A personal account of how recession affects the deaf

It has been a treacherous year in the financial world. Never has so much been risked to stabilise what was supposedly a flourishing global economy hit by the high rates and a significant drop in shares.

In late March, the G20 summit of world leaders were battling to defeat the tenure of misery. To combat this Satanist figure looming over the Globe, we relied on the precision of Gordon Brown’s financial plans, inevitably backed by US President Barack Obama. This has seen a trillion dollars pumped into the world market in the hope of restoring trade between countries.

A trillion: to comprehend this is mind-boggling. According to Jerome R. Corsi, who writes an intelligent column on the networldblog website: ‘If someone spent a dollar a second of the trillion, it would take 32,000 years to spend.’ It’s effectively more money than in circulation in the world.

Our ever-cheerful Prime Minister himself stated: ‘This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession.’ Fight back? Surely it will only encourage the greed culture that needs stamping out? This is why the French president initially rejected the plans, claiming better governance of the financial world was required. If not, the Western World will resemble the hyperinflation seen in the aftermath of the First World War in Germany. And who came to the rescue? The most deranged human being to walk the planet, Adolf Hitler, who spoke charmingly at large rallies to gather support from those tired of paying hundreds of German Marks for a loaf of bread as a result of the Weimar Government printing more money then it could afford.

However, with numerous Government incentives inviting businesses to employ those belittled by a disability, hopefully now the hard of hearing can secure those jobs that in years gone by have eluded them. I have felt the harsh reality that my hearing loss has conferred on me, which has prevented me from working alongside associates and acquaintances either in bar work or administration. I was left pondering, as my CV boasts experience and good references.

One such catering boss, upon finding out from a fellow worker that I had hearing problems, suddenly seemed despondent around me, and the next day I was dismissed on grounds of being ‘slow’. If I wasn’t so shocked, I would have complained. How can a fit, lively 18-year-old – who regularly hits the gym and plays football – be ‘slow’ when fellow workers were mostly oldage pensioners?

Despite the legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 against such woeful treatment of the disabled, it will always occur in small businesses, such as the one run by that gentleman with his mind still in the 1970s. I was surprised he didn’t start irritatingly quoting from the sitcom Steptoe and Son or calling staff members by the names of characters in Dad’s Army.

With the input of new money and business hopefully starting to improve the economic situation, more jobs may become disability-friendly. A quick glance at directgov.co.uk shows around 40% are disability-friendly, with the majority paying just the minimum wage. Surely, if the Government is eager to improve the life of many, the disabled should come into consideration.

Alternatively, there is Incapacity Benefit, starting around £60 per week, if you go to the mandatory appointments regularly. Yet the process of application still takes approximately three months.

But many disabled people wish to work. With no solution to the lack of jobs, there is no choice but to continue receiving this allowance, which is a pittance when you compare it with what you could be receiving if working full-time. Even part-time work at around 36 hours a week at £6 an hourly rate is £216 per month – a huge increase. That’s a guaranteed £10,000p.a with overtime and holiday pay added. It would mean food in the cupboards and bills paid.

Another area of concern is the ignorance of a Job Centre I visited, a service which we rely on more than ever before. On one occasion I was asked to phone the disability employment adviser – who was just upstairs – to arrange an appointment, which I explained would be a futile task when my hearing is almost 95% deficient. They appeared to sympathise, but reverted to ignorance by asking: ‘You can hear us now, can’t you?’ Well, yes, that’s because I have been trained to lip-read. I cannot imagine what it’s like for those who are profoundly deaf.

Awareness of our issues should be a top priority for the Government and its officials. A deaf MP on the front bench to replace Jacqui Smith would be a dream come true. Will it ever happen? If only. The closest to this was the ex-Labour MP Lord Ashley, who lost his hearing in 1968 yet carried on his duties in the House of Lords until 1992, where his respectful colleagues recognised his efforts to change disability rights. He now acts as president of the RNID.

There is also the issue of introducing British Sign Language on a wider basis in the hope that communicating with the deaf would allow more perspective of deaf and hard of hearing needs. I recall a minister for the disabled called Maria Eagle stating: ‘We need to work as a Government with the deaf people and their organisations to work out what the barriers are.’

Will things ever change?

By Benjamin Stonehouse

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'Deafblind charity celebrates 1,500 loans'

How detrimental are iPods to the hearing you still have?

”PEOPLE don’t look into the sun to see if it damages their eyes,” says Dr. Robert Sweetow, director of audiology at UCSF. “It continually amazes me that people don’t realize if you blast your ears, you’re going to hurt your ears.”

