Comments on "The R Word" by Emily Howlett.

Last week Emily Howlett wrote a piece that struck a large personal chord with me for the Limping Chicken entitled "The R Word - Why we Need to Start Talking About It". The article discusses rape and the attitudes towards rape of different groups of people including the Deaf Community.
I thought it was an interesting article because, as Emily rightly points out - rape is something that, understandably, is just not spoken about. I thought some of her reasonings for why perhaps rape is an even harder topic of discussion for deaf people made perfect sense and many of which were things a number of my friends have had to consider, and overcome, in the past.

I also thought that her comments about the fear felt by deaf women around the issue of how and when to report rape or sexual assault were very interesting.
I have never come across (although there may be one!) a charity dedicated to only helping deaf victims or abuse... Many charities offer phone line counseling for victims which is completely inappropriate for deaf people and would be very difficult to access. 
As well as this Emily's points about the closeness of Deaf Community making reporting rape even more difficult really hit home with me. Deaf Community is a world where almost everyone knows everyone and you often have mutual friends with other deaf people... I suppose it's a similar feeling to having 100 people in your school year and being sexually assaulted by one of those 100 people... You have to see this person, and all the other people 5 days a week, have lessons with them and socialise with them. Imagine how hard it would be to admit to having been sexually assaulted - particularly if this was denied by the other person. An impossible situation.

This post is a few of my thoughts and comments upon reading the article - I actually wrote them all down on my phone while they were fresh in my memory because I thought some of them were actually quite interesting and impacted alot on the lives of deaf teenagers in particular.

Firstly, I wanted to draw people's attention to the incredible statistic that deaf children and young people are 70% more likely to suffer from mental health issues than their hearing peers and around 50% of deaf children and young people are said to suffer from some kind of mental health problem.
Personally, I think this makes perfect sense and I don't understand why more isn't being done to address this... Plenty of research shows that deaf young people are more likely to be bullied, abused etc. So why is it that projects specialising in mental health in deaf young people are still in such early stages?

My second thought surrounds Personal and Social Health Education, Tutor or Form times and Citizenship in schools... I don't know about other areas but here in Worcestershire if you see your ToD frequently this is most likely to be organised over one of the previously mentioned lessons. While this on the surface seems sensible (you could argue these lessons are less crucial than maths or English perhaps...) this often means that as a deaf teenager you miss out on a wide range of topics and information which is presented to all teenagers through these lessons.
These topics and information include: sexual health (STIs etc), relationships, teen pregnancy, drugs, bullying, mental health... The list is endless, I could go on for hours!
As well as this much of this valuable information is often presented in a completely inaccessible way. I remember the frustration of struggling through hours of you-tube clips and unsubtitled videos where the characters had strange accents and all the information was given quickly and without thought for deaf young people...

It's little wonder that deaf teens are considered more likely to drink, take drugs, get pregnant etc... I mean really, what do people expect when the information about all these issues is just not there in an accessible format! Deaf young people need leaflets, booklets, fact sheets with clear and concise relevant information rather than garbled videos with no subtitles or fast paced group discussion.

I think a great example of this lack of "information" is the knowledge about "sexual language" of deaf teens... I know in the past one parent of a deaf teenager has approached me with concerns about their teenage daughters lack of understanding but as well as this I can draw on my own painfully embarrassing experiences of being the last person to understand the terms LGBT or f**k...  Hearing children and young people learn these phrases often in the play-ground or lunch hall by word of mouth and over hearing other people's discussions. Yet for many deaf children and young people this is not possible - or certainly more difficult than for other hearing peers!

The net result from my point of view is that deaf teenagers have a biological understanding of "sex" and "gender" as this part of the curriculum is taught in an accessible way... But often then have little social understanding of "sex" and the dreaded topic of teenage relationships...

Apologies for the rather depressing nature of this post... But I hope it's given a few people "food for thought" as such. I don't think enough emphasis is put on the need for better Personal Social and Health Education for deaf teens but there is a definite need! We're not just statistics... We're young people who apart from not being able to hear so well carry out normal, functioning lives! Why should we be deprived the information and access we need as teenagers in order to inform our selves on issues affecting us.

That said, here are a number of links to sites/charities/information that I've found over the years :)

National Deaf CAMHS (Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services).

Deaf E.A.R.S - education and advice on relationships and sexual health for deaf people in sign language or speech, subtitled videos etc.

Sign Health - information on mental and physical well-being

NDCS Buzz - information about a range of issues including bullying, family and school aimed at deaf children and teenagers.

Sean Forbes "I'm Deaf"...

