ATR VIDEO

 

Deaf people and Isolation.

More than a quarter of deaf people say they have been ignored in public, according to a major survey by a leading charity. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People asked more than 8,000 deaf people and people with hearing loss about their experiences and found that many say they still face considerable stigma in their daily lives.

Two-thirds (67%) of respondents said they had experienced negative attitudes or behaviours in the past year. Nearly half (48%) said they had experienced this from their own family members. The regular exclusion from social situations has an impact, with large numbers of those surveyed saying it had left them feeling lonely, isolated and lacking in confidence.

Sarah Adedjei, 23, from Erith in southeast London wasn't born deaf but lost her hearing as a child. "One time, somebody came up to me and asked for directions. I said: 'Sorry I didn't catch that, I'm deaf,' and they said 'Oh, it doesn't matter'. I said, 'No, I can help, just repeat what you said,' and they just said 'Oh, sorry, it doesn't matter,' and walked off. This happens so often. It makes you feel like you don't matter."

Crystal Rolfe, director of strategy at the charity, said: "Our research shows that every day people face negative attitudes and behaviours at work, when they're out shopping, and even from their families.

ATR Comment: A percentage of deaf people may never be able to integrate, regardless how accommodating others are.  Issues of communications, degree or type of deafness, time acquired, and lifestyles can have a direct bearing on inclusion, as can societal attitudes of a minority of deaf areas.

It is all too easy to go to media and apportion 'blame' to everyone else because deafness has limited your options,  or affected your ability to effectively socialise.  Of course there are areas within mainstream who don't have the patience or take the time to include, you just have to accept this will always be the case.  We deaf work at percentages 100% inclusion is a pipe dream, I could suggest 30% or less is nearer the most accurate guess, the same percentage as the effectiveness of lip-reading..   You cannot legislate the man in the street to accept or include you, so it comes down to their attitude, and, ours.  various inclusion laws and Acts only apply to SYSTEMS.  We both have to work at it. Many areas of the Deaf community don't actually want inclusion as most would assume the definition is, but prefer 'own' society as such. 

We can take examples or racial/ethnic or religious areas e.g. who like  'Deaf' prefer their own 'community' with own ethos and norms, and own 'language'.  Deaf people are just one area of 100s who already run social areas on a parallel direction, but not along with,  what we define as the 'mainstream'.  The endless drive to attain status for the Deaf communities, 'deaf-only' areas, even sign language which may well assist some deaf, but just is another 'barrier' perhaps mainstream won't try to overcome to help, and anyway is only one type of communication assist amid numerous others deaf use. 

Even then there is no consensus which 'format' is 'best' for deaf people.  Each deaf person has own road to travel, it is perhaps illogical to insist mainstream accommodate them all.  Nobody mentions the elephant in the room deafness itself is a debilitating sensory disability, and no amount of portraying deafness and hearing loss,  as something else, is changing the realities, because 10m suffer from it, and most of those would want rid of it, even those who go deaf after formative education, are against the aspect of a deaf community,because it is still Isolation, a cell with curtains on the bars,  with strict rules and norms to accommodate a drive for cultural status, and in an endless linguistic war it isn't really winning.  Many deafened or HI, don't  adopt sign language use, because they believe it restricts options, and it means reliance on others.  Whilst Deaf BSL users may accept this as a norm, most of us won't, we have had hearing  so we know what we have lost, or are losing.  We also know the first reaction to deafness is why me? followed by anger at others.  Deaf who never heard, rebrand it as a personal discrimination.

LOSS is the main criteria here, loss = Disability.  Those for whom hearing is something they have never had, are really in no position to declare deafness is not an issue, and the simplistic answer is to teach everyone with hearing to use sign language, it would not meet many millions who either do not want it, or want a cure or alleviations instead.  Taken in perspective (And playing Devil's advocate), Mainstream has 1,000s of areas (Hearing and disabled), demanding they adapt to include all manner of needs (And some not so much needs but politics).  Whilst BSL/Culture/clubs can meet a social need, it probably ruins members of it, for seeing a valid point in integrating with others not like them, or even unable to communicate with properly. Statistically the basis of the culture is diminishing too, with an 80% reduction in deaf schools, mainstreaming of deaf children, and huge demise's of deaf clubs too.

We are in transition mode, and the 'Deaf' community looking like it's fighting a desperate rear-guard action to stem the tide. In any case, they are a minority amid deaf and HI, so consensus on what they believe is the way ahead, isn't actually relevant to the majority.  If they lose a deaf culture to deaf being included is that not a price worth paying?  Clearly some say no, it is that area, which will basically oppose real inclusion.  

The article included from the RNID, I fear is unhelpful, it's stats including non-deaf people, workers in the field, and vested interest charities too, 6,000 out of 10m suggests, nothing substantive, or definitive.  We cannot keep blaming the many, for the antics of the few, or, we alienate them too. Life happens, we just need to accept and get on with that.  We also need to clarify the minority are not the majority or can speak for them either.  Nothing for us without us, but nothing without mainstream either.   If we treat them as enemies we are always at odds.  We aren't numbers, but we have very complex needs, with no single answer.

BSL Deaf attack gene success.

Swiftly following on from a great success in enabling hearing in a deaf child.  Leading UK deafie like Rose Ayling-Ellis admitted she's "heartbroken" and "frightened", and the BSL Charity the BDA attacks gene therapies as undermining deaf people and their culture.  Rose attained fame by NOT using BSL, and was a lip-reader, who went over to the 'dark side' to enjoy BSL luvvie status instead and become a martyr for their lost cause.  The BDA charity a pain in the hearing loss backside.

Go Opal!

What right do these people have to tell parents of a deaf child or us as deaf adults, to not support or opt for medical advances that help us?  Rose isn't this child's mother, the BDA is not this child's family either.  Don't tell others what they should or shouldn't do.

ATR asks, is it not time these extreme areas of 'Deaf' people (Obviously we aren't because our face didn't fit), were put in their place for their relentless assaults on any sort of alleviations of deafness or possible cures and research on hearing loss?  Since day one it is don't have CI's, don't wear hearing aids, don't lip-read (That's oralism), and question the value of BSL under pain of eternal damnation.  

Maybe we could start  by asking fund-givers, and ask the charity commission, to lay down more strict criteria on handing funds over to an area, that represents people who want to prolong reliance, maintain a disability, erect a tiered education system with its own language' dominant, to create deaf have, and have-nots, and to promote some sort of sign-using elite,  and undermine free choice?

10m people exist in the UK with hearing loss from slight to profound degree. 10m these people only recognise when they want more money to promote their own way of life.  Whose entire membership is point.00002% of us all.     Should we be taking any notice of a a small, group of secular deaf miseries who would begrudge a small child an opportunity in life, because they don't want it, or it won't work for them? So who is forcing them? NOBODY is!  They should openly admit it means less deaf they can control, less kudos and ego's to be inflated, and less money for them to spend on themselves.

It's time we exposed these people as totally unrepresentative of fair-minded deaf people.  They shame us all.

Inclusion For the elite few?