The innovative, stylish and incredibly popular Apple product, the iPod, which has taken the world by storm with its strikingly subtle features allowing large amounts of data to be stored and listened to at any given time. The iPod was in the news this month, due to the unlikeliest source, as the device can now upload videos and still pictures, it has been claimed to have won the Carling Cup at Wembley thanks to Ben Foster’s heroics in the penalty shootout. Foster was watching footage of Tottenham Hotspur’s penalty-takers, which had been prepared by Eric Steele, Manchester United’s goalkeeping coach. Alex Ferguson saw the video and rearranged his squad accordingly, leading them to victory.

More wonderful free publicity for Apple I thought, then I reminisced. Four years ago in the few remaining weeks of the G.C.S.E History class, a spiky-haired classmate of mine smugly brought in an iPod, playing it loudly and I said ‘In a few years time, you’ll be like me’ which he laughed off promptly claiming his hearing was fine. Of course it was fine, he had only just got it and the impact it makes is more long term... then it hit me as to the reason why my tinnitus has worsened over the past year or so. It was barely comfortable as it was since I contracted meningitis at the age of three, but the tinnitus was largely ignored, progressively worsening by the year.

In order to block it out, I listen to whale noises before I sleep to combat the high pitch frequencies I hear, which ironically must have been caused by listening to my iPod at high volume, which of course I shouldn’t do, but then how else would I be able to hear it?

Perhaps I should explain; I have a total of five per cent hearing in the left ear and seven per cent in the right, diminishing by the day leading to the audiologist to state in 20 years time I’d hear nothing. Now with the mp3 abuse I predict he is approximately six years off, taking into account the results of the levels test in 2008. Never mind this, what concerns me is the impact iPods will have on the Hearing in 10 to 20 years time, and also the Deaf.

We’ve heard all about the impact it can have on the Hearing teenagers, and how leading audiologists claim a rapid decline in hearing has increased as people approach middle age as opposed to previous years. One such analytical audiologist at Northwestern University in the U.S found ‘ Ear buds are placed directly in the ear and can boost the sound signal by as much as six to nine decibels. It’s enough to cause hearing loss after only about an hour and 15 minutes,’ which, as shocking as it may sound, is not surprising when you consider the widespread use of ear-buds.

Clearly it shows the worrying impact of the magnitude of decibels enforced upon the ears, citing its 110db volume similar to that of nightclubs and the sweat laden DJs. Also it is more detrimental then factory noise: this is concerning as many factory workers at my father’s steel constructing firm have retired due to terrible, sudden hearing loss. So if these men cannot cope, how on earth can the Deaf, who already have extremely low levels of hearing? Meningitis caused my ear-drum to inexplicably collapse, but could placing an ear-bud so far into the ear cause similar damage?

What is needed is a scientific test to collaborate all these little pebbles of knowledge to form a warning to the teenagers, London Tube users and runners on the streets that their favourite device is in fact soon to be their Achilles Heel. Large organizations such as Phonak need to play Devil’s Advocate.

There are many issues to be resolved in the world at the current time however such as the economic crisis and job losses, but with the continuation of ignorance, many people in 10 years time, will be like me: unable to sleep until 5am due to the rattling, strange high-pitch noises causing sleep deprivation. Or when talking in the street, desperate to hear the friend telling you about the night before and as you try to lip read, you find yourself falling into a trap of isolation.

It’s not pity nor sympathy that is required, but awareness.

By Benjamin Stonehouse

One for all and all for one at your local cinema - the joy of subtitles

‘YOU have a new email’ box comes up at the bottom corner of my screen. Ah of course, it’s Thursday today! It’s that weekly notification from subtitles@yourlocalcinema.com website. I emit out a feeble “yay”. I have to confess, it’s one of the things I most look forward to on a Thursday. Why? This notification serves a provider of informing us, deaf/hard of hearing people the upcoming subtitled films in our local town via an e-newsletter. So long gone are the days of having to suffer by waiting for the DVD to come out and hitting HMV first thing in the morning.

Though this website is funded by the UK film industry, never did I know this subtitled film information service was set up by a seventeen years old deaf lad, Dean Rhodes-Brandon until he recently won the Make Your Mark Enterprising Young Brits People’s Choice Award (2009).

This information service was actually set up in 2000 when he was eight years old (with some help from his parents). It is extremely generous of him to sacrifice his own time and effort to help around 5 million people including myself in the UK to ensure we have equal access to cinema. Not only does this website provide the date, time and location of around 500 subtitled films, in over 300 cinemas, it also provides thousands of audio described shows for the visually impaired audience. This website also includes subtitled and audio described trailers and clips.

We wouldn’t have the chance to go out with our family or friends as hearing people would do. Not to mention the opportunity of munching a large tub of popcorn and throwing one or two at the people ahead of us (not that I do it). Whether it’s at Odeon, Cineworld or Star City Vue cinemas, the information is mostly and I repeat: MOSTLY, accurate. There have been a few times when I turned up to a cinema, all geared up, to find out from the staff behind the counter there were no subtitled films going on that day. Charming.

