Campaigning for deaf children

X Factor: looking for pig talent
Campaigning for deaf children This could be interesting, I thought, as I sat down for my Saturday evening viewing. Pigs battling it out, a kind of “Porkie's Got Talent” and a plethora of terrible bacon-related puns from Dermot? Alas, it was one of many subtitling errors on Saturday's opening to the new series. I think they meant to say [...]
Mon, Aug 23 2010

New blog from deaf young person
Campaigning for deaf children I have competition: a young deaf person, who did some work experience for the National Deaf Children's Society recently, has set up her own blog, called Feel the Breeze. Already she's been talking about subtitles, the underground and Ryanair – which incidentally happen to be the three things that most often turn me into an [...]
Tue, Aug 17 2010

Why never to say “Oh, it doesn’t matter” to a deaf person
Campaigning for deaf children A posting by Tiger Mother on the National Deaf Children's Society website reminded me of a key cardinal rule with deaf children (and adults). If they miss something and ask you to repeat, never EVER say: “Oh, it doesn't matter.” As an adult, I often just say “... but it was important enough to say [...]
Fri, Aug 13 2010
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Academies Bill becomes law and something about sausages
Campaigning for deaf children I was reminded of the old saying this week that laws are like sausages; you really don't want to know how they are made... The Academies Bill is now law, meaning that lots of schools will soon be able to convert to academies, and be independent from local authority control. I personally don't mind where [...]
Thu, Jul 29 2010

Making audiology youth-friendly
Campaigning for deaf children Confession time: until I was around 25, I didn't have a clue how to read an audiogram. If you asked me as a child, how deaf I was, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you. Ask me to retube my hearing aid, and I probably would have gone running to Mummy. Why? Because [...]
Wed, Jul 14 2010

Deaf Awareness Week in Parliament
Campaigning for deaf children The NDCS/RNID parliamentary reception on Wednesday was a huge success. 57 MPs came, the deaf children, young people and adults were fantastic and the cakes were lovely. I was in charge of making sure the deaf children and young people were fully involved, but I was barely needed. They were hugely confident and assertive in [...]
Fri, Jul 02 2010

Deaf Awareness Week in Wales
Campaigning for deaf children Deaf Awareness Week is being celebrated across the UK and over in Wales, NDCS Cymru has been busy asking lots of young deaf children to draw up images of their own deaf awareness and communication tips. The end result is a rather snazzy poster, which is now being sent out to every school in Wales. [...]
Tue, Jun 29 2010

Happy Deaf Awareness Week!
Campaigning for deaf children Well, first day of Deaf Awareness Week 2010 is now over. The National Deaf Children's Society has launched an appeal for the best deaf awareness tips on its website, Twitter and Facebook and already some really good ones have been rolling in, such as: * DO make the most of technology to help communication. For [...]
Mon, Jun 28 2010

The calm before Deaf Awareness Week
Campaigning for deaf children Next week is going to be all about me. And the other 8,999,999 people who are deaf or hard of hearing in the UK. Yes, it's Deaf Awareness Week and this year's theme is “Look at me”. The idea is to talk about simple deaf awareness tips throughout the week – like facing deaf people [...]
Fri, Jun 25 2010

Academies: good or bad news for deaf children?
Campaigning for deaf children The Queen was dragged away from her TV last week to come and open Parliament for the new Government and to read a speech written for her by the Government on new laws coming through. I wonder if one day the Queen will just say “read your own speech, I want to watch Loose Women” [...]
Wed, Jun 02 2010

University access for deaf students fail
Campaigning for deaf children An interesting article appeared in Guardian yesterday about Rosie Watson, a deaf mature student, who took Durham University to court for breaking disability discrimination laws. On the one hand, it's a very inspiring story about a gutsy deaf person who refused to let the university get away with it. On the other hand, it's appalling [...]
Wed, May 26 2010

Enjoy the NDCS pub quiz – from the comfort of your desk!
Campaigning for deaf children Well, last Wednesday's fundraising pub quiz – that I mentioned last week – was great fun. Such was the excitement that I was unable to write about it for a few days. I researched and came up with the questions myself so took an evil pleasure in watching people's brains nearly explode as they tried [...]
Mon, May 24 2010

