Urgent! Time running out to contact your election candidates

Image courtsesy of NDCS

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 deaf children.

And if you’ve already done it, now is good to remind them to sign it if they haven’t already. The NDCS pledge check page has a list of everyone who’s signed it thus far.

How to contact your local candidates? Click here, tell us where you live, click a few more times and bingo. NDCS works out who your candidates are and brings up a template message. Much easier to do than remembering to take off your microphone when having a private conversation about someone you’ve just met.

An update so far? Well, when I was first working on the pledge for NDCS, I thought maybe around 300 would sign it. 500 at a push. Well, so far, a whopping 839 have signed it. I’m amazed. The total includes 22 Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet Ministers, including the leads on education for each party. Over 120 Conservative candidates have signed it, even though the party traditionally tends not to sign election pledges. I’m doubly amazed.

Whilst this is fantastic, not all of these people will get elected to become MPs. Which is why it would be great to get the number up even higher in the next week to increase the chances of getting a good large bunch of MPs who know about deafness and are willing to take action to support deaf children. Given that deafness is a “invisible” disability and given the likelihood of big cuts to public spending, NDCS needs as much support as possible from MPs over the next five years.

So contact your local candidates now while they’re still running around the country desperate to get your vote.

Cheers!

Leading politician reminisces on cochlear implants

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. Recently, my office finally got a young boy the ear implant his family had been campaigning for.”

Image courtesy of Knutsford Guardian

The boy in question is Matthew (pictured left in photo) whose family successfully went to war against local health bosses who had refused to fund a second cochlear implant and dragged their feet on it for an eternity, even though the boy had a legal entitlement to the procedure. A Family Officer from the National Deaf Children’s Society supported the family in their legal battle and the story got featured in the other Guardian – the Knutsford Guardian back in January.

Really interesting to see it’s one of the most memorable local cases for George. And a nice example of how getting a Member of Parliament involved can make a big difference to local campaigns.

PS If you want to make sure that your future MP will support deaf children, why not ask him/her to sign the NDCS election pledge for deaf children?

David Cameron challenged on special educational needs and inclusion

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 “end the bias” towards mainstream schools for children with special educational needs and disability. And also stop the closure of special schools. The father argued that there was actually a bias against inclusion in mainstream schools, evidenced by his struggle to get his son into his local mainstream school.

What makes this quite interesting is that David Cameron previously had a disabled son, whilst the Conservative lead on education, Michael Gove, has a deaf sister who attended a special school for the deaf. You’d be hard pressed to come across two senior politicians with such a personal and direct experience of disability.

The Conservatives argue that they’re not in favour of “reversing” the bias or moving towards segregation for disabled children in schools – simply, that they want more parental choice. When Michael Gove was interviewed by three deaf students in January, he said:

“I think for years now we have had this assumption that it’s always better for children who have a hearing impairment or who are living with another disability to be in mainstream school. My view is that there should be a choice. It depends on the child, it depends on the parent, it depends on individual circumstances. And it’s wrong to have a fixed view on this.”

Many would agree that there needs to be choice and flexibility so that the child and parents gets what they need and want. It’s broadly consistent with the Labour party and the Liberal Democrat party’s vision for children with special educational needs. And looking at the National Deaf Children’s Society statement on inclusion, there is a call for a spectrum of provision to ensure that parents of deaf children can, in fact, have this choice.

Nevertheless, the line “ending the bias” has raised a few eyebrows within the charitable sector and the parties do differ in their emphasis and their specific policies fror making sure disabled children are able to fulfil their potential. More widely, it’s fair to say that there are some fairly entrenched views on whether the problem is that local authorities won’t fund places for disabled children in mainstream classrooms, or for special schools, further away. Certainly, many parents of deaf children seem to struggle to get the provision they want, regardless. I suspect, in many areas, there is simply not enough money given to pupils with special educational needs and disability, even though such pupils amount to one in five of the school population.

Despite the lack of answers, it’s good to see this issue getting an airing during the election. Congratulations to Mr. Angry Dad of Disabled Son for making this happen.

