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

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.

Job club to help deaf and hard of hearing people find employment

Action on Hearing Loss Scotland has set up the initiative to offer those involved the same opportunities as others reports STV (27/04/12).

A new club aimed at helping young deaf and hard of hearing people find employment is to be set up in Edinburgh.

Organised by Action on Hearing Loss Scotland, monthly meetings will help participants aged 16 to 25 with every aspect of applying for a job.

Activities will include help with making up a CV, searching for a job, completing an application form and interview skills.

British Sign Language interpreters and electronic note-takers will also be made available to ensure sessions are fully accessible.

Barbra Wylie, an employment advisor with Action on Hearing Loss Scotland, said: “We want young deaf and hard of hearing people to have the same opportunities as everyone else and the job club will allow them to acquire the skills they need to enter the job market.

“The other benefit of the job club is that it allows for ideas to be exchanged and for people to look at what careers they may be suited to or identify training that they might need to reach their goals.”

Funded by the Big Lottery Fund, the club, which is part of Action on Hearing Loss Scotland’s On the Move project, will be held at Skills Development Scotland in Edinburgh.

Patricia Thomson, Skills Development Scotland’s Area Manager for Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted to be working with Action on Hearing Loss Scotland on this job club. I would say to any young deaf or hard of hearing person who is looking for employment or training to come along and be part of the job club.

“We have people who can give advice on all aspects of finding a job in an environment that is friendly and supportive.”

The first meeting of the job club will take place at Skills Development Scotland, Shandwick Place, on Wednesday, May 2 between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

Anyone interested in attending should contact Barbra Wylie on 0141 341 5350 or email barbra.wylie@hearingloss.org.uk.

Deaf man complains of lack of interpreter at job fair

An unemployed man who is profoundly deaf is campaigning for better facilities to help people like him get work reports Get Reading (26/04/12)

Piyush Bharania, 41, was keen to attend a job fair at pentahotel last September. He emailed the office of Reading East MP Rob Wilson, who co-organised the event, beforehand asking for a deaf interpreter but was told there was no budget available.

He went to the fair and communicated using pen and paper.

Mr Bharania, of Linden Road, Whitley, who has been deaf since birth, said: “I find it hard to believe the event did not have a budget.

“I feel incredibly let down and upset by what has happened. I’m sure you will appreciate that without an interpreter I would not be able to communicate.”

Mr Bharania complained to the Equality and Human Rights Commission but was advised the commission could not comment on allegations of discrimination which would have to be decided through the courts. In his formal response to the commission, Mr Wilson wrote: “Reading Job Fair is co-ordinated by my office in partnership with Jobcentre Plus and Reading UK CIC. It is a completely free event to attend for both exhibitors and job seekers and everything needed is donated by local companies.”

He said his assistant had suggested Mr Bharania could take a friend to interpret and had also offered to be on hand at the fair.

But Councillor Peter Ruhemann, who chairs the access and disabilities working group on Reading Borough Council, said although the duty to make “reasonable adjustments” for profoundly deaf people was subject to financial constraints, “that does beg the question as to why no budget was identified to deal with issues like this or other contingencies”.

Mr Wilson said on Tuesday: “Reading Job Fair makes every effort to accommodate the needs of those who wish to attend. In this particular case, we were unable, with a day’s notice and with no recourse to funds, to organise a translator for Mr Bharania at our September Job Fair. However, we did offer Mr Bharania alternative suggestions, including providing a member of staff to aid him in communicating with employers.

“As we have had more notice, for tomorrow's Job Fair we have been able to arrange a translator for Mr Bharania through a third party organisation, as well as making deaf loops available at the venue.

“We are totally committed, with the minimal resources at our disposal, to giving everybody an equal chance of getting a job. It would be very sad indeed to see Reading Labour Party jumping on another bandwagon to try to destroy a very successful event.”

