“Tracing your Deaf family history can be harder than you think,” explains Geraldine O’Halloran during our interview, “but once you start it soon becomes addictive!” Geraldine is fourth-generation Deaf on her mother’s side, and she grew up with her Deaf grandmother and Deaf mother, all signing BSL at home. “My grandfather was Deaf, and he signed too, although he was born to a hearing family – one of twelve children and the only one Deaf.” There was much Geraldine already knew about her family. “My Grandmother was a flower seller for fifty years and had a flower stall in central London. She used ..read more

I am very pleased that the Ministry of Justice has finally recognised the need to update the law to allow BSL/English interpreters in the Jury Room in order that they may interpret for Deaf jurors who use sign language.  This is indeed welcome news and comes after several years of lobbying ministers through a series of meetings in my previous role as Chief Executive of the British Deaf Association (BDA) and being invited to sit on the Ministry of Justice Working Group on Deaf people within the Justice system. The then Justice Minister met the BDA to discuss the outcome of the Working Grou ..read more

Skating legend Tony Hawk has announced how – and why – the ‘mute grab/air’ is being renamed to the ‘Weddle grab/air.’ For almost 40 years, the ‘mute grab’ has been a well-known skateboarding trick: grabbing the toe side of the board between your feet, rotating backside, and landing to face the opposite direction. However, many skateboarders will not know the origin or its inventor. The first person to complete the skateboarding trick was deaf skateboarder Chris Weddle in 1981. It was proposed that the trick should be named after him. Chris Weddle was referred to the ‘quiet, mute guy’ (despite ..read more

“So YouTube has basically said f*** you to disabled creators and viewers.” This is what Deaf activist Rikki Poynter said after hearing that community captions will no longer be available.  YouTube has an estimated 1 billion unique monthly visitors, more than the next 14 video streaming sites combined. YouTube Help announced: “Community contributions will be discontinued across all channels after September 28, 2020. Community contributions allowed viewers to add closed captions, subtitles, and title/descriptions to videos. This feature was rarely used and had problems with spam/abuse so ..read more

Looking to improve your online content? Want to engage more people? When creating online content, it’s important to think about the end user, the viewer, your audience, but also other groups that may require accessible features to engage with your content. There are lots of programs, apps, and functions within websites and social media platforms that can help with accessibility. With a little assistance, a few steps and changes and commitment, it’s possible to make accessibility a selling point for your channel/website. Here are some things to consider… Deafness For D/deaf people, communicatio ..read more

Warning: this article includes spoilers for EastEnders. The special EastEnders episode took place from Ben Mitchell’s perspective: hearing viewers experienced limited audio levels, on-screen subtitles and fractured sentences to highlight some of the realities of being a deaf person in the UK today. Ben Mitchell’s character in EastEnders, played by Max Bowden, had been partially deaf in one ear since childhood, but a dramatic boat crash led to further hearing loss. In previous episodes, Ben’s boyfriend Callum befriended deaf character Frankie Lewis (played by deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis), an ..read more

Working from home… waking up late, sitting in your PJs, getting distracted – these are all quite common scenarios for those who may not be used to adapting to the home working life. Just a few tips and changes here and there, and you’ll be surprised how it improves your productivity and motivation to get jobs done! Wake up on time! It’s very easy to think about how lovely lie ins are, but waking up late will affect the rest of your day – tasks begin later, finish later, and with an early start, you have the whole day ahead of you! Make use of an alarm clock and find a reasonable wake up time t ..read more

This guide is to give support, inspiration and tips on how to navigate the self-isolation period, finding motivation and things to do to keep entertained. Through these difficult times, it’s always best to keep positive. It can be challenging when all we see on the news, social media and emails is negative, worrying stats and stories, even though it’s all there for good reason, to make us stay at home, stay safe and protect our valuable NHS. If it was all happy-go-lucky news, people wouldn’t follow the rules, so we must trust it’s all for the best in the long run. Accessing information It can ..read more

Nicaraguan Sign Language is one of the world’s youngest languages. Until the first Deaf school in 1977, the Nicaraguan Deaf community was isolated and languageless. After the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, Nicaraguan Sign was spontaneously created by deaf children gathered together in oralist schools run by East German teachers. Their attempts to get the children to talk and lipread failed miserably but they invited Dr Judy Shepard-Kegl, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern Maine, to analyse and spread Nicaraguan Sign throughout the country. She was accompanied and helped by ..read more

Around 9 million people in the UK have some form of hearing loss*. Every deaf person is different, with various degrees of loss, and using a wide range of assistive technologies depending upon their access requirements. Communication is the main barrier that deaf people face, particularly with access to services. Sadly, today many services remain inaccessible to deaf people; however, with the correct attitude and approach, this can change. With various laws, including the Equality Act 2010, organisations have a legal obligation to provide reasonable adjustments to make their services more incl ..read more