To help you make up your own mind, NDCS’s summary of the main three UK party manifestos on deaf children can be found in the manifestos section of the NDCS election web special. Let us know below what you think of what the parties are saying on special educational needs and disability.

Update: the amazing Major Phil Packer completes the London Marathon

Phil Packer did it! 26 miles in 26 hours for 26 different charities. A whopping achievement given the severe injuries he picked up in the Iraq war.

After blogging about it last week, I popped along on Sunday morning to see Phil walk the 3rd mile with deaf young person Jade, for the National Deaf Children’s Society. It was great to meet him in person, a really warm, friendly and open person. He was in good spirits and making great progress. He was also very keen to find out more about Jade and her experiences of being deaf.

And from what I’ve heard from Jade, she had a great time too. She managed to persuade Phil to come and visit her school and also managed to get some free NDCS-branded trainers out of the event! She was a great ambassador for NDCS.

Phil completed the marathon yesterday morning. I hope he’s having a good long rest now! If you’d like to donate in light of his massive achievement, visit the NDCS website.

But enough of me waffling on, what did Jade have to say?

“I really enjoyed meeting Phil Packer. It was a fascinating day even when it rained. The moment I met Phil, it was specific moment that was filled with positive mixture emotions I had because I always wanted to meet famous people. However, Phil was a hero, he went to war and fought bravely, unfortunately he got injured during the war in Iraq.

When I saw him, I cant imagine how painful it must be for him to be injured, however I am glad that he is rehabilitating and recovering nevertheless. When I walked with him for a mile it felt like I was walking for 5mins – time flies. When I talked to him about my experience overcome of my deafness, I mention about Mary Hare Grammar School where I currently study at the moment. Once he heard positive things about that school. He said he would come and visit real soon, not like couple of month but couple of weeks!!

During the walk, trainers and t-shirt was provided free! The moment they opened the box of new trainers it was sparkling new with pink and white colour which was matched to my scarf! It was amazing and marvellous because I wasn’t expecting this. I was filmed by BBC throughout the walk and it represents to people that he was determined to walk 26miles. We had conversation all the way non stop. We also had funny times such as yelling each other not to walk under the sign because i believe it was bad luck, it same as walking under the ladder. Me and Phil and his team laughed as I say “Don’t walk under it! Walk around it!”

Overall, I really appreciated this event and Phil because he is supporting young people with disability problems and he is trying to raise awareness. Phil is planning to open a “Youth Centre” his own business for young people who have problems to go to this location to meet other people who may have the same problems. It would make a massive change to young people’s life, it would make it better and exceptional future.”

I think Phil Packer deserves huge thanks and admiration for all of his work to raise money for disadvantaged children. A really inspiring guy.

The amazing Major Phil Packer

Image courtesy of Help for Heroes

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 year, the ex-solider completed the marathon in crutches in two weeks, raising loads of money to help those in need. This year, he’s looking to do the same this Sunday, but with a difference – 26 miles in 26 hours for 26 charities. Each mile is being dedicated to a charity that helps disadvantaged young people across the UK.

I feel doubly humble to hear that mile 3 is being dedicated to the National Deaf Children’s Society. Jade, a 17 year old deaf young person, will be completing the 3rd marathon alongside Phil.

In a time when heroes are few on the ground, Phil is a really inspiring man. I’ll be there on Sunday morning to cheer him and Jade on.

If you’d like to donate money for Phil’s third mile, you can do so here.

Update: BSL still not equal in status to other languages, said Government

Image courtesy of www.blanchenevile.org.uk

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 status as modern foreign languages.

Do you want the good news first? Well, the proposals to make primary school children learn a new language were abandoned by the Government a few weeks back, just before Parliament was dissolved for the general election.