Rare reprieve for Haiti's disabled slated to end

When doctors amputated her right arm that was crushed by jagged rubble during Haiti's 2010 earthquake, Marjorie Benoit joined the ranks of Haiti's outcasts: the blind, the deaf and those missing limbs writes Trenton Daniels for Associated Press (05/03/12).

But then something unexpected happened for the 33-year-old mother of four as she faced personal and economic devastation. She found a welcoming home.

While the 1.3 million people displaced by the quake ended up in post-apocalyptic-like tent cities, a sliver of the homeless disabled population, including Benoit, landed in the closest thing to a model community. They moved into neat plywood shelters along tidy gravel lanes in a settlement designed to house them. They formed a close-knit colony of sorts with ramps for their wheelchairs made out of discarded pool furniture and solar-powered lights to help the deaf communicate with sign language.

The rare respite for the estimated 500-plus people living here, however, will soon end as the government moves to reclaim the land, and, like Haiti's piecemeal reconstruction effort, there isn't much of a plan to house them once they leave — maybe some money for rent and a little extra cash. An alternative site for some of the settlement's deaf residents is not yet completed.

"I have strength by living with other people who are handicapped," said Benoit, who said she's still learning how to use her left hand so she can resume work as a street merchant. "I want everyone to move together wherever we go."

Life has never been easy for the disabled in one of the world's poorest countries. The blind and deaf and amputated have long shouldered a social stigma, their disabilities dismissed as the product of a hex, and few have access to physical therapy or social services. It's no accident that Haiti's disabled make up the poorest part of its population.

Inside the settlement's enclosing chain-linked fence, the residents say they no longer endure the long stares for losing their vision, hearing or a limb.

Claudius Joseph, a blind 25-year-old student, says his teachers believe he can't learn because he can't see. Children, he says, are afraid to touch him.
"I feel normal here because there are other people who are handicapped just like me," Joseph said one evening as his cane tapped the gravel in front of him.

The camp, near Port-au-Prince's international airport, is called "La Piste" because of an abandoned military airstrip across the street. It was set up by the International Federation for the Red Cross, which built 368 shelters for the hearing and speech impaired and others with disabilities. The first families moved in Jan. 7, 2011, days before the anniversary of the earthquake, and each received $150 to help settle in.

Its current residents are a mix of people disabled by traumas or infections caused by the quake and those whose conditions preceded it.

The Red Cross says it signed an agreement with the previous administration of President Rene Preval to use the land until January 2013. Officials with President Michel Martelly's government say they want the land back and the residents need to leave.

"The land is not theirs and the owner wants it back," said Gerald Oriol Jr., Secretary of State for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities. He declined to say who owned the land and referred questions to a foreign charity worker helping the deaf residents. "Within six to nine months they should move out."

When two Associated Press journalists spoke to roughly a dozen La Piste residents about what they would do if they were forced to leave the settlement, some had not heard the news and a few began to shriek.Alix Baptiste, a slender 37-year-old mute man, pulled the lone sign interpreter by the arm and approached the reporters.
He had the interpreter say: "We'll protest because we have no place else to go."

Two U.S. religious groups are building a new site about 18 miles (30 kilometers) northwest Port-au-Prince to house some of La Piste's residents, but a good portion will be left behind and many don't want to leave the camp.
Mission of Hope of Fort Myers, Florida, and 410 Bridge, Inc., of Alpharetta, Georgia, are building 500 houses over the next two years in the town of Leveque. A hundred and sixty of those homes are reserved for deaf families in La Piste, said Austin Holmes of Mission of Hope Haiti. Fifty families have already moved in.
But the fate of those left behind remains uncertain.
"That is the big question mark," said Kyle Reschke, Haiti's project director for 410 Bridge. "We're trying our best to take away that question mark."
And even for those at La Piste who have housing promised them, many ask where will they go if they are evicted in the coming months before their new homes are completed?
Some at La Piste, like 58-year-old Fecilia Joseph, will "go with the wind" if it takes them to Leveque.

