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment.

Disability Living Allowance is paid to 3.2 million people

Mobility concern

All 3.2 million people receiving DLA at the moment, both those in work and out, will be reassessed.

It is expected mobility allowances for those in care homes and the care component of the allowance paid to 650,000 people will be ended, while most recipients will receive fixed-term rather than indefinite payments in future.

Disability rights campaigners are seeking a judicial review of the proposals, part of the government's welfare reform bill, saying ministers have not properly assessed their negative impact.

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The Papworth Trust said it had spoken to 2,000 people likely to be affected and that eight out of ten believed they would have less to spend on basic items like food, fuel and transport as a result.

Although the government is still consulting on its plans, the charity said the changes risked leaving already vulnerable people "further disadvantaged" - threatening their mobility and peace of mind.

"Disabled people's daily costs are typically 25% higher than those of non-disabled people," its chief executive Adrian Bagg said.

"For example, not all public transport is accessible. This means some people have to use accessible taxis to be able to leave their home, which cost significantly more than non-accessible taxis."

The charity said it accepted that all sections of society were facing cutbacks, but that a 20% reduction in spending on PLP, compared to DLA, would leave very few recipients unaffected.

Campaigners are also urging ministers to take on board problems experienced in their shake-up of incapacity benefit when it comes to assessing people's eligibility for the new benefit.

'Keeping pace'

Fitness-for work tests for those on incapacity benefit - known as the work capability assessment - have been heavily criticised for failing to differentiate between those with different conditions, and for not preparing claimants for the ordeal.

Mr Bagg said DLA claimants - particularly those with mental health problems - were "particularly anxious" about the reassessment process and how it would be conducted.

"We urge the government to learn the lessons of the work capability assessment and ensure that if they make this change, the assessment will be fair and the implications clearly explained."

Ministers say DLA has essentially remained the same for 20 years and has failed to "keep pace" with the ever-growing role played by disabled people in society and their rising aspirations.

While remaining a non means-tested cash payment, ministers say PLP will be simpler to apply for and administer and focused on helping fulfil people's desire to live independent lives.

Responding to a public consultation earlier this year, Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller said change was "long overdue" and PLP would be a "truly personalised benefit that evolves over time".

The government says spending on DLA has risen by 30% in the past eight years and, even after the changes, projected spending in 2015-2016 would be equivalent to levels in 2009-2010.

Deaf Back President Banda in Zambia

THE Zambia National Association of the Deaf (ZNAD) has said they would support President Rupiah Banda and the MMD in the September 20 elections because the ruling party was the only party so far that had embraced persons with disability reports The Times of Zambia (31/08/11).

ZNAD executive director James Kapembwa said in a statement yesterday that they had decided to rally behind President Banda because he had demonstrated commitment towards persons with disabilities.

Mr Kapembwa was speaking when Lusaka province MMD chairperson William Banda paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Kanyama constituency. He said President Banda had demonstrated commitment to improving the welfare of the disabled. 


Mr Kapembwa said in May 2010, President Banda again demonstrated his commitment towards the disabled by visiting the School of the deaf and a community church in Matero Township where he pledged K30 million towards the construction of the same.
He said further the government of President Banda also accepted the request to be patron of ZNAD besides ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2010. "As we are in 2011 election year, we are part and parcel of the campaign of endorsing Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda for another term in office," he said.

Mr Banda observed that Kanyama Constituency had lagged behind in terms of development over the years because residents had been making a mistake of voting for opposition Members of Parliament and councilors. He advised the MMD aspiring candidates in Kanyama not to abandon persons with disabilities once voted into office. 


Mr Kapembwa said ZNAD has 2, 000 registered members and that returns from the 26 membership branches indicate that there are an average of 120 members per district. "Secondly, we want the MMD Government to include us in all national developmental issues like the electoral process and fulltime employment of sign language interpreters on the national television network for equal access to information," Mr Kapembwa said. Mr Banda assured the association members that he was going to organize a meeting with President Banda as he was a leader for all Zambians.