The bad news? The proposals weren’t abandoned because of a change of heart, but to get other new laws through in the short term then available. Judging by correspondence from around the same time, the Government hasn’t really changed its mind on BSL. Warm words aside, the Government is sticking to its definition of languages, not realising that the creation of a definition of languages which excludes BSL is arbitrary and therefore, discriminatory. As well as offensive to those who communicate in BSL. Why is BSL less valuable than Welsh or Mandarin that schools shouldn’t be free to teach it in schools if they want to do so?

Because there is no change of heart, it means that these proposals could return to Parliament, depending on the outcome of the general election. I’m on red alert.

More detail from NDCS on the issue is on their website. In the meantime, what are your views? What are your thoughts on how to make the decision-makers realise that, duh!, BSL should have the same status as other modern foreign languages?

Are we making deaf children matter in the general election?

Image courtesy of NDCS

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 2023 emails to candidates between them. A really good start.

Notable signatories include Michael Gove, the shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for the Conservatives and David Cameron’s right-hand man. Michael’s sister is deaf so it’s great that he’s bringing his own personal experience of deafness to the election campaign.

Sadiq Khan, Minister for Transport, is the first Cabinet Minister to sign the pledge. As he was my own MP in the last Parliament, I’m quite relieved I’ve managed to get my own local candidates on board.

And Norman Lamb, Shadow Secretary of State for Health for the Liberal Democrats has also lent his support, along with Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green party and many other Green candidates.

What’s been great about reading the comments from candidates who’ve signed the pledge is realising just how many have their own personal connection with deafness. Stephen Lloyd, Lib Dem candidate for Eastbourne, is hearing impaired himself. Others have a long history of working with children with special educational needs, like Pat Glass, Labour candidate for North West Durham. Many others are just keen to make sure that deafness isn’t an invisible disability in the next Parliament.

The full list of candidates who’ve signed the pledge can be found here, if you want to see who else is on it.

All of this is a great start, but there are still loads more candidates to sign up. Around 3000 more if my back of the envelope calculation is anything to go by. So it’s important that NDCS supporters keep writing in to their own local candidates. If you’ve already emailed, why not email again to remind them? After all, if you can’t stalk you own local candidates during an election period, when can you stalk them?

If you want to email your candidates, just pop along to this website. Only takes around 3 minutes. I did mine while I was waiting for the kettle to boil.

Have you had any interesting comments from your candidates? If so, please let us know and leave a comment below.

Stats on cinema access in UK

Image courtesy of NDCS

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 top 20 UK releases last year were available with subtitles at the cinema (I think the offending omission may have been the Twilight film…)
* 300 plus cinemas have subtitled facilities, around half of all cinemas. This compares to around 20 in 2003. Those that don’t, tend to be smaller, independent cinemas.
* There are 550 subtitled films shown nationwide weekly

Apparently, the UK is the only country in the EU that offers subtitled films on this scale.

Not that there still isn’t a lot of progress to be made. Lots of subtitled films are still on only at the off-peak “graveyard” slots. “Technical problems” still crop up. And I still have a dream that one day I’ll be able to go into any cinema and ask for on-demand subtitles on any film. Encouragingly though, cinemas seem to be listening to these points, as the very existence of the disability working group shows.

But, since I’m in a good mood today, I think it’s worth praising the cinemas for the progress made so far. Do you agree that things are better than they used to be? What progress do you want to see next?

PS Just a reminder that you can see which subtitled films are showing in your area at yourlocalcinema.com.

New education laws to improve education 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 worth getting a little bit excited about.

These are the Children, Schools and Families Act and the Equality Act. The former introduces a new right of appeal for parents of deaf children if their local authority refuses to update their statement for special educational needs support needed at school. And the latter makes a major changes to disability discrimination law by saying that disabled children now have the right to specialist equipment like radio aid microphones. Previously, this was only guaranteed to disabled children if it was included in their statement of support. A rather strange get-out clause for schools has now been closed.

Why are they important? Government figures from last year suggest that deaf children are 42% less likely to do as well in their GCSEs as other children. It’s an obvious point but unless deaf children are getting the support they need, we won’t close the gap in attainment. I think the Government deserves some plaudits for getting these new laws on the book.

