Decline

An American blogger (Anon !), recently asked me what is the current state of British deaf activity these days ? (These Anons occcasionaly ask a sensible question), so here is a personal overview. I'm pretty sure someone won't agree but....

British deaf do not seem to have any sort of campaigning voice these days at all sadly. The BDA (British Deaf Association) is in trouble, the RNID (Royal National Institute for the Deaf), has no deaf campaigners in it, deaf won't support it, they are our 'A G Bell', so there is no-one else. We have had two main campaigns over the last few years, one was the sympathy vote via 'tent city' to coincide with the Gallaudet thing, that was poorly attended, and a lot wondered what it had to do with the UK anyway, and the other, was via the genetics campaign, which doesn't seem to have really achieved anything but the publicity, and saw two deaf groups vying against each other..... It is a non-starter until someone actually deaf puts up for IVF.

The last and real image of unity was the BSL recognition campaigns about 6 years ago, most agree it still isn't really working via law at all, and needs more strident campaigning done, BSL campaigns are getting nowhere in law terms, there are huge areas where a technical right exists to demand that access, but it is dogged by lack of ground troop support, an easing off of pressures, and the biggy, which is, it won't be a viable option until sufficient people are trained in BSL to do what deaf demand.

Figures seem to suggest, BSL learners are not going on to pass the main exams, because they cannot afford to take them, BSL has meant big bucks to some areas running classes, but the end result isn't worth it in training teachers etc....so you get a lot of people who sign in a basic way, but cannot teach or support in a professional sense, of course it all means sign is devalued. Class attendances are falling off a bit too.

Lots of people who can sign hello, goodbye, and not much else... The problem is when individual deaf campaign for access here, they get no real support from others, and can get attacked for it too, we are a very fragmented community here at present. In a real sense 'community' is a misnomer.

If a HI person campaigns for a loop system in place, you can get an BSL user complaining that is all fine, all good, where is OUR access ? so sectors aren't campaigning in unity, but isolation. One sector will then get its access to a degree, but another won't, so the system has chaos really. Equally the BSL user will campaign locally for signed access, and ignore a loop or something, then that sector will complain it is not being included, the answer is clearly a unified approach to campaigning.

Unity isn't diversity ! here we go again, we're all still going there with a different t-shirt. If you are going to campaign for signed access to something, it is just as easy to add, please put a loop there as well etc, and vice versa. Then, groups complain who is speaking for whom, it becomes an ego thing, division again. These situations are making all of us apathetic, it is too MUCH hassle to campaign for anything. Nobody wants to stand on someone else's toes, but nobody wants to sit in the same room either. All this apathetic fence sitting is a pain...

America has the same issues, an unwillingness to unify for access, we can't get over the sign - oral thing long enough to bury the hatchet to get a bit of access going. E.G Here, there were requests to make Cinema more accessible which could have succeeded but for the fact cinema attendances by deaf were in single figures, sometimes under 5 people ! we have in effect capitulated to waiting for the captioned DVD releases, so there is no real or visual lobby of need seen, the very few cinemas that put on captioned films, say deaf don't turn up, whether this is lack of awareness or not we don't really know, but on the street the deaf say, it's not worth the effort, they wait for the DVD.

One time, you could call up near a 100 deaf people to join a campaign for ANYTHING (The standing joke was they would turn up to a fridge opening !), now, you would be very fortunate to get 10/20... Even the genetics campaign recently, relied heavily on non-deaf support, via workers in the deaf support field, far be it for me to suggest vested interests, putting a mixed message out ! Hearing were mostly anti the deaf, there was a lot of negative publicity towards deaf people, here, and in America.

Had there been a unified campaign there would be more people on the street to see, in reality the sympathy vote for deaf genetics didn't come from other deaf and HI people, because the signing areas didn't feel they were a part of the issue, there was no consultation with HI or other deaf here, so they opted out of supporting the Signer.

Britain's premier profile is via the RNID, which is the sole group deaf will unite AGAINST, albeit it has been online so far, and precious little anywhere else. I took direct action as an individual and went to London from my area, and also attended an RNID anniversary to complain and put my deaf points, there were 112 people there, but only 11 were deaf, only 3 spoke up, I was one of them.

However the deaf are unable to compete with a corporation with a £50m turnover, and 6 full-time city of London trained professional spin doctors, who have organized against deaf dissenters, when they should be supporting us, and deaf unable to really unite with the various deaf and HI sectors among themselves, a situation clear even in America, there is no unity of purpose, just different sectors fighting their own corners, which seem to have devolved into fighting each other, a decibel here, and implant there, it all goes down the swanee....

Meanwhile mainstream keeps deaf support going without us being involved, which perversely the deaf use as an excuse to complain about them, but still WON'T join and make their voices heard, or march against it, it's a stance doomed to failure, and means the charities concerned will never reflect grass roots, and have already evolved into arms of state support, but on the cheap.

Next time we go into a deaf charity to request something, the chances of seeing ANYONE with a hearing loss or even deaf will be extremely remote. At the British RNID, this is already the case...

That was my 'state of the union' view of British deaf at present. Sorry it doesn't appear more positive...