But others don't want to leave. That's because they sew clothes in a factory down the street or take classes in downtown Port-au-Prince. Their social networks are in Haiti's capital.
Red Cross shelter coordinator James Bellamy said that if the government seizes the land before January the residents would be eligible for a rental subsidy for $500 for one year and another $500 to help out. They can also enroll in courses to learn skills in carpentry, sewing and masonry.

"We'll be talking to the government and households down there to see if we can advocate for any long-term solutions," Bellamy said. "There's no plan for them to go anywhere."
The Martelly administration and foreign aid groups have cleared out several camps in recent months and moved the residents into homes by paying their rent for a year. But that's only 5 percent of the half million people stuck in the gloomy, flood-prone camps.
On a recent afternoon at La Piste, quake amputees on crutches kicked around a soccer ball on a dusty field.

Residents say they're grateful for the site despite fears that it will close.
"Thank God we live well; we're not fighting," said Mason Egene, a 63-year-old who's paralyzed in the right leg. "We have all kinds of problems but we don't get wet in the rain."

Deaf sex slave case described accused as 'very bad old man'

A woman claims she was imprisoned in a cellar and used as a domestic servant writes Paul Britton for Salford Advertiser (24/02/12).

The woman, who is deaf and cannot speak, told police that she had sex with Ilyas Ashar ‘many, many times’. A jury, who have now watched recordings of all 14 of her interviews, have been told that she was trafficked into Britain from Pakistan at the age of between 10 and 12 in 2000 by Ilyas Ashar, 83, and his wife Tallat Ashar, 66. It is also alleged she was beaten, raped and sexually assaulted.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was interviewed by police through a sign language expert.

She told officers in an interview: “He is a very bad old man. Why would he want to have sex with me? He has got a wife. I was only little. I was very young. He is an old man.”

It is alleged the woman was locked in a cellar as a child at Ilyas and Tallat Ashar’s home on Cromwell Road, in Eccles, Salford, and was made to work, cook and clean for no money.
The jury has been told that she was forced to sleep on the cellar floor without toilet or washing facilities.The couple are on trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court and deny all the charges that they face.

The woman told police that she had sex with Ilyas Ashar at the house, in the cellar and the bedroom.
She also claimed that sex happened at other houses.
She said: “It was many, many times. Then one day I was talking to the old lady [Tallat Ashar]. I said that the old man [Ilyas Ashar] was having sex with me and the old lady was shocked about it.”

The woman said that Tallat Ashar hit her on being told of the alleged sex. She claimed the sex stopped after she told Tallat Ashar. Earlier, the jury was told that the woman was made to sweep up leaves outside the couple’s home, do housework at other people’s homes and lift heavy boxes containing football shirts and mobile phone covers that she packed in the cellar. She also cleaned houses in Pakistan, the court heard.

The woman, who was found by police at the house in 2009, said she received no payment from the Ashars. She is now due to give evidence to the court in person through a signer over a videolink.
Ilyas Ashar denies charges of false imprisonment, human trafficking and 12 counts of rape.
Tallat Ashar denies charges of false imprisonment, trafficking, sexual assault and unlawful wounding.
The couple, and their daughter Faaiza Ashar, 44, also deny benefit fraud charges.

Deaf man cleared of G20 charges

The Crown has withdrawn criminal charges against Emomotimi Azorbo, the deaf man who says his Charter rights were violated when he was arrested at a G20 protest and then denied access to an adequate interpreter writes Jennifer Yang for The Star (07/02/12).

The Crown has withdrawn criminal charges against Emomotimi Azorbo, the deaf man who says his Charter rights were violated when he was arrested at a G20 protest and then denied access to an adequate interpreter.

Azorbo, now 32, was watching a G20 protest near Yonge and College Sts. on June 25, 2010 when he failed to hear police commands and got in a physical confrontation with officers.

He was arrested and taken to the G20 temporary detention centre, where Azorbo says he was denied access to a professionally-trained interpreter — even though the Canadian Hearing Society had offered their services free of charge to Toronto police over the G20 weekend.