The bad news is that the proposed new law on pupil and parent guarantees didn’t make it in the end. The week before Parliament is dissolved is known as the “wash-up” period where MPs take all their dirty coffee cups to the kitchen and where the Government and the opposition party also have to agree what laws will pass in the short time left. The guarantees didn’t get cross-party support so they fell by the wayside. I thought it was a shame. The guarantees wouldn’t have changed the world overnight for deaf children. But they could have been an important means to an end; of setting out new entitlements that would, again, have helped make sure that deaf children get the support they need.

Still, a nice little bookend to the last parliamentary session. More information about the new laws is on the NDCS website.

What do you think? Will the new laws make a difference? What else needs to be done to close the gap? As always, good to hear your thoughts.

Radio programme about deafness – (not) accessible!

UPDATE (3.15pm)

Well, turns out it wasn’t accessible at the same time as broadcast on the radio after all. Signed version and a transcript will follow “later”. I’ve cancelled the warm fuzzy thoughts. Not quite sure I understand the point of trumpeting something as accessible if deaf people can’t access it at the same time as everyone else. A real missed opportunity and rather just highlights how deaf young people and adults are treated as second-class citizens by our media.

Maybe I’ll ask the TV licensing people if they mind if I pay my licence fee “later”…

Original blog (9.40am):

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 refreshing change. I’ll be tuning it and hoping it’s a good one. But in the meantime, warm fuzzy thoughts to the BBC today.

Let us know what you think of the programme. Below is some more info about it:

A Small Piece of Silence

Today, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4

Synopsis

A Small Piece of Silence by Katie Hims

A Small Piece of Silence started out in a very different way to most radio plays. After David Bower’s striking performance as Quasimodo in Radio Four’s production of The Hunchback of Notredame, the producer Susan Roberts suggested a contemporary play be written specially for him. After many initial conversations with David who plays the lead character Joe in the play, Katie Hims’ story began to emerge.

In A Small Piece of Silence, Joe who has been Deaf since he was born , works in an ordinary council office . Every day he makes the same journey to work on the bus, seeing the same people . Then one day a young girl signs her name to him. A_N_G_E_L.

Joe has been working in the council’s housing office for 17 years. Apart from one small promotion he has remained in the same job surrounded by the same people . Vernon has been there for the same amount of time. He eats Joe’s food and talks too fast in the pub ..but Joe goes along with it.

Into their world comes new office recruit Shelly who begins to fall for Joe. Until Joe realises that she is having a relationship with Richard Humble , the leader of the council

At the end of Shelly’s first week there is a huge fire in a nearby block of flats. Joe learns that Angel was one of the people who has died.

And so Joe’s life is changed forever as he embarks on a quest, turning detective to find out what has happened.

A Small Piece of Silence is a love story, detective story but, using sound, it attempts to give us a picture of the world of someone who can’t hear. It examines the issues around how society deals with Deafness through the character of Joe.

Cast
Joe ….. David Bower
Shelly ….. Maxine Peake
Vernon ….. Ralph Ineson
Brigitta ….. Deborah McAndrew
Marion ….. Ruth Alexander-Rubin
Richard/ Bus Driver ….. Terence Mann

Music composed and performed by Liran Donin

Artistic consultant Isolte Avila. Developed in partnership with Signdance Collective.

Directed in Manchester by Susan Roberts.

Liran Donin provides specially composed music and a soundscape that illustrates Joe’s view of the world. Joe suffers from Tinitus. Liran, underscores this condition in sound.

David Bower is one of the creative directors of Signdance Collective , an international dance music theatre company lead by Deaf and physically disabled dance theatre artists working alongside composer musicians.

Katie Hims’ first radio play, ‘The Earthquake Girl’, won a Richard Imison Award in 1998, and since then her work has never failed to make an impression. In Katie’s world there is a semblance of normality but underneath all that you can be sure is that something strange — and rather magical — is going on. Her most recent work for radio includes 43.59: 45′ original play and FIVE WEDDING DRESSES: 5 x 15′ BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour.