Adult Education fights for its life

Calling all lipreading teachers and students!

The Government’s consultation on the future of non-skills based adult education ‘Informal Adult Learning - Shaping the Way Ahead’ can be accessed at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills website.

Please respond to this consultation - the deadline is 12 June. You have a chance to stop the government reducing the quality of access to Adult Education by promoting “informal adult learning”. The government is seen to be placing too much emphasis on internet learning rather than classroom-based learning with the valuable interaction such learning offers.

You may like to look at this article from the Independent newspaper on this topic.

SprintIP Relay for Facebook - phone on the go!

Sprint IP Relay makes communicating on-the-go easier than ever. You can now express yourself using SprintIP Relay through Facebook. Place your relay calls on any computer with internet access using SprintIP.

Take traditional relay technology up a notch. Communicate comfortably and dependably using SprintIP to type your conversation to a Relay Operator. The Relay Operator then reads aloud your typed message and turns verbal responses into text. So no matter where life takes you, access to an internet connection and computer means you can stay in touch 24/7. BUT… it only works in the USA! International calls will either be blocked or terminated.

To use Sprint IP with Facebook:

* Log in to Facebook
* In the search box, type Sprintip, then press Enter
* Add the application SprintIP Relay
* Choose the “Put a box in my profile option”
* It will then appear on your profile page
* To share, just click the ‘Share with Friends’ link and add the names of individuals you want to share SprintIP with
* Easy and convenient! No “GA” needed
* SprintIP offers English and Spanish service
* To connect with a Spanish relay operator, type Espanol
* Type Help to connect to Sprint Relay Customer Service

Instructions on how to use this service: Sprint Relay instructions for Facebook

I’m sooooooo jealous! The campaign to get captioned relay phone calls reinstated in the UK (and free of charge) is in it’s second stage. Join the campaign’s Facebook group at Campaign : Deaf people want greater access to modern phone technology where you will be updated with the latest news, or check out the CAMPAIGNS tab above.

New emergency text services

A new emergency text service has been launched by police in Sussex. You can read about it here. To call an emergency service, send a text to 65999, starting with the word POLICE, FIRE, AMBULANCE, or COASTGUARD.

A similar service has started in Kent, send a text beginning with POLICE, MEDIC or RESCUE to 60066.

Bus passengers in Brighton and Hove can send a text if there are problems on the bus such as rowdiness. Text REPORT to 60060 and give a description of the incident, and your message will be passed on to the police.

It’s a shame the numbers are all different, unlike the national 999 number or 911 in the US. A national number would make more sense, wouldn’t it?

Film : In Bruges

(Sorry - no subtitles on trailer)

This subtitled film promised to have a red hot dialogue and the two main characters were great Irish actors so I was looking forward to it, I knew it would probably be worth a few laughs. In Bruges is written and directed by Martin McDonagh, who has won numerous awards for his previous comedy, Six Shooter. The story unfolds slowly, and being in Bruges (pronounced ‘Broozh’) becomes almost an insider joke as the story develops. The script certainly raised lots of titters in the audience and it even made me laugh. Two hit men are holed up in Bruges (on holiday) after carrying out a hit in London. Their views on life and death are changed by their interactions with the locals, tourists, and a film crew. One hitman is hired to kill the other. However, this doesn’t quite turn out as expected. Colin Farrell plays Ray, and Brendan Gleeson plays Ken. The script, in my opinion, is very very Irish….

Ken: You coming up?
Ray: What’s up there?
Ken: Well, the view.
Ray: The view of what? The view of down here? I can see that down here.
Ken: You are the worst tourist, Ray.
Ray: Look, Ken. I grew up in Dublin, and I love Dublin. If I had grown up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn’t, so it doesn’t.

I would recommend seeing this movie, but only the once. And only if you’re prepared for all the bad language that peppers the dialogue. Don’t take your children to see it! It’s an enjoyable ride nevertheless and we left in a good mood

FOL’s verdict :

Deaf Awareness Week 2008 : Look at Me

May 5th - 11th is Deaf Awareness Week. The theme is LOOK AT ME which happens to tie in nicely with my blog The aim is to raise awareness of the different methods of communication which deaf people use to communicate and therefore highlight the different types of deafness. ‘Deafness’ doesn’t just mean sign language users - it also means deafened people, hard of hearing people, deaf-blind people, and those who have tinnitus.

UKCoD have listed some events that are taking place nationwide to raise awareness of hearing loss and give people opportunities such as lip reading class taster sessions, and seeing the inside of your ear using video otoscopy.

A couple of events caught my eye….

