Conference and AGM 2009

Norah Clewes

I travelled to the conference on a Virgin Pendalino, speeding through our green and pleasant land and arriving at Euston within two hours instead of the three and a half or more that it used to take. I even had time before the meeting opened for a coffee and a few words with old friends that I see only once a year. Sadly, on the way home in the evening, after we had stayed on for the chat in the local pub, we experienced all the problems that Roger Hewitt covered in the first talk of the conference about transport. Unintelligible announcements kept coming over the loudspeaker as the train slowed and stopped and restarted and slowed again. The visual display continued to show times, obviously incorrect, of expected arrival at stations on our route. If I had not had my hearing husband with me I might not have known that we were being advised not to change at Crewe but to continue to Warrington and get the train back to Chester from there. I might easily have got off at Crewe and been stranded until midnight with no connection. This is the sort of thing that Roger mentioned in his talk. He said he has asked in the past why the display had not been changed and the train manager’s reply was “couldn’t be bothered”!

The theme of the conference was “Safety and security for deafened people” and Roger’s talk about transport and deaf people was certainly a very interesting one. He is himself deaf, and has a lot of experience from being a member of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC), and he covered many types of travel including air. We learnt that airlines now have to provide more space in the toilet for a wheelchair though this means taking out extra seats. It also means passengers can take Assistance Dogs in with them (for the passenger’s safety, not for for dog to use the facilities of course! Apparently dogs can hold their water on long flights for up to eleven hours.) On the subject of bus travel Roger said that London buses are now followed from the air by satellite so police know exactly where each bus is. This system will eventually be used in other cities. He also covered travel on the underground and ships, the problem of deaf drivers being aware of emergency vehicles, the new type of pedestrian crossing signals and a lot of other points which were entirely new to me. A full report on this presentation can be found in Network 95

Following Roger there was a short talk by Richard Vaughan from Connevans about all the technical gadgets available for our safety at home and in hotels. These were on display during the lunch break along with text telephones and other useful items.

The AGM followed with the election of the present officers and committee unopposed. Then we had the presentation of the Heather Jackson Trophy by her husband David Jackson, who is now one of our Patrons. We were grateful he was able to be present on the day, along with Sir Roger Sims, another of our supportive Patrons. Jane Atkinson from Durham received the Heather Jackson Award for her work for deafened people in the North East. Jane‘s DVD entitled “Are You Listening “ was available. It is really worth seeing and an example to all other areas on how to help deafened people. Appropriately she had dedicated it to Heather Jackson who had been an inspiration to her. The intrepid duo Gavin and Jenny Macpherson then received the Gifford Hardy Trophy for the best article in Network for the account of their cruise holiday, wheelchair, cochlear implant and all. That was presented to them by Janine Burgess, Gifford Hardy’s daughter.

Now followed a good buffet lunch and time to say hello to friends and put faces to the names we have seen in the email group or Network. The food was very good this year and plenty of it. I’d have liked more time to eat and chat but we had to be back for the afternoon session for talks about the police, emergency services, and how call centres can improve services for deaf people. Hampshire police officer Glen Barham (an old boy of Ross’s school in Southampton though of a later generation!) said Hampshire was the first to provide a five digit emergency SMS number for deaf people locally to use on mobiles. Work is now being carried out to trial a national SMS emergency service for all forces. The text of Glen Barham's talk is in Network 95. Marcus Hickman from the Consumer Contact Association seemed to be well aware of the difficulty deaf people have using call centres and hoped to make things easier for us in future. The afternoon finished with a talk by Carol Attfield about her work as a Language Service Professional. As a freelance worker she has to be careful of her own safety and health. As she is usually working on her own there are many situations which could cause a problem. The whole day provided a useful insight into the health and safety of deafened people and those who work on our behalf.

Some of us then gathered in a pub round the corner from the conference venue. It was quite a surprise to turn the corner and find ourselves in a road of Georgian terraced houses with wrought iron balconies and some traditional pubs. We managed very well as a group enjoying our conversation with lip-reading, repeating things or writing notes, with no one getting left out. The wrapper on Jane Atkinson’s DVD has a quotation, “On the edge of conversation - one of the loneliest places on earth”. It is not like that when you are with deafened friends.

