Tough times for Caithness deaf charity

A CAITHNESS charity which helps people with hearing problems is facing “worrying times” because of budget cutbacks and reduced staff hours reports the John O'Groat Journal & Caithness Courier (10/11/11).

But Deirdre Aitken, the co-ordinator for Caithness Deaf Care, yesterday said she hopes the present funding difficulties will be overcome in the next few years.
She explained that about half of the organisation’s core costs – salaries, heating, lighting and rent – are met by the Highland Council and NHS Highland.
In the past the remaining funding of between £16,000 and £20,000 has been provided mostly from trusts but they, too, are having to make cuts as a result of the current economic downturn.
Mrs Aitken told the Caithness Courier the cutbacks are happening at a time when the charity’s workload is increasing. She pointed out that there are over 1000 people in the Far North registered with the organisation and said around a fifth of them are under 60 years of age.
“We are seeing more people now in the their forties and fifties whereas in 2000 most of the people we dealt with would be retired,” she said.
“They still account for about 80 per cent of our workload but around 20 per cent are people of working age.”
Speaking personally, Mrs Aitken thought that could be a result of people working noisy machinery in the past and not wearing proper ear protection or listening to loud music through headphones over a long period of time.
“Our workload is increasing as our budget has been cut but we are managing to keep going by utilising our volunteers. They have been fantastic and are very conscientious, dedicated and hard-working,” she stated.
Mrs Aitken has had her hours reduced from 21 to 15 a week while another member of staff now works 20 hours instead of 25.
“We have cut the hours and have been using our reserves to keep going but that cannot continue in the longer term,” she said. “These are worrying times but we are managing to make the service work for people. The budget cuts are not impacting too much on the public although some things may take a bit longer to get done.
“We are facing a difficult time but we are hoping the problems will be overcome in the next few years.”
Mrs Aitken explained that in Scotland one in five people are likely to experience some form of hearing loss during their lives.
The charity helps people with hearing problems and gives advice on hearing aids and specialist equipment. It also liaises with NHS audiology which is based in Inverness.
Caithness Deaf Care covers Caithness and Sutherland and has offices in Wick and Thurso.
The latter opened in 2002 with the help of funding from the National Lottery. The offices are open three days a week from 10am to 2pm.

Partner’s anger after Letchworth deaf woman attacked by dogs

THE partner of a deaf woman who was attacked by two dogs and left bleeding in a field has hit out at those responsible writes Mick Gill for the The Comet (07/11/11).

Peter Johnson, of Denby in Letchworth GC, contacted The Comet after his partner of five years Denise Gatler and her dog Lennox - who is being trained as a hearing dog - were both attacked by two other dogs while walking in fields off Quinn Way on Letchworth GC’s Jackmans Estate.

Ms Gatler, who was born deaf, was bitten as she tried to stop the dogs, who were off their leads at the time and described as Staffordshire bull terrier types, attacking Lennox, a collie cross who used to be a rescue dog.

The two owners of the dogs, a man and a woman, left the scene without attending to the 47-year-old, who was taken to Lister Hospital in Stevenage to be treated for bite wounds.
Eighteen-month-old Lennox, who has been unable to attend his hearing dog training classes since the incident, suffered a broken leg and has had 10 screws and a plate at a cost of £3,000 inserted by Cambridge Veterinary Hospital.

“She was walking the dog in the fields and a dog came towards her and appeared to be running around playing,” said Mr Johnson.
“It suddenly came towards our dog and attacked it. Denise tried to get the dog off and got bitten, and as she’s deaf she didn’t hear it but the other dog came in from behind and attacked.
“The playing fields are right next to a primary school and normally she has her five-year-old granddaughter with her so who knows what could’ve happened.
“She’s still trying to recover from it as it’s destroyed all her confidence. She’s a nervous wreck at the moment. She took me back to the field to show me where it happened and she broke down in tears.
“I was so annoyed because apparently all they did while Denise was in the field covered with blood was get the dogs on the leads and go off in different directions.”
The 62-year-old added: “I say to other dog owners to be on the alert and watch out for these guys.”