* a pair of new Phonak Audeo hearing aids (which are the business) suitable for mild to moderate hearing loss are being given away by The Hearing Care Centre in Colchester, Essex. These are worth £3,500. You’ll need to grab a copy of the Colchester Gazette during Deaf Awareness Week.

* a text messaging service will be launched by Northamptonshire Police Force Communications Centre (FCC) for deaf people in the county. Way to go!

Hopefully this event will get bigger and better each year - that’s up to all of us to make it happen. (Text and logo courtesy of UKCoD)

Did you know, nearly 15% of the population have some degree of deafness. If your organisation has not made adjustments to help deaf and hard of hearing people access your products and services, then you may be excluding a considerable number of people.

For every 10,000 of the population:

TEN will be born profoundly deaf. They probably get little or no benefit from hearing aids and mainly use sign language to communicate.

TWENTY will have become profoundly deaf. They may use sign language and probably also lipread.

ONE HUNDRED will be partially deaf. They may have difficulty following what is being said, even with hearing aids. Mostly they will lipread and some use sign language as well.

SIX HUNDRED will be hard of hearing. They will be able to follow what is being said with a hearing aid and will be able to use a telephone if it has an adjustable volume or has been designed to be used with a hearing aid.

EIGHT HUNDRED will be mildly hard of hearing. They may have difficulty following conversations particularly in large groups or in noisy situations. Some will wear hearing aids and many find lipreading helpful.

• British Sign Language (BSL) is the first or preferred language of around 70,000 people in the UK
• About 2 million people in Britain wear hearing aids, maybe another million would benefit from doing so
• Almost all deaf and hard of hearing people rely on lipreading to some extent
• Many combine signs from BSL with English in order to communicate

Here are a few examples of ways to be more accessible to deaf people:-

• Develop the skills of your staff so that they have the knowledge and understanding to communicate effectively
• Overcome the communications barrier by providing deaf awareness training, human aids to communication or the use of appropriate technology
• Make sure your building is deaf-friendly by providing appropriate systems, such as an induction loop
• Plan public areas carefully with deaf visitors in mind and try out your plans with local deaf people to make sure they work
• Use plain English in your literature making it easy to read and understand
• Improve telecommunications by making available textphones, fax, Typetalk, emails, SMS and videophones.

Remember – if a hearing person and a deaf person have trouble communicating, the problem is shared: communication is everybody’s responsibility.

Petitions update : deaf alerters

The petition for fire alert systems was handed in and this is the result.

And the winner is…

There is a company providing Speech-to-Text-Reporter [STTR] support (among other services), they’ll remain nameless here but I’ll call them Dunce Services. I’ve used Dunce Services on a number of occasions, and they invariably mess up the bookings. Now, this surprises me as my regular STTR provider (STTRs Direct) provides a stellar service, the people who own the company actually take and co-ordinate the bookings themselves (and they never mess up) - whilst providing STTR support at the same time. Dunce Services has one person taking bookings, doing nothing else BUT taking bookings, and they still manage to mess up bookings most of the time.

You’d expect a STTR service to be prompt and reliable. If they don’t turn up, then I can’t communicate and therefore I can’t do my job. Dunce Services have a habit of not relaying information to their STTR, so I end up with the STTR being told the wrong time or place (not her fault), or worse still, not turning up at all. When I ask why they hadn’t passed the information onto the STTR, I’m told ‘Oh, I did. I don’t know what happened’. Which is absolute rubbish. Obviously, now I only use them when I can’t get hold of anyone else.

Dunce Services kept sending me emails advertising their services and last year I asked them to take me off their email list.

To add insult to injury, I got an email from them last week asking me to participate in a Client Quality Survey - I ignored it as I certainly don’t feel very charitable towards them. Today, I got a reminder (English errors are theirs, not mine) …..

Last week we sent you an email inviting you to participate in our Client Quality Survey 2008.

We would be very grateful if you could take5-8 minutes of your time to complete the survey, as the results will help usensure we are providing the quality, service and products you want.

When you’ve completed the survey, you’llhave a chance to enter a prize draw to win a pair of Bose headphones worth over£100.

Thank you!

Dunce Services Quality Survey Team

@#%$!!! Headphones…..?!!! What use are they?!

A crap AND a completely thoughtless service. Thanks for the reminder!

Summer in the park ~ Romeo & Juliet

If you would like to enjoy a summer evening at the Open Air Theatre in London’s Regent’s Park, grab this opportunity with Stagetext captioning. The first captioned production will be shown on 21 July. Romeo and Juliet fall in love then try and conceal this from their families under the cloak of night - share their story under the same romantic night sky.