Why I’m doing the NDCS 3 Peaks Challenge
Campaigning for deaf children 10k? Been there, done that. Half-marathon? Ditto. Marathon. Easy-peasy. I've now signed up to a new challenge – the 3 Peaks challenge! In July, I'll be climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours as part of a fool-hardy team of 5 walkers and 2 drivers. And we're doing it for deaf children. [...]
Wed, May 19 2010

“Yes, I’m deaf…”
Campaigning for deaf children I thought I would share a little anecdote from last weekend where I was busy volunteering at a National Deaf Children's Society “Getting Ahead” training weekend in Epping Forest. As always, it was great to meet some deaf youngsters and see them in action learning how to develop their confidence, think about their future and [...]
Tue, May 18 2010

Ideas for new blogs
Campaigning for deaf children Audiology update Candidates background in deafness Acoustics Sign for hearing in BSL AVT Telephone numbers – small thing Family sign language curriculum 3 Peaks Filed under: Uncategorized
Tue, May 11 2010

NDCS election pledge a big success
Campaigning for deaf children Sad political geek that I am, I stayed up all night on Thursday to see the election results. If you think that's bad, at the same time, I was ticking off the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) list of politicians who had signed the NDCS election pledge for deaf children to see who got elected [...]
Tue, May 11 2010

Who will make deaf children matter in the general election?
Campaigning for deaf children All the newspapers seem to be busy publicly endorsing political parties, so I guess it's only fair and proper that this blog, as an equally important media outlet, advises you on who you should vote for tomorrow. This blog therefore endorses the following party for the general election 2010.... Only joking! I would probably get [...]
Wed, May 05 2010

Urgent! Time running out to contact your election candidates
Campaigning for deaf children Well, in a week's time, the UK will be going to the polls to decide who will form the next Government. It means that time is running out for you to help make deaf children matter during the election by asking your own local candidates to sign the National Deaf Children's Society election pledge for [...]
Thu, Apr 29 2010

Leading politician reminisces on cochlear implants
Campaigning for deaf children I admit it, I'm a wibbly-wobbly flip-flopping Guardian reader. And whilst reading the paper on Saturday, I noticed that George Osborne, shadow Chancellor for the Conservative party, was doing some quick-fire questions and was asked: “in your role as an MP, of what are you most proud?” The answer? “The individual victories for constituents. Rece...
Thu, Apr 29 2010

David Cameron challenged on special educational needs and...
Campaigning for deaf children Lord loves a troublemaker. Yesterday, special educational needs and disability made its first major appearance on the election campaign trail when a father of a disabled son heckled David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, in front of the TV cameras. His main point of objection? That the Conservative manifesto states that the party will [...]
Wed, Apr 28 2010

The amazing Major Phil Packer
Campaigning for deaf children I did the London Marathon a couple of years ago in what I thought was a non too shabby time for the National Deaf Children's Society and felt pretty amazing for it. And then I hear about someone like Phil Packer and suddenly feel very humble. Despite being severely injured during the Iraq war, last [...]
Thu, Apr 22 2010

Update: BSL still not equal in status to other languages,...
Campaigning for deaf children Those with long memories might remember from a previous blog posting that the Government was proposing to introducing new laws which would require primary school children to learn a moderen foreign language. The National Deaf Children's Society felt that these would discourage schools from teaching British Sign Language (BSL) and didn't gave BSL the same [...
Tue, Apr 20 2010

Are we making deaf children matter in the general election?
Campaigning for deaf children Well, the National Deaf Children's Society's campaign to make deaf children matter at the general election has been live now for nearly 2 weeks. So how many candidates have signed the NDCS election pledge for deaf children so far? A whopping 440. All this has come about because nearly 692 NDCS supporters have sent out [...]
Fri, Apr 16 2010

Stats on cinema access in UK
Campaigning for deaf children I popped along to a disability working group for cinemas yesterday and I was reminded that, however much I moan about cinema access, there have been big changes since I was a young person. And, compared to most other major countries, Britain is ahead of the pack. Consider a few stats: * 19 out of the [...]
Thu, Apr 15 2010

New education laws to improve education for deaf children
Campaigning for deaf children Originally uploaded to Flickr by Joep R. Yesterday, Parliament shut up shop. MPs were booted out. Maybe even chucked into the River Thames. But before they all went back to their constituencies, last week they were busy trying to pass lots of laws before Parliament dissolved. And two new bits of law were created which are [...]
Tue, Apr 13 2010