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Conference and AGM 2008

Norah Clewes

The 2008 Conference and AGM was held in the Old Joint Stock Theatre (OJST), Birmingham, which was an unusual venue but proved very successful. The OJST is a Victorian Grade two listed building, built in 1864, and originally the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank. It is situated on one side of the square surrounding Birmingham Cathedral, where the gardens made a pleasant walk before and after the meeting. The ground floor is a magnificent space now converted into a pub which was handy for the lunchtime drinks. (Due to a communication breakdown the expected tea and coffee ordered with lunch did not materialise). We had our Conference in the theatre on the second floor with over 80 members and friends plus a number of very well-behaved Hearing Dogs.

The Conference was opened by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Chaudry Rashid, who said he was delighted that we had chosen Birmingham. It was very interesting that he said he left Pakistan when he was fourteen and came to Birmingham which enjoys a very good reputation for caring for people whoever they are and wherever they come from. He said he was very proud of Birmingham because he has worked and lived there since 1963 and now has the honour of being Lord Mayor.

The first speaker was Laura Turton from the Warwickshire Audiology Services centred in Coventry where they work from two hospitals and have a very new, up to date audiology department. The text of her presentation can be seen in Network 91. A point that interested me was that some patients have very mild hearing loss that causes them amazing problems with their social life and how they interact with people, yet some patients with very severe and profound hearing losses who don't use a hearing aid cope very well. That is something I have noticed now I meet many older people with age related deafness. They do not seem to manage as well as those of us who have been severely deaf for years and have learnt to lip-read and make full use of every bit of modern technology to help ourselves.

I was very pleased that John Newton was able to ask the question I had in mind – what are audiology departments doing for patients who have lost all useful hearing and cannot get any benefit from hearing aids? He said he only recently was told by a social worker that he would be suitable for a cochlear implant and when he had the tests at the CI centre he realised this was something he should have had ten years ago. Yet no audiologist had suggested it to him. It is a very long time since I had any contact with audiology departments but I too only found out by chance (at an NADP conference) that it would be possible for me to have an implant.

Angela King from the RNID also spoke about what the future may hold for audiology services. (This talk too may be read in Network 91) She pointed out that the aging population means there will be an increase in hard of hearing people in UK in the future. It is more difficult for over 70s to learn to use hearing aids so the service will need to more accessible with better follow up, with more skilled professionals. Angela mentioned some interesting possibilities for future progress with hearing aids including a wireless link between two aids (one in each ear) which provides the advantages of having two hearing aids, giving synchronicity and directional hearing.

We then had the AGM which went smoothly and quickly with our new Chairman. Ross said the year had been overshadowed by the loss of Heather Jackson. A new Award in her memory has been instituted and voted for by a number of organisations with which Heather had been involved. The award this year went to Geoff Brown and Heather’s husband, David Jackson, was there to present it. David brought some tears to our eyes in sympathy for his loss but then Geoff made us smile with his typically modest words of acceptance.

Janine Burgess then made the presentation of the Gifford Hardy Trophy for the best article in Network first instituted fifteen years ago in memory of her father. The 2007 Trophy went to Karen Brennan for her article on “Living with a deafened husband”. Janine said Karen’s words echoed the experience of herself and her mother, living with her deafened father. She had really enjoyed reading an article written from the point of view of the hearing partner. Peter Brennan accepted the award on behalf of Karen, saying she was very supportive and he was very proud of her. It was then time for the lunch break, with a very good buffet, and the opportunity of catching up with old and young friends.

In the afternoon there was a fascinating talk from the semi-retired cochlear implant surgeon, John Graham, on the beginnings and history of cochlear implants. This is another subject that interested me as I remember spotting the small item of news in the Manchester Guardian in 1957 (one year after I was deafened) about a man in Paris having an electrode inserted in his ear to stimulate a sensation of sound. At that time it was not something I thought I would ever want! (This presentation can be read in Network 92.)

Tim Barlow, the deafened actor, finished the day with a version of his Earfull show, which he has previously performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as other venues around the country. As well as being entertaining and humorous it was an interesting way to learn of the experience of someone who was deafened from artillery training in the army. We also learnt about his decision to be an actor and how he copes with auditions and performing in theatre and in films, all with great humour which sent us off feeling we’d had a really useful and good day out.

The Annual Report and Accounts for year ending 31 December 2007 can be seen here.

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Conference and AGM 2007

A report by Norah Clewes

About 60 members and guests attended the 2007 Annual Conference held at the Charity Centre, Stephenson Way, London, on June 23. This is the third time we have used the centre, which is close to Euston Station. It has an excellent conference room and very pleasant and helpful staff. There may be slight confusion with the refreshments served in the basement and the conference on first floor leading to quite a lot of upping and downing by the lift or stairs but we all find our way about in the end.