Booking information

Romeo and Juliet, Monday 21 July, 8pm

Open Air Theatre, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NR

To book suitable seats for viewing the captions, go to the Access section of Open Air Theatre, complete the Disability Booking Form and say that you are booking for the captioned performance. Or you can call 0844 826 4242 to discuss your requirements.

Nearest tube: Baker Street, then a 10-minute walk.
Click here for map

Dirty Dancing

Spending the summer in the Kellerman’s holiday camp with her family, Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman falls in love with the camp’s dancing teacher. The original soundtrack sold over 41 million copies. Great dance routines and music with 1960s nostalgia…

If you liked the film, you’ll enjoy the theatrical production. I went to see it yesterday at the Aldwych Theatre with captions provided by Stagetext. The theatre was packed, and we had front row seats in the dress circle with a fabulous view. The box office happily looked after my Hearing Dog during the show, and almost *didn’t* give him back to me as he had won them over hook, line and sinker.

The captions were provided on the right and left of the stage. What can I say? They were word perfect. The only problem was, there was so much happening on stage, that sometimes it was too much to take it all in, and try to keep up with the captions as well. The costumes were authentic, the acting was good, and the dancing was superb. The set was fabulous with a revolving stage and excellent use of filmic and photographic backdrops to recreate scenes. The lake scene was particularly good, using a gauze screen with a smoke machine, splash sound effects and a filmic water background.

We were amazed at how much the actress Georgina Rich looks like Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman in the original film, and we could really see how she blossomed into the confident person and dancer portrayed at the end of the show. Josef Brown plays the dance teacher Johnny Castle. He wowed us with his dancing, his six-pack, and his lean figure - unfortunately his Aussie-American accent wasn’t as pleasing to the ear. Nadia Coote (as Penny) has a figure to die for, us females were sooo jealous when Penny came on stage in her black leotard and high heels - no woman should be *allowed* to have a figure that good!

Photo: Tristram Kenton

We were carried through the story and became a part of the audience at the Kellermans. A huge cheer went up when Johnny shouted ‘Nobody puts Baby in the corner’ and a few people behind me got up and started dancing along during the closing scenes. Did I enjoy it? I had the time of my life. I’ve already got tickets to see it again in October.

I was really pleased to read that Stagetext captioning is jumping over to Ireland. Stagetext are on MySpace and Facebook. If you feel like trying out some dirty dancing yourself, go to the Mirano Continental in Brussels on a Saturday night.

Dirty Dancing
Theatre : Aldwych, London
Duration : 2 1/2 hours
Show starts: 22nd October 2007
Show ends: 11th April 2009
Playing in UK, Canada, USA, Germany, Netherlands

SIGNED PERFORMANCE by Donna Ruane:
Saturday 7 July 3.00, contact Box Office for details

HARD OF HEARING:
Infra-red system in the auditorium with 5 headsets and 5 neckloops. Induction loop at left window of the box office.

STAGETEXT CAPTIONED PERFORMANCE:
Captioning converts the spoken word into text that provides people with hearing loss with access to live performance. In captioning, the words appear on a screen at the same time as they are sung or spoken. Captions also include sound effects and offstage noises. For more information visit Stagetext

GUIDE DOGS:
One guide dog per performance allowed in Box D.

BSL Level 2

I researched BSL Level 2 courses available in London. I thought, there must be loads. Boy, was I in for a surprise. No wonder ‘Deaf culture’ is in decline!

I found the following organisations advertising BSL courses - either on their websites or externally - and followed up the leads. The costs below are exclusive of the CACDP exam fees.

BSL Works Holborn
24 days (every fortnight, at weekends) : £1,000

City Lit
36 weeks Mon : £957
16 weeks Sat : £957

Deaf Access Bromley
6 weeks : Sat : £650

Dorothy Miles Cultural Centre
35 weeks : Thur : £495

Hackney County Council
36 weeks : Tue : £640

Jewish Deaf Association
51 weeks : Tue : £360

Lambeth College Clapham
1 year : Tue : £145

Deafworks
no information on website >>> BSL courses taken over by BSL Works

Merton College
30 weeks : Mon : £274

RNID
Only levels 3 and 4

Sense-ability
2 weeks : £1,015 incl exam fees and accommodation
1-to-1 sessions : £20 an hour

Thomas Tallis School
no information on website and no reply to enquiries

Tri Uk Ltd
no information on website and no reply to enquiries

Waltham Forest
1 year : Tue : £333 incl exam fees