Azorbo was charged with assaulting police officers and resisting arrest and was scheduled to begin trial this week. But at the Finch Ave. courthouse Monday morning, Crown attorney Jason Miller withdrew all the charges.

“Pursuing a conviction of Mr. Azorbo for the assaults is, in the Crown’s opinion, unnecessary,” he said.

Azorbo signed a peace bond, agreeing to keep the peace for six months.

Miller told the court Azorbo was not involved in the protest and could not hear police instructions, nor could he effectively communicate to officers that he was deaf.

But Miller added he wanted to correct the “public record” created by the media’s portrayal of Azorbo as a blameless party when he was actually “confrontational” with police. He played two YouTube videos for the courtroom; one that captures Azorbo walking towards police and being struck and pushed away, only to re-approach the officers. What happens next is mostly obscured by the crowd.

“Despite being given a couple chances by police to calm down and walk away, Mr. Azorbo persisted in pushing police officers and finally shoved an officer aside who was blocking his progress,” Miller said. “Mr. Azorbo appeared at that time to be making a beeline at a specific officer he had his initial confrontation with. This caused police to place Mr. Azorbo under arrest.”

But Azorbo maintains that what police interpreted as aggression and “pushing” was merely his frustrated attempts at communicating with officers and defending himself.

“I was trying to explain that I was deaf,” Azorbo said Monday, speaking to the Starthrough an interpretation team that includes an American sign language interpreter and a deaf interpreter. “And then I was being pushed and all of a sudden I was taken down.”

Azorbo’s lawyer, Howard Morton, has also filed a Charter motion alleging his client was denied his constitutional rights, including his right to the assistance of an interpreter during legal proceedings.

Azorbo said that when he arrived at the detention centre, police failed to provide him with a professionally-trained interpreter. He was instead offered police officers who could only finger spell or had a minimal knowledge of American Sign Language, which Azorbo himself is still learning, having grown up in Nigeria using Nigerian Sign Language.

“I just kept saying, ‘I don’t want this to happen, I need an interpreter that I can understand and can understand me,’” he said. “I didn’t want to be misquoted. I didn’t want this police officer – who doesn’t understand sign language – being the one communicating for me because she wasn’t going to do me justice.”

Morton said his client was further denied access to interpreters at two of his subsequent court dates, when interpreters ordered by the judge failed to show up.

Gary Malkowski, with the Canadian Hearing Society, said his organization offered to provide Toronto police with interpreting services during the G20 weekend, paying thousands of dollars to keep qualified interpreters on standby. But when they offered interpretation services for Azorbo, they were denied, Malkowski said.

“There was not only a denial of rights, but an intentional denial of rights,” he said.

At the time of his arrest, Azorbo did not fully understand what his rights were.

He knows them now, however. And he thinks police should know them too.

“I assumed that the police would do right by me and have an interpreter,” he said. “I assumed that they would be aware of my rights and make sure I was protected. But they weren’t.”

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

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. 

Deaf teens relate to characters in 'Switched at Birth'

Olivia Stein, a 17-year-old student at California School for the Deaf in Fremont, can probably count on one hand how many times she has seen someone like herself beaming from a television screen writes Chuck Barney for Contra Costa Times (03/01/12).

It's no wonder, then, that she has become hooked on "Switched at Birth," a feel-good family drama pegged, in part, to multiple deaf characters who have brought some prime-time exposure to an underrepresented segment of society.

"It allows us to be more involved. We can relate. We're finally seeing people like us," she said through a Sign Language Interpreter. "And it's showing the world that deaf people are cool. We rock."

"Switched at Birth" debuted on ABC Family last summer with a sensationalistic premise: A couple of teen girls -- one of whom is deaf -- discover that, due to a hospital error, they wound up with the wrong parents. Now their families, from two different worlds, are struggling to get to know each other.