Suzie Maine and daughter Emma (taking a day off from swotting for A levels) looked after registration with a revived system this year of using small stickers added to the name badges to show whether deafened, hard of hearing or hearing and first timer. This helped a lot with communication between those present.

Vice-Chairman, Ross Trotter, opened the meeting in place of Heather Jackson. He explained that Heather has been diagnosed with cancer and was unable to attend and invited everyone to sign a card for Heather to send our best wishes to her. (Editor's note - since this report was written Heather lost her battle with cancer and died on 14 August 2007.)

Hon. Secretary, Paul Tomlinson, then gave a short introduction to the theme of the morning session, which was the Disability Equality Duty (DED). DED applies to all public bodies, such as the NHS, local government, school governing boards, and many other organisations that impact on our daily life. This duty to provide equal access is in addition to the DDA.

Louise Harrington, Deputy Head of HR at Hertfordshire County Council, then gave a talk about what her council is doing for access for those with disabilities. In the following Q and A session one young member brought applause when she asked about door entry phones used in offices where there is no reception desk. These really are an obstacle to deaf people and Louise noted that point.

This was followed by a talk by Margaret Vartanian from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) which deals with government purchasing and procurement. Margaret is working on equality issues in the OGC. After her talk Ross pointed out the importance of the huge purchasing power of government procurement for deaf people because of its influence in providing accessible equipment. Ross thanked both speakers and said we were grateful that Margaret had volunteered to speak whereas no one from the vast Department of Work and Pensions was willing to give up their time on a Saturday in London!

Before lunch we fitted in a brief AGM which concluded with the presentation of the Gifford Hardy Trophy by Gifford's daughter, Janine Burgess, to Derek Trayler for his Network article (fantasy?) "Who would run the Hearing Dogs' Magazine?"

We had nearly an hour this year for the buffet lunch but the time still went very quickly with chatting to old friends that we only see once a year, and making new ones as we put a face to the names in Network and the email group.

The afternoon session started with an update from Ross on the Access to Communication in English (ACE) campaign, a campaign co-ordinated by the United Kingdom Council on Deafness that NADP is supporting. He said the government had provided £1.5 million to train BSL interpreters whilst ignoring the need for Language Service Professionals such as speech to text reporters and lipspeakers for the far greater numbers of deafened and hard of hearing people in the UK. This is something we are trying to remedy in the future.

Tabitha Allum, Chief Executive of STAGETEXT, then gave a presentation on the latest news on theatre captioning. As well as providing captions at various venues STAGETEXT is now providing advice and help to groups of theatres to provide their own captioning. It makes sense for groups to share the equipment and STAGETEXT are training more operators for them.

In the final session we had a talk by Karen Brennan, wife of EC member Peter Brennan. Peter was suddenly deafened from a virus when on a business trip in Northern Ireland five years ago. Karen talked about the problems of adjusting their family relationships to a newly deafened person and then again more adjustments when Peter had his cochlear implant two years later. Karen had a light-hearted take on some of their problems but finished with some serious points about the needs of deafened people in a hearing society.

Derek Trayler finished the day with a talk on his experience of being deafened five years ago after a life with perfect hearing. We applauded him and Vivienne who had enjoyed their Golden Wedding Anniversary the day before the meeting. Derek's usual humorous comments on his life with his Hearing Wife sent us all home with a smile on our faces that afternoon.

Perhaps the best way to finish is with a quote from Lorraine Gailey, the Director of the LINK Centre for Deafened People, who wrote afterwards to say "Can I take this opportunity to congratulate you formally on an excellent Conference last week? The balance of topics was very well thought out, and the content was good. The two spouses were absolutely superb, weren't they!! Karen spoke the truth as it is for her, and for so very many partners, and she spoke with affection and warmth rather than hostility or bitterness. Deafness as we know seriously affects EVERYONE in the family - easy to say, sometimes hard to accept that it really does apply to your own life."

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LINK/HC merger - NADP statement

NADP has been aware for some time that a merger between LINK and Hearing Concern was planned and has been kept informed of progress. We naturally hope that the outcome of this merger will be of benefit to deafened people in the UK, and we have been assured that under the leadership of Lorraine Gailey this will be the case.
NADP has always enjoyed a good working relationship with LINK, and we are sure this will continue with the new organisation. We feel that NADP differs in a number of ways - for example, we have no paid staff and all our Trustees are themselves deafened people - and therefore there remains a place for both NADP and the new organisation. NADP will therefore continue as a separate volunteer led and managed organisation serving the needs of our members and supporting the lives of deafened people, but we will also be assessing the success of the planned merger and any implications this may have for the way NADP develops in the future.