The incident, which occurred between 6.15pm and 6.45pm on Thursday, June 16, has been reported to the police with investigations on-going.
The female dog owner has been described as white, aged in her mid-20s to early 30s with brown shoulder length hair which was in a ponytail at the time.
She is around 5ft 5in tall, of slim build, and was seen wearing jeans and a white and black top.

The male dog owner was described as being around 5ft 10in tall, of medium build with short dark brown hair.
One of the dogs has been described as a short-haired brown Staffordshire bull terrier type dog with bulky shoulders and the other as a black Staffordshire bull terrier type dog with a white smudge on its chest.

A police spokesman said: “Anyone with information about this incident, or if anyone can identify the owner of the dogs described, is asked to contact PC Baker via the non-emergency number 0845 33 00 222, quoting crime reference G2/11/1294.”

Deaf People from the UK to Volunteer at Deaf School in Sri Lanka

In January 2012, a group of deaf volunteers from the UK, will be travelling to Sri Lanka to volunteer at Deaf Schools and Special Needs centres reports PR.com (03/11/11).

From November 2011, the volunteers will begin learning Sri Lankan Sign Language at the SL Volunteers office in London. The lessons are run by Sophie Allen, a BSL sign language interpreter, who has been volunteering at deaf schools in Sri Lanka since 2001, and is fluent in Sri Lankan sign language. Sophie has great love for Sri Lanka and is dedicating her time to ensure that the team are adequately trained before they arrive.

Aliya Gulamani, a recent graduate from Goldsmiths Uni will be joining the team, "Being profoundly deaf myself I am lucky to have had access to an excellent education in the UK, and I believe that everyone, deaf or hearing deserves the right to an education."

The Volunteers will be assisting staff at a Deaf school, in Colombo and the staff have specifically asked SL Volunteers to support the older children with their computing skills to increase their chances of securing employment when they leave the school.

This project follows on from the already established SL Volunteers teaching projects, that offer free-spoken English lessons to people in Sri Lanka that would otherwise not have the opportunity. Since being established in May 2010, SL Volunteers has sent over 100 volunteers from the UK, to teach English in Orphanges and Youth centres.

SL Volunteers are looking for more volunteers to join the team, both deaf or hearing people who have an interest in teaching or working with people with Special Needs. Applications for the January projects are still open.

Aliya: “This trip has a personal significance for me as I want to pass the message on. The message that, even with deafness you can be anything and you can do anything you wish for the world is yours.”

Give deaf people the chance to use video relay service

Deaf people need a video relay phone service that translates sign language into speech – but not for just half an hour a month writes Charlie Swinbourne for The Guardian (02/11/11).

In July, Ofcom published a review of relay services, proposing the introduction of a video service that would enable phone calls in sign language. Deaf people would sign into a device incorporating a video camera, with an interpreter in a remote location translating their signs into speech.

On the surface, Ofcom's consultation offers a massive improvement to deaf people's lives. In the UK, there are estimated to be between 50,000 and 70,000 people who use British Sign Language as their primary form of communication. BSL has a different structure, grammar and syntax to English, with an emphasis on body language, facial expressions, and gestures.

Because of this, deaf people who use sign language as their first language can find it harder to use text-relay services which depend on a high level of written English (where they type on a keyboard, with an operator voicing their words to a hearing person on the other end of the phone line). The VRS Today campaign estimates that sign language users would be able to use video relay services four times faster than text relay.

But there's one catch. While in America, deaf people (who have had the service since 2002) can make phone calls on an unrestricted basis, at any time of day, any day of the week, Ofcom has proposed that in Britain, deaf people will be given a quota allowing them to make just 30 minutes of calls a month. Worse, the service will only be available between 9am and 5pm on weekdays.