The show, which resumes its first season on Tuesday, became an instant ratings hit for ABC Family. Moreover, it sparked wide interest among the deaf community for its frank and respectful depiction of people with hearing loss.

The teen girl who is deaf, Daphne Vasquez, is played by Katie Leclerc, who in real life has Meniere's disease, a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance. Also among the cast are deaf actors Sean Berdy and Marlee Matlin. The series was created by Lizzy Weiss, who took courses in American Sign Language (ASL) while attending Duke University.

"Switched at Birth" doesn't focus solely on deafness -- the soapy twists and turns cover a wide terrain. But it does explore several pertinent deaf issues, including communication and societal barriers, speech therapy and the debate over cochlear implants. It also makes extensive use of sign language, subtitles and something very rare in this era of pop-cultural clatter: Moments of utter silence.

Anna Schumacher, a Berkeley native who served as an on-set interpreter for "Switched at Birth," calls the show an important step forward because it doesn't isolate its deaf characters "into a novelty category" or portray them as disabled.

"While Daphne's life is by no means easy, because of many variables, she is seen as just as bright, capable, insightful and full as any teenager," she said. "Yet she experiences the world in a different way and has a wonderful language at her fingertips."

Leclerc, 25, says that the show is dispersing an important message.

"People tend to be afraid of what they're unfamiliar with, so communicating (with the deaf) can be somewhat intimidating," she said. "If we can come into people's homes and show that it's not that hard -- and that we all have similar struggles -- it's a good thing."

The actress, who is enjoying her first breakout role in a 10-year career, says that the feedback she has received from viewers is especially gratifying.

"I've heard from people who tell me they now have a better understanding of a deaf relative," she said. "Others have said they're changing their college major to sign language because they want to be an interpreter. That's pretty cool."

Several teen students interviewed through interpreters at the school for the deaf in Fremont find "Switched at Birth" to be pretty cool, too. Though they have quibbles with the show -- they'd prefer it, for example, if Leclerc was more fluent in signing and if her character had more interaction with other deaf kids -- they're drawn to it because it reflects pieces of their world.

Gurpreet Rai, 20, especially admires a plot line in which Daphne balked when her wealthy biological parents pushed to move her from an all-deaf school to a mainstream private school. In an emotionally powerful scene, the character recalled a previous stint at a "hearing" school, where she was treated like an outcast.

"That part of the show applies to my experience," Rai recalled. "I went to five hearing schools in Hayward, and it was a constant struggle. I felt lost -- like I had no future for myself."

Stein can also relate.

"Life was hard (at a mainstream school). I never had a friend. It was awkward," she said. "I finally went to my parents and told them, 'I'm done. I need a change, now.' "

Alexandria Brinkley-Green, 18, gets a kick out of the fact that Daphne is a basketball player, just like her. And she likes the way the show captures the ups and downs of romantic relationships between the deaf and hearing.

"What is the point of dating a hearing person if that person does not know sign language?" she said. "However, if that person was fluent in ASL, I'm open to the idea."

Several students applaud the show's casting of Berdy, a charismatic 18-year-old actor who attended CSD's sister school in Riverside. To them, he's a "cool role model." They even like the way he signs.

"We can pick up on his irony -- something hearing people can't," said Conrad Baer, 17.

But Berdy's casting also represents a sign of hope, according to Brinkley-Green.

"Some deaf people want to be actors, too," she says. "Maybe this will open a few doors to new possibilities."

As Greece slashes costs, the deaf are left unaided

Evanthia Plakoura's life recently became a lot more complicated reports CBS News (16/12/11).

Conversations with her boss switched to email only. Visits to the doctor require additional planning. She feels helpless in Greece's bureaucratic labyrinth.
"It's like someone flicked a switch and turned off your voice," said Plakoura, a deaf woman who works at the Education Ministry.

Plakoura joined some 2,000 disabled demonstrators at a rally in central Athens this week to protest sweeping benefit cuts imposed in Greece's economic crisis that have deprived her of sign-language translation.

