Pardon? I'm deaf. When will you listen? We need access for All!
Deaf people from all walks of life have been working really hard to raise awareness of the impact of not being able to follow when everyone is wearing face masks in shops and enclosed spaces.
Here are some of our efforts to spread this awareness:
https://www.lep.co.uk/news/people/it-scares-me-says-bamber-bridge-charity-ambassador-about-impact-face-masks-shops-deaf-people-2922414
If you have any more – please do send them to us and we will add them to this page.
Hello Pardon? members! It seems like we have confused a lot of members with our pinned post on closing groups – so we’ve taken the most frequently asked questions and explained it here.
Firstly – Pardon? is not going anywhere. Continue reading “Clarification on Closure of “Pardon?” sub-groups”
At its worst, depression can be a frightening, debilitating condition. Millions of people around the world live with depression. Many of these individuals and their families are afraid to talk about their struggles, and don’t know where to turn for help. However, depression is largely preventable and treatable. Recognizing depression and seeking help is the first and most critical towards recovery.
In collaboration with WHO to mark World Mental Health Day, writer and illustrator Matthew Johnstone tells the story of overcoming the “black dog of depression”. More information on the book can be found here: http://matthewjohnstone.com.au/
For more information on mental health, please visit: http://www.who.int/topics/mental_health/en/
Disclaimer: This video may contain links and references to third party-websites. WHO is not responsible for, and does not endorse or promote, the content of any of these websites and the use thereof.
This video has subtitles, however you will need to turn them on.
Back in March/April of 2013, Rachel Kolb wrote an essay titled “Seeing at the Speed of Sound”. You can read the article here.
Since then, she’s gone on to feature in a short documentary called “Can you read my lips?” – which was inspired by the essay she wrote. Uploaded two months ago, the 4 minute long short was produced by Little Moving Pictures and directed by David Terry Fine is opening the eyes and minds of hearing people that don’t understand our deafness and highlights the issues that we slam into every day when trying to understand what people are trying to say. Continue reading “Can you read my lips?”
We are deaf, and we need access for all. That’s our strapline and our vision.
We pay a licence fee, full licence fee, just like everyone else. We are learning about politics, for the first time we have been able to understand what it’s really all about because we’re deaf and can’t hear things, but we have been following the General election – finally – thanks to social media and your hard work. We have to say your subtitles for the election were amazing, the best we’ve ever seen, then this… Continue reading “Hello BBC (and other broadcasters) – from Pardon!”
I’m not normally one to read the papers as half the time articles can be over exaggerated or just impartial facts but I’ve come across something today that made me sad. For those of you who don’t know me – I’m profoundly deaf and I have a Hearing Dog from the assistance dog charity, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, called Inca. Continue reading “Fake Hearing Dogs”
North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has announced proposals to withdraw the provision of NHS-funded hearing aids for adults with mild to moderate age-related hearing loss! Continue reading “Hands off our hearing aids!”
Dear Ms Fern O’Sullivan and Mr Chris North,
We are writing to you under the auspices of Pardon a social network group consisting of over 3,400 people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Our group focuses on raising awareness and campaigning for access to communication for all people with deafness or hearing loss. Continue reading “An Open Letter to the CEOs of LOVEFiLM”
A while back various people linked to an HMRC consultation which some us participated in. The results of that consultation are now out in full and summary form.
Page 6 discusses the definition of groups needing extra help (how very medical model, why not frame it as ‘more screwed over by systemic fail’?) including deaf/HOH and pleasingly people with mental health impairments who also struggle with phones.
Page 8 identifying that deaf people don’t always have access to telephony, textphones, textrelay or a third party who can act on their behalf (shame their lawyers don’t know this!)
Page 15 mentions deaf people and phone access. Acess to face to face appointments with communication support. Feasibility of alternative access to phone such as SMS or email.
Question for Communication professionals.
What would you do if you went to a medical assessment supporting a deaf person and the assessor asked you to stop providing communication support for any reason? (Call it a dilemma if you like!).
If that happened to you as a deaf person how would you react?
There were lots of comments on our Facebook page about ATOS. Here are a couple …
That happened to me, the assessor told the interpreter to stop signing and for me to lipread her. So I told the interpreter to stop voicing over and for the assessor to understand my signing!
The assessor then apologised!I have been on the ATOS medical with no support and no aids it was awful she stood in a corner with her back to me and was shouting [I could tell by her body language] words for me to repeat it was pathetic and awful never again I gave up oh and I failed.
One of the Ethos of a NRCPD registered communication professional is “do no harm” and part of the training for the qualification is to have dilemmas like this. whatever you do – as a CP – you are responsible for the client. should there be misunderstanding, it is your role to ensure the client knows. This is especially hard for those CP’s working with deafblind people – but equally important for all. Should an agency or person who books them try to make them work outside that remit, the CP themselves have just as much right as the client to make a complaint to the NRCPD board.
On the matter of ATOS assessments, just been informed a lady had an assessment with a notetaker, she asked the notetaker for a copy of the on screen notes, the notetaker refused saying they were the property of ATOS as ATOS had paid, so she asked ATOS while she was there, they refused, the notetaker told her it was because the notes were a legal document. Now this isnt right somewhere, hopefully it will be sorted when the lady sees her social worker tomorrow
Clearly there is confusion at ATOS and on the notetaker’s part as to who the notes actually belong to. They exist to provide communication support for the deaf person, not ATOS!
Link: Is Hoban and the DWP letting you know your rights on Atos assessment recordings?