Imagine being restricted to 30 minutes a month – would that be enough time to organise your life, speak to friends and family, your work or your utility company? What if there's a call you need to make in the evening? What happens if a company puts you on hold? Or if you haven't finished your call as your time runs out? Then, even if a deaf person has a great call and finds the service really useful, they are left waiting for a month for the next chance to use it.

If there is a need for a video relay service for deaf people – and Ofcom agrees there is – then making it available in such a limited way makes little sense. It would make it hard for deaf people to get into the habit of using it, and would make using video relay a frustrating experience, which would in turn have a knock-on effect on its take-up by the deaf people it is aimed at. Thirty minutes a month amounts to a half measure, giving with one hand while taking away with the other.

Deaf organisations, including groups specifically focused on telecommunications like TAG and DAART have campaigned for years for improvements to relay services (with improvements to text relay services being high on the agenda as well as video relay). One major irony is that many deaf people (including my mother) have for years paid for packages incorporating free voice minutes on both mobile phones and landlines which, due to their deafness, they cannot use.

The UK telecommunications industry was worth £40bn in 2009, while Ofcom's proposals estimate that offering deaf people an unrestricted video relay service – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — would cost just over £40m. Ofcom's proposals were described as "outrageous and highly unacceptable" byDavid Buxton, chief executive of the British Deaf Association.

The deadline for responses to Ofcom's consultation passed last month. Just days earlier, a petition with more than 2,500 signatures, supported by nearly every major deaf charity in the UK, was delivered to Downing Street calling for unrestricted access to video relay. That same day, a roundtable meeting was held between deaf organisations, telecommunications companies and the government, including Ed Vaizey, the communications minister. Deaf people now face an anxious three-month wait before finding out whether they will have the same freedom to use the telephone as their hearing counterparts.

Ironically, in advance of Ofcom's decision, a pilot project part funded by the European Commission called myFriend is offering deaf people the chance to try out video relay services as part of a concept calledTotal Conversation. From 1 November, deaf people who take part will be able to make phone calls using a BSL interpreter for up to four hours a day. However, when the pilot ends in June 2012, deaf people face going from over 100 hours of potential use a month, to a quota of just half an hour a month if Ofcom's current proposals remain unchanged. That's a reduction of over 99.5%.

It's no exaggeration to say that introducing video relay with huge limitations would mean that a massive opportunity to transform sign language users' lives for the better could be squandered. The communications industry has seen huge technological advances in the last decade, but sign language users have been left trailing far behind. Equality should mean freedom, choice, and independence, and only offering video relay services without imposing a harsh time limit can truly offer that to deaf people.

Edinburgh MP tables early day motion in support of access for deaf and hard of hearing

The Edinburgh West MP praised the online interpreting service, which is available throughout the UK for deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users reports STV Edinburgh (01/11/11).

Deaf Action was delighted with the support in promoting the use of SignVideo. Striving for equality of access and opportunity has always been central to Deaf Action, including access to elected officials.

Mr Crockart recently became the first elected member in the UK to make SignVideo available at his constituency office in Edinburgh, and in an early day motion he has called for other MPs to do likewise. Mr Crockart is also pushing for the Government to ensure that all public information and services are accessible to everyone suffering from hearing loss.

Mr Crockart said: “As parliamentarians, we are here to represent all of our constituents in the political process. However, nine million people in the UK are being disenfranchised by the fact that they face great difficulties in accessing the information they need.

“All MPs should be working with Deaf Action and other organisations to ensure that each and every one of their constituents is able to clearly and easily understand information in their constituency offices.

“I am delighted that Deaf Action will be pioneering this new online interpreting service throughout Scotland, and to do my bit to improve information access for my constituents who suffer from hearing loss.”

Liz Scott Gibson, chief executive of Deaf Action, added: “With Mr Crockart’s early day motion we hope to encourage more MPs to think about accessibility in their constituency.
“Introducing a service such as SignVideo is a simple and cost effective way to enhance inclusion. We call on more MPs to follow Mr Crockart’s lead by signing the early day motion and making their constituency offices more welcoming to deaf people.”