My friends have often complained that in their local town, the subtitled films are shown on less popular days like Thursday and Sunday, when they would prefer to go on a Friday or Saturday.

I am sure that some of you have encountered technical problems with the captions whilst watching a film. It’s either blurred, too tiny, half missing and there’s been an occasion when the captioning was lop-sided so I had to watch the film with my head lop-sided too. I will never forget that feeling of disappointment when I attended the screening of Harry Potter. The captions failed to work, and I went to complain to the staff. Five minutes later, I was leaving the cinema with my refund and a free cinema ticket for my next visit. That was a large tub of popcorn wasted.

But besides all these issues, it has been successful most of time. Surely this role must be a huge pressure in Dean’s life, but when he viewed his first subtitled film Chicken Run, it “changed his life” he said. Dean is currently working with organizations that focus on disability, companies that specialise in technology as well as working with cinemas all over the U.K, Wales, Ireland and even the Isle of Wight for future improvements (let’s hope the problems I described are considered).

“Before our website/information service came along, there was no English-language subtitled cinema... the only way deaf people could enjoy cinema was to watch a foreign language film. Ridiculous,” says Dean.

That reminds me of an unfortunate incident when I once enquired about a foreign film ‘Mongol’ and wanted to ensure it had subtitles. The staff told me there were none and I argued that I was told there was a subtitled version on that day. Then of course I realised that it was already subtitled. You can imagine my embarrassment.

Dean has mentioned that in his role as head of yourlocalcinema.com, “receiving feedback from other people with hearing problems or sight problems is the best thing of all.”

Right, when’s the next subtitled film?

Louise Buglass

Language of art

As part of Tate Modern’s regular free BSL talks programme – which takes place at 7pm on the 1st Friday of every month, usually with a deaf gallery presenter - I led a tour of their Defining Constructivism exhibition with around 70 attendees. Conveying the social, cultural, historical and political framework that so inspired the Russian avant-garde of the 1920s in deaf-friendly terms proved a challenge.
This was not just due to the foreign names (which I chose to show on paper rather than finger-spell), but also the complexity of describing the mood of that time. How do you explain an artist working with emotional detachment to someone who understands only the highly expressive culture that saturates his life today?
The emphasis that Deaf Culture places on self-expression is what gives us our directness. The daily communication barriers within the mainstream that we face make conveying our feelings difficult, which subsequently make us all the more determined to get to the point when we can - and as quickly as possible.
I used to think that the language of visual art was universal and therefore amenable to this directness. Having attended the excellent three-part deaf gallery presenters’ course provided by Deafworks and the Wallace Collection that ended last month, I am no longer so sure.
While visual art does befit its title generally, sometimes what it visualises is not always clear to us, due to outside contributing factors that may either no longer exist or just don’t form part of our cultural sensibility. Far from failing to communicate its message, this makes the art all the richer in its comment on society – and all the more important a reflection of its time.
Back to the course. In the Wallace Collection’s Meeting Room, 12 deaf and hard-of-hearing gallery presenters, including myself, engaged in a discussion about being ‘conductors’ of the galleries we worked with, our audiences, and ourselves. It got us thinking about working with two or more languages and how we could bridge the cultural differences between our audiences and the art.
For us as deaf people, that discussion – one of several that peppered the course as a means of facilitating our professional development – was a turning point. Of course, before joining we already knew the value of research and preparation for gallery tours, but it also brought home the fact that our visual communication values didn’t necessarily bring us closer to understanding visual art.
However, it became clear that our own dedication to building on our knowledge – and the fact that we had few precedents in that respect - did make us specialists in the field. First-hand experience of being part of the Deaf Community gave us incentive to explore its intricacies from a deaf cultural perspective, enabling us to identify parallels to draw on and consider how best to explain artistic concepts that had none.
No BSL interpreter, however qualified and experienced s/he is, could undergo such deep-rooted thinking. Not that I am against BSL-interpreted gallery tours; they are invaluable in enabling deaf access to mainstream perspectives of visual art, especially when the commitment to clarity, skill, pace and accuracy is in evidence. But ultimately, BSL interpreters remain neutral channels through which BSL becomes spoken English and vice versa.
Aside from bringing deaf audiences closer to visual art in a way that BSL-interpreted tours don’t – on proviso, of course, that it is done well - another advantage of deaf-led tours is the opportunity it gives the deaf gallery presenter to stretch his or her intellect. What better way to develop an affinity with an art movement like Russian Constructivism than to swot up on it?

© Melissa Mostyn 2009