EFHOH newsletter

As a member of the European Federation for the Hard of Hearing (EFHOH), NADP receives their newsletters. The current issue (and an archive of earlier issues) can be found at the EFHOH Newsletter website.

Improving Health Care

A paper by Steve Powell of "Sign" on improving communication with GPs and hospitals for people with hearing loss (May 2006). PDF file (81.7 kB)

ACE Know Your Rights

Providing access to communication in English for deaf people. A leaflet explaining your rights to communication under the DDA can be downloaded here as a PDF file (46kB).

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Sign Language and Lip Speaking Events at the Royal Academy

For information visit the RA website:
For leaflets, a free copy of the RA Access Guide or any other queries please contact Access Officer:
access@royalacademy.org.uk
fax 020 7300 8071;
text phone 0800 197 8549.

Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 6YZ

All Royal Academy sign language and lip speaking events are listed on the Magic website: www.magicdeaf.org.uk

Mailing list
If you, or someone you know, would like to receive individual postal mailings from the Royal Academy of Arts, and are not currently on their mailing list, please email them on the above address.


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NADP's submission to NICE

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently carried out a Technology Appraisal into the provision of cochlear implants on the NHS. The NADP was invited to take part in this study and provided an extensive submission. We are delighted to see that NICE have published a Final Determination which provides a very positive appraisal of cochlear implants; this should result in their becoming more widely available within the NHS. The contributions made by the NADP and other patient groups had a significant impact on NICE’s assessment. Details of NICE’s decision can be obtained via http://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/TA166“.

Access at the Royal Collection

Guided Tour: the Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace
Saturday 28 August, 13:30
Visit one of the finest working stables in the world on a BSL Interpreted and Lipspeaking Guided Tour
The tour is included in the standard admission price, Adults: £7.75, Over 60s/Students £7.00, Under 17s: £5.00, Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s): £20.50.
Booking essential: telephone 020 7766 7323 or email education@royalcollection.org.uk

Guided Tour: Clarence House
Saturday 28 August, 16:30
Explore the official residence of TRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall world on a BSL Interpreted and Lipspeaking Guided Tour.
The tour is included in the standard admission price, Adults: £8.50, Over 60s/Students £8.50, Under 17s: £4.50
Booking essential: telephone 020 7766 7323 or email education@royalcollection.org.uk

Guided Tour: The Queen’s Year, Buckingham Palace
Saturday 04 September, 17:00
See this year’s Special Exhibition in the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace on a BSL Interpreted and Lipspeaking Guided Tour.
The tour is included in the standard admission price, Adults: £17.00, Over 60s/Students: £15.50, Under 17s: £9.75, Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s): £45.00
Booking essential: telephone 020 7766 7323 or email education@royalcollection.org.uk

New for 2010, a hand-held BSL video tour is available and guides visitors through the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace . The device can be collected from the audio distribution area at the start of the visit. Booking is advisable.

Guided Tour: Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Wednesday 08 September, 18:00
Explore the theme of family on a BSL Interpreted and Lipspeaking Guided Tour of the exhibition.
The tour is included in the standard admission price, Adults: £8.75, Over 60s/Students: £7.75, Under 17s: £4.50, Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s): £22.00
Booking essential: telephone 020 7766 7323 or email education@royalcollection.org.uk

BSL Video Clips
A series of short BSL video clips highlighting key objects and themes in the exhibition. Videos can be viewed on computer terminals in the Education Room, in The Queen’s Gallery, or online at www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/vanda

1-Year Pass
Enjoy free re-admission to our sites for a year if you buy your ticket directly from the Royal Collection. Simply ask us to stamp your ticket on your first visit.

Disability Employment Consultation

The DWP invited responses to a document "Improving Specialist Disability Employment Services." The window for responses closed in March 2008 but the results can be seen via the DWP website at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/resourcecentre/des-consultation.asp. NADP's response can be viewed as a pdf document (17kB) here

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Election Manifesto 2010

NADP has compiled a brief “Election Manifesto” in which we have set out a wish–list of some of the changes we consider are needed to make Britain a better place for people with hearing problems. This has been agreed by the Executive Committee and will be sent to all the major political parties for comment. However its impact will be increased if local electors send it to their local candidates w with a request for feedback on the extent to which the candidate will commit to supporting our wish–list. The Manifesto can be found here and we would be grateful to any members who could download it and send it to their local candidates with a suitable covering letter.