University access for deaf students fail

Image courtesy of the Northern Echo

An interesting article appeared in Guardian yesterday about Rosie Watson, a deaf mature student, who took Durham University to court for breaking disability discrimination laws.

On the one hand, it’s a very inspiring story about a gutsy deaf person who refused to let the university get away with it. On the other hand, it’s appalling what she went through what she did. The Guardian also reports that disabled students at Oxford are twice as likely to drop out and that the Students Loans Company is failing to approved Disabled Students Allowances quickly enough.

It all reminded me of own experiences at university (many years ago), which I blogged about ages back. Back then I speculated whether this was a one-off experience. I’m beginning to think that it probably isn’t.

It all raises a lot of questions. Are these one-off cases or widespread problems across all universities? Why? Do deaf students know their rights? Are they making a fuss about it or are they just “coping”? Were universities having a sick day when the Disability Discrimination Act was passed? Do they think that deaf young people are so thick that they would never think of applying, or even going to university?

What are your thoughts? Do you know of any cases where deaf students have been let down at university? Be good to hear about it.

Enjoy the NDCS pub quiz – from the comfort of your desk!

Well, last Wednesday’s fundraising pub quiz – that I mentioned last week – was great fun. Such was the excitement that I was unable to write about it for a few days.

I researched and came up with the questions myself so took an evil pleasure in watching people’s brains nearly explode as they tried to think of the right answers. The rounds ranged from deaf trivia, geography, guess the flavour of the crisps, Where’s Mr. Monkey been? (with photos) and a Missing Words round with articles featuring NDCS. As you can see from the photo, Mr Monkey had fun tallying up the scores. The winning team’s achievement – by a close margin of 1 and a half points – was all the more impressive when you consider that their team name was ‘Team Hungover’.

Best of all? We managed to raise over £350 for the National Deaf Children’s Society’s work to break down barriers holding deaf children back. And I’m a little closer to raising the £5,000 for my team’s 3 Peaks Challenge in July.

But the fun doesn’t quite end here. In response to overwhelming popular demand, I’ve decided to put the pub quiz questions online so that a wider audience can enjoy them and rack their brains over questions like why the people of Hartlepool hung a poor little monkey to death. To see them, download them now.

The only catch is that if you want to know the answers, you’ll have to make a donation – of any amount – to NDCS via our 3 Peaks Challenge fundraising page! Once you’ve done that, just email me at iannoon@hotmail.com with Pub quiz in the subject heading box and I’ll email you the answers If you’ve already made a donation, then skip the first step and just email me direct.

I hope you enjoy the questions and good luck!

PS For obvious reasons, you would have to have been there to enjoy the Guess the Flavour of the Crisps round, so sorry about that.

Why I’m doing the NDCS 3 Peaks Challenge

10k? Been there, done that. Half-marathon? Ditto. Marathon. Easy-peasy. I’ve now signed up to a new challenge – the 3 Peaks challenge! In July, I’ll be climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours as part of a fool-hardy team of 5 walkers and 2 drivers.

And we’re doing it for deaf children. Not because there’s a group of them stranded up there but because the National Deaf Children’s Society is a charity we all want to support. 6 out of 7 of us are deaf and we all have some connection with National Deaf Children’s Society – either as a volunteer or through work. In my case, both.

I’m doing it because my parents probably didn’t get the support and impartial advice they needed when my sister and I were growing up, and I know that many others even now still don’t. And because I get to see first hand the difference NDCS makes at events for deaf children and young people, as witnessed by my last blog. And because I think it’s a bloody outrage that deaf children are 42% less likely to do as well in their GCSEs than other children.

At some point, I’m probably going to have to ramp up my training strategy so that it involves more than just walking up the inclined moving walkway at Bank tube station. But, for now, the main focus is fundraising. My team’s goal is to raise £5,000 and we’ve raised nearly one fifths of that so far on our special Just Giving.com page.

In the hope of raising loadsmoremoney, I’ve arranged a fundraising pub quiz tonight and have spent much of the past week thinking up a mix of easy and difficult questions, and sorting a few special rounds. One of them involves my special childhood friend, Mr. Monkey, who’s recently been sightseeing all over London for a special photo round for tonight. I’m really looking forward to it – a fun way to make money and hopefully, everyone will have a good time too.