There was an article today on the Limping Chicken about the new Sean Forbes song which made me remember having seen this one and really liking it! So I thought I'd share it for everyone to enjoy!

Pondering Audiology... again!

This week I've been thinking and chatting about audiology again - in particular this same issue around access to colourful hearing aids.

I do still think it's important to firstly say that I love my audiologist! She's deaf herself and for me this is really cool - every deaf child should have the chance to see a deaf audiologist! - she understands the issues so much better than anyone else I've ever met and when I say things like "it's a kind of crackly, hissy thingy..." she immediately understands what I mean rather than looking at me like I'm totally losing it...
I know that it's not audiologists fault that their is limited access to coloured hearing aids - a number of audiologists I know really believe that deaf people should have the opportunity to pick what they want. It's the system were in and the annoying post code lottery situation which determines what service you receive.

I was thinking last night though... As far as I'm aware Selly Oak HARC where I go only hand out beige aids to adults. \As far as I understand one of the reasons they do this is because they believe the majority of adults want inconspicuous aids rather than in your face colours.
But what if, like me, you're skin is not beige... actually do you know anyone whose skin is beige? I thought not... My skin is olive coloured and many of my friends have dark skin... Based on the HARC thoughts of inconspicuous aids surely we should then be offered some other colour? One size (or in this case colour...) does not fit all as they say.

From where I'm sitting this position taken by many audiology departments that only those deaf adults (or in some places children too!) who have additional learning difficulties or mental health issues should be allowed colourful hearing aids is so silly its just... silly!

What about freedom of expression? What about confidence? Being 19 might make you an adult in the eyes of an audiologist but really I'm still a kid at heart! I want cool colours to show off and make my ears look great...

It's not like having coloured aids costs anything extra... I did check this out! It costs exactly the same amount to order coloured aids as it does to order plain, boring beige ones.

The other main reason I was given for not being allowed to have coloured aids was that if I changed my mind about "liking" the aids and wanted to change them (can I do that?!) the audiologist would be stuck with a pair of colourful aids and no one to give them to. (From the feedback I've had audiology could probably find a hundred new people to give those aids to, but maybe not...)
I have however come up with a solution - and it didn't take much thought! Why not give out beige aids for the 6 week "trial" period that everyone has with their new aids... Then, if the person likes the aids and feels they're working for them then swap them and order them a colourful pair! Problem solved :) Not rocket science really...

It is fun to decorate aids, and there is now an amazing facebook group called Pimping My Hearing aids and Cochlear Implants - UK where lots of parents and deaf teens show off their funky designs and share ideas on how to decorate. I've seen some more brilliant ideas and I'm amazingly proud of the group and what it's achieved!

However, it's not the same... Decorating aids can get expensive (6.50 for my latest nail foils..) and many people I'm sure would rather just have colourful versions of their aids.
I have to say that the post code lottery involved is also incredibly unfair... In Worcester their are colours but go up to Birmingham and suddenly no colours...

So, here's my plan!

I've made a petition which you can sign at the end of this post... Once a number of people have signed the petition I'll start sending off copies to audiology departments around my area asking them about coloured aids. It would be great if I number of people got involved to and tweeted, facebooked and emailed around the petition and later spoke to their audiologists too!

Thanks :)

Petition to make colourful hearing aids available from all audiology departments :)

My NDCS Week :)

So in the last week or so I've finished the mass panic of A Level exams and am finally free of school -which seems like a mixed blessing!

This means summer has finally started and it looks like its going to be another "NDCS Summer" again! This time last summer I was off on my second NDCS YAB residential and then straight up to the Lake District to spend a week doing the John Muir Award, again with NDCS.

This year I've been helping Jo and Krishna from NDCS with interviews for our new Youth Advisory Board!! We finished today in Birmingham with 7 people and as off tomorrow we will have new board - which is exciting and sad at the same time...
The interviews have been fantastic! It's great to meet so many deaf young people I don't know, and I'm rather impressed that Jo has managed to find so many deaf young people I haven't met! Their interviews have been insightful and inspiring... Their "objects" that they have brought along to talk about have been funny and given a really great impression of the lives of deaf young people. The final question: "what do you think the biggest issue facing deaf young people today is?" has produced a range of answers from the usual deaf awareness to the more unusual: cochlear implants and the inability of different services (audiology, ToD etc) to work together and share information... Two things I don't think we talked about on the YAB last year!!

I can't wait until the first residential in July where a few of us old board members will become young facilitators and try to teach our skills to the new members! Should be fun and awesome to meet the new members! I'm very excited to see who gets a place as I don't know yet!!