Radio programme about deafness – accessible!
Campaigning for deaf children Word reaches me that BBC Radio 4 will be showing a programme about deafness this afternoon THAT WILL BE ACCESSIBLE TO DEAF PEOPLE. How modern! Apparently, signed interpretation and a transcript will be on the web at the same time as broadcast on the radio. If true, it will be fantastic and make a really [...]
Fri, Apr 09 2010

Vote for deaf children!
Campaigning for deaf children As Gordon Brown put it, it wasn't exactly a very well-kept secret, but we now know for sure that a general election will be taking place on the 6th May. So how can we make deaf children matter during the election? Well, you can email your local candidates in your area. The National Deaf Children's [...]
Thu, Apr 08 2010

What do deaf young people think NDCS campaign priorities...
Campaigning for deaf children I blogged last week about my weekend with an inspiring and fantastic bunch of deaf young people from across the UK who came to London to listen to me blather on about campaigns. Well, during the weekend, we took the opportunity to ask the group what they thought the National Deaf Children's Society should be [...]
Wed, Mar 31 2010

Response to story on abuse at deaf school in America
Campaigning for deaf children There was a rather sad reminder last week that deaf children are more likely to be abused, when news broke of a school in America where 200 deaf children had been abused over two decades from the 1950s. Reading the papers, it was hard to tell what was most distressing. The seemingly woeful lack of action [...]
Mon, Mar 29 2010

NDCS’s plans for the general election
Campaigning for deaf children So what is the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) planning to do for the UK general election? My suggestion that we go all radical and throw custard over politicians or get a group of young deaf terrorists to kidnap the Queen, seem to have been quietly ignored. Instead, here are some details of NDCS's plans: 1) [...]
Thu, Mar 25 2010

Deaf young people reach for the stars
Campaigning for deaf children Who are these shiny faced youngsters you see to the right? Well, if last weekend is anything to go by, they may will be the future. The youngsters were part of a group of 17 deaf young people who attended a pilot training weekend, run by the National Deaf Children's Society, for deaf young people [...]
Tue, Mar 23 2010

Deaf children’s deaf awareness
Campaigning for deaf children I've been doing a lot of musing recently. Earlier in the week, I mused on the definition of deafness and what impact this might have. I've also been musing on the deaf awareness of deaf children. My musing was triggered by an NDCS weekend where I had a very enjoyable time with a bunch of [...]
Fri, Mar 19 2010

Am I deaf or what?
Campaigning for deaf children I was thinking over the weekend about an issue which I sometimes find myself debating with colleagues from time to time: does the term “deaf” put off deaf children? When I was young, I hated the term “deaf” and generally referred to myself as “hearing impaired”. I always thought that “deaf” gave the impression I [...]
Mon, Mar 15 2010

Still no answers from Government on audiology training
Campaigning for deaf children I mentioned a while back that our requests for information from the Department of Health on cuts to audiology training have not been terribly successful, if the letter we received a few weeks back from the Department was anything to go by. Sadly, things have not improved. Last week, we got replies to some parliamentary [...]
Tue, Mar 09 2010

Subtitled Youtube access for deaf people
Campaigning for deaf children Happy day. Youtube have confirmed there will be automatic subtitling on its English videos. Back in November, Google announced it would be aiming to do this. Today's announcement confirms it for Youtube. The story has already been covered on BBC news and the National Deaf Children's Society has done a statement on it.. It's not going [...]
Fri, Mar 05 2010

Deaf question time for education politicians
Campaigning for deaf children Back in January, I mentioned that a tremendous trio of deaf students from Heston Community School in west London went to Westminster to interview MPs from each of the main political parties on on their parties' approach to supporting deaf children to help parents of deaf children decide how to vote in the upcoming general [...]
Fri, Mar 05 2010

Update: BSL not equal to other languages, says Government
Campaigning for deaf children A while ago I blogged about how the Children, Schools and Families Bill might discourge primary schools from the option of teaching British Sign Language if they want to. NDCS has been exchanging a lot of emails recently with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to try and get to the bottom of [...]
Wed, Mar 03 2010

Audiology memories
Campaigning for deaf children All of NDCS's work on the Hear for the Future audiology campaign got me reminiscing over the weekend about my own experiences of audiology as a deaf child. Other people go to parties or relax over the weekend, but it was raining a lot so I thought I would reminisce instead. One of my earliest [...]
Mon, Mar 01 2010