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

Funding cuts have opened up gaps across welfare services, with slashed services and longer waiting times for vulnerable groups including the blind, recovering organ-transplant patients, autistic children, and paraplegics in need of physiotherapy.

"This program is very important to us. It's our bridge to the outside world and it's vital for our education," Plakoura said in sign language, her speech relayed by one of the very translators whose help is being cut off.

"People have gone back to writing things down, or taking a relative, but it's not the same thing," she said. "It makes things very difficult for us, and especially for elderly deaf people."

The axed program is the latest casualty of Greece's draconian austerity measures that have battered social services as demand for help by the recession-hit public increases.

Independent welfare programs that rely on grants from the state offer a tempting target to a government fighting the threat of bankruptcy. Unlike state-run programs, which enjoy strong legal protections, the government can simply turn off the money taps.

As a result, independent programs to assist the disabled, the elderly, psychiatric patients and recovering drug users have all suffered steep cuts, occasionally with dramatic consequences.

An alarming rise in HIV infections in 2011 has been blamed in part on problems with needle exchange programs for drug users. Between January and October this year, 190 new infections of the deadly virus were reported among intravenous drug users, compared with 14 in the first 10 months in 2010, according to the Health Ministry.

Groups representing the disabled and other vulnerable Greeks have held several demonstrations outside the Finance Ministry, on Athens' main Syntagma Square, but getting attention is difficult in a city where between four and five protests are held every day.

At his suburban headquarters, Costas Gargalis, who heads the National Association of the Deaf in Greece, is struggling to keep his 60-member network of interpreters together, hoping to restart the program sometime next year.

"Since the program was suspended, it's been really chaotic," he said. "Some people can pay for interpreters on occasion, but others have simply postponed their tasks forever."

Gargalis, who is deaf, spends his working day in hectic silence: swiftly thumbing text messages on his cell phone, poring over fax requests from around Greece, and making video calls over the Internet.

His interpreters program started with an annual state grant of euro250,000 ($333,200) in 2006; that was steadily reduced to euro180,000 ($240,000) this year, before being suddenly slashed to euro80,000 ($106,600) in August.

"We were immediately over-budget and had to suspend the program. And even then, interpreters were left unpaid for two months of work," said Gargalis.

At previous funding levels, deaf people were offered 25 hours a year with interpreters. If the program is restarted next year, they will receive no more than 10 hours, Gargalis said.

"The amount of money we are asking for is laughable," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "This is a matter of survival for us."

Interpreters for the deaf need six years of training to get their license, and are paid below-minimum wage to crisscross Greek cities daily and provide help communicating.

"People generally become interpreters because they are interested in the subject," registered interpreter Costas Christodoulakos said.

"Now they are obliged to look for other work and take on other commitments, often unrelated to their interpreting jobs," he said. "What else can they do?"

Greece's debt-shackled economy has been kept alive by international rescue loans for the past 19 months, and creditors are pressing for more aggressive spending cuts, as the Socialist government continues to miss deficit-cutting targets and heads into a fourth year of recession in 2012.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos promised this week to submit protesters' demands to the country's new prime minister, and invite disabled groups to join negotiations on a major new tax code due to take effect next year.

Health care is facing major cuts this year — down from euro7 billion originally planned to euro5.6 billion ($9.4 billion to $7.5 billion), excluding state insurance subsidies.

Since the debt crisis started in late 2009, store closures have exceeded 20 percent in some commercial parts of Athens, while more than 275,000 people have lost their jobs nationwide, the vast majority in the private sector, pushing the unemployment rate to more than 16 percent.

"The unemployment rate among disabled people is normally more than double the national average ... so there is an urgent need for disabled people to be protected (from the cuts)," Yiannis Vardakastanis, leader of the National Confederation of Disabled People, said in an interview.

"The effects of the initial (government spending) cuts were not immediately obvious. But the cuts being made now have brought parts of the care system to a state of near-collapse."