Yesterday was the NDCS Family Fun Day at Hatton Country World in Warwickshire - an amazing event which offered families of deaf children the chance to let their hair down, meet friends and gain information on various topics.

I spent the morning setting up and then watching over the giant games and teddy bear's picnic which was a great opportunity to be "hands on" and beaten! at loads of games including a massive version of snakes and ladders as well as giant connect-4 and jenga... Great stuff!
After that I spent some time "guarding the entrance" and pointing people in the right direction before climbing on to the NDCS Listening Bus to answer lots of questions on loads of topics like alarm clocks, door bells and independence through technology.

I was amazed by how many parents hadn't heard of the amazing NDCS Technology Test Drive a unique project which allows you to borrow equipment such as clocks, radio aids, music links etc... to "try before you buy". I've used the test drive a couple of times and it is great!!

Tania tells us about interviewing for the new NDCS YAB!

This is a post from the NDCS Youth Advisory Board blog :)

YAB member Tania tells us about being on the interview panel for the new Youth Advisory Board!

On Wednesday 13th June I went to London to do some interviews with Jo and Lucy . This was held in the NDCS offices, which is somewhere that I have never been before.

The experience of doing the interviews was great for me, not only cause it was fun, but mainly because of seeing what views the young people had and their enthusiasm about being on the board.

It gave me a great insight of what they also want to change about the future for deaf young people. The people I interviewed were great and really wanted to have the place on the board!
Looks like Jo and the team will have hard decisions to make because young people seem to have many great ideas.

Overall, it was a great day and experience for me and I would love to do this sort of thing again

Cyber Bullying... It affects deaf kids too!

Until yesterday I had never experienced anything that could be counted as "pressure" or "bullying tactics" on Facebook. I've been part of some arguments but they've always been between members of my own peer group, friends or classmates. I'd never experienced a situation where an adult was behaving in what could be called an inappropriate way and putting unwanted pressure on young deaf people - and adults too to be fair! -

It did make me realise that as well as being possibly more vulnerable to bullying by their own peers deaf young people can also be a lot more open to or at risk to pressure from adults in numerous situations - not only the obvious stereotypical sexual pressure but a whole host of things including pressure from adults trying to persuade them that their personal audiological choices are incorrect and not benefiting them, or are holding them back.

I'm very lucky - and so are my friends - that as a deaf young person I have a whole group of adults who look out for me online as such and are very quick to pounce on anything they perceive to be inappropriate. Last night I really think that without them a bad situation could have become a lot worse.
Not all deaf young people, or even hearing young people because at the end of the day cyber bullying as its called can happen to all young people! are lucky enough to have that support and friendship.

So last night when I was thinking things over I remembered the video that NDCS showed the Youth Advisory Board last year when it was first made. It shows deaf young people the dangers of cyber bullying, what to do if you're being bullied online etc... I think its a really great video for deaf young people as rather than being the normal "hearing" video with subtitles the boy in the story is a deaf teen and the storyline is more deaf specific...

So here's the video and I hope it helps raise awareness with deaf young people and adults about cyber bullying :)

"Don't Leave Me Out"

So after the amazing #subtitlesnow campaign that Sasha wrote about CCAC have organised another cross-atlantic campaign to increase awareness about the necessity for subtitled online videos! 

This campaign entitled "Dont Leave Me Out" includes a video made by a number of adults and a couple of young people explaining why subtitles or "captions" are important to them in their everyday lives.

Below is the press release CCAC have released along with some photos and the video! 

Please help spread awareness of the campaign via twitter, facebook, local media etc :)

The Collaborative for Communication Access via Captioning (CCAC) is happy to announce the release of its first film to raise awareness and advocate for inclusion of quality captioning (subtitles) universally, for so many everyday needs.

Created by the CCAC, all volunteers, with the assistance of professional editing, the CCAC invites all to participate in the new international media campaign, ensure that the video, freely distributed, goes viral globally, and welcomes requests for media coverage (e.g. news interviews, television, radio). The video is now live on the CCAC website, from today forward. 

Call it a film, documentary, or PSA (public service announcement) – when you see it, you’ll understand why mega-millions of citizens need much more inclusion of subtitles, captioning, and real time captioning in real life. Thanks to the sponsors listed in the credits, the CCAC is able to distribute the film without cost. Donations to the CCAC organization for continuing advocacy are welcome.

The video, “Don’t Leave Me Out!” is a powerful educational message for audiences everywhere, and will be useful for a large variety of organizations, groups, and companies focused on access, disability, deafness, hearing loss, literacy, technology, and inclusion.