Department of Health ignore concerns on audiology services...
Campaigning for deaf children This month has not been a good one for my anger. The Government denying equality on exams to deaf students. Deaf students having to wait for their Disabled Students Allowance. UK Film Council deciding that access to the cinema for deaf people is not a priority. And the Department for Children, Schools and Families missing [...]
Fri, Feb 26 2010

BBC news exposes how social care services are failing deaf...
Campaigning for deaf children We knew that social care services for deaf children were bad... but a piece of research now published by the University of Manchester has confirmed just how serious the failings are. Some of its findings, just to pick a few, include: * 60% of local authorities don't regard deaf children as being “children in need”, even [...]
Thu, Feb 25 2010

Will new pupil and parent guarantees make a difference for...
Campaigning for deaf children A busy week doing campaign work on audiology training, access to exams and British Sign Language in primary schools. In an attempt to try and juggle four things at the same time, I also wrote up a draft National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) consultation response on the Department for Children, Schools and Families' proposed new [...]
Fri, Feb 19 2010

Government to discourage teaching of sign language in...
Campaigning for deaf children I've blogged about some of my ‘official' work on the Children, Schools and Families Bill. But I've also been doing some extra-curricular ‘unofficial' lobbying work behind the scenes, trying to get clarification on something quite worrying... In a nutshell, the Bill proposes a new law whereby schools will have to teach primary sc...
Tue, Feb 16 2010
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How you can help stop cuts to audiology training
Campaigning for deaf children For the past month, the National Deaf Chidren's Society (NDCS) has been looking into what's going on with the Government's plans to reform audiology training. What have we found out? 1) The cuts are definitely happening. We've seen a letter (though we weren't meant to) from civil servants at the Department of Health saying [...]
Tue, Feb 09 2010

Funding for deaf access to cinema to be cut?
Campaigning for deaf children I spotted last week that the UK Film Council are doing a consultation on their future priorities, and I'm glad I did. There's no mention of access to the cinema for deaf children and adults in it. For a moment, I suddenly thought that we now live in a world where deaf children and young [...]
Mon, Feb 08 2010

Deaf students being denied funding support at university?
Campaigning for deaf children I was suddenly transported back in time around 12 years yesterday. Sadly, it's not because I'm the Doctor's new assistance. It was all due to a glance at a news story saying that 12,500 disabled students, two thirds of applicants, are still waiting for their Disabled Students Allowance. The allowance funds specialist equipment and costs [...]
Fri, Feb 05 2010

Update: BBC online still failing deaf children
Campaigning for deaf children Back in December, I conducted a little experiment on BBC online and found that most video stories featuring deaf people were not accessible. Transcript? Nada. Subtitles? Nada. I fired off a complaint, and finally got a reply the other day from the Head of the BBC newsroom, no less. It was contrite and apologetic. [...]
Thu, Feb 04 2010

Downing St petition on Government’s failure to ensure...
Campaigning for deaf children I am still angry about the debacle over the Equality Bill last week when the Government decided that, actually, you know equality in exams and qualifications for disabled people, isn't all that important, like. So angry, that I have created a No.10 Downing Street petition to vent my anger. If you're angry too, please [...]
Tue, Feb 02 2010

Ofsted failing to inspect education for deaf children?
Campaigning for deaf children Tomorrow, a recurring issue around Ofsted inspections will be under the spotlight again in Parliament... The issue? Why Ofsted inspections of schools that cater for deaf children, for example, those with a unit or resource base, so often seem to be inspected by people with zero expertise in deafness? Parents of deaf children already get very [...]
Mon, Feb 01 2010

No equality for disabled people in exams
Campaigning for deaf children I thought the Government had a goal of equality for disabled people by 2025 but, when it comes to exams, it turns out that just “minimising disadvantage” is the highest goal the Government will aspire to. Yes, I've slipped back into angry deaf man mode. On Tuesday, Lords were debating the issue of accessible exams [...]
Fri, Jan 29 2010

Are social care services meeting the needs of deaf children?
Campaigning for deaf children There was a striking story in the papers yesterday about a NSPCC statement that at least 60 children are sexually abused a day. It reminded me of separate statistics suggesting that deaf children are at least twice as likely to be abused than other children – not because they're deaf, but because the communication barriers [...]
Tue, Jan 26 2010