I’ll blog again soon with details of how the evening went, and look out for more blogs in coming weeks on our fundraising and training running up to the actual 3 Peaks Challenge.

“Yes, I’m deaf…”

Image courtesy of NDCS

I thought I would share a little anecdote from last weekend where I was busy volunteering at a National Deaf Children’s Society “Getting Ahead” training weekend in Epping Forest. As always, it was great to meet some deaf youngsters and see them in action learning how to develop their confidence, think about their future and pick up new skills. They all seemed to have a great time, despite the cold turkey some felt from having to go without their mobiles for much of the weekend…

Anyhow, during the weekend, the teenagers were doing some team building activities with the centre staff, who had clearly not met many deaf children before. One instructor went up to one teenager, who communicated orally and was not “obviously” deaf. Here’s how their conversation went:

Instructor: “So this is a group that’s half hearing, half deaf then?”
Teenager: “No, we’re all deaf.”
Instructor: “You’re deaf?”
Teeanger: “Yes, I’m deaf. I talk but I’m still deaf.”

It could have been a very awkward conversation but the teenager defused it brilliantly, whilst also giving some impromptu deaf awareness training to the instructors. But what made it quite a nice moment for me was that when I first met the teenager, I expected him to be like myself when I was his age – very oral and, in a way, denying and “pretending” not be deaf. Give him a few days at a NDCS weekend, he’s proudly claiming an identity as deaf and addressing it openly, honestly and confidently.

A nice little demonstration of what I think are one of the benefits of NDCS events for deaf children and young people.

NDCS election pledge a big success

Image courtesy of NDCS

Sad political geek that I am, I stayed up all night on Thursday to see the election results. If you think that’s bad, at the same time, I was ticking off the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) list of politicians who had signed the NDCS election pledge for deaf children to see who got elected on the night.

Now with the benefit of sleep, I’ve been checking the list and coming up with a definitive number of politicians elected who’ve committed to supporting deaf children. And the final total is…. drum roll… 223!

NDCS’s initial target was around 50, my expectations have turned out to be way off. It’s a fantastic result, and all down to the thousand supporters who contacted their local candidates. It’s genuinely very pleasing, especially as it includes some big-hitters like Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, and the education spokespeople from Labour, Conservative and Lib Dems (Ed Balls, Michael Gove and David Laws).

Of course, it’s only a means to an end. Any MP can sign a pledge, but what they need to do is step up and take action to make deaf children matter. But what it does mean is that a third of all MPs have at least promised to support deaf children. At the time of writing, we may not actually have a new Government just yet, but we do at least have that to hold onto. NDCS will now be working hard to make sure they keep their promises over the coming years.

Thanks again to everyone who took part and supported this campaign; it’s much appreciated and will make a big difference.

PS If you want to see if your MP signed the pledge, check the NDCS list.

Who will make deaf children matter in the general election?

All the newspapers seem to be busy publicly endorsing political parties, so I guess it’s only fair and proper that this blog, as an equally important media outlet, advises you on who you should vote for tomorrow.

This blog therefore endorses the following party for the general election 2010….

Only joking! I would probably get carted off to jail or, worse, forbidden from ever going near the chocolate digestives at work ever again. Charities need to be politically impartial under the law, after all. In any event, I’m quite old-fashioned about voting and think everyone should decide individually and privately who they want to vote for, without nudges and winks from others.

Image courtesy of NDCS

However, if you are interested in what the parties say about deaf children, disability and special educational needs, then the National Deaf Children’s Society website has a very short summary of what the three main UK party manifestos have to say on this, which may help guide you.

You can also read the transcripts from the interviews that education spokespersons from each party did with deaf young people back in January.

Finally, you can also see whether the politicians in your area have promised to support deaf children if they are elected, by signing the National Deaf Children’s Society election pledge for deaf children.

The election promises to be very close and the next Government is likely to be making some difficult decisions on public spending cuts to come, so every vote will make a difference.

Happy voting!