London is great for BSL arts events (there are some which have lipspeakers too) – in fact, there’s almost too many of them! I hate it when there are two in one night – there just aren’t enough D/deaf arts visitors to share around galleries. Ggrr. (By the way I know why this happens so please don’t all rush to explain) Publicity is still a huge problem for most galleries and public institutions.  Deafworks is often contacted for help on this topic – but as internet advertising and social networking is changing so fast and with most websites (such as the RNID) now only advertising their own events, it is really difficult to get your message out there. Facebook is good for the people on Facebook but not for others. I have started adding arts events to my website (http://www.deafworks.co.uk/resources/deaf_arts_events.php) but it means that a deaf individual has to log onto different websites to find out what is going on in their area. There has to be a better way of marketing all that is going on in wonderful London & other places.

I met someone today who says she is profoundly deaf and I was so tempted to have a discussion with her (but didn’t). You may ask is it that important? What bothers me is that we use terminology without understanding what it really means. Audiological terms are defined as what a person can hear with (not without) a hearing aid, but most people define themselves (in audiological terms) as what they can hear without a hearing aid. This is an incorrect use of these terms. Partially hearing (or partially deaf) indicates that with a hearing aid you have some useful hearing. Profoundly deaf means even with a hearing aid you will get very little benefit from it. Why is it important to be clear? Well, the first thing I would say is that it is not a competition. You don’t have to be “as deaf as you can” so as to prove that you are really deaf. It also puzzles work colleagues when you say you are profoundly deaf (as indeed you are without a hearing aid) then proceed to have a perfectly comfortable conversation or hear the fire alarm. It just doesn’t hang together and then we get into “well, she can hear if she wants to” which doesn’t help anybody. Let’s just be upfront and honest about who we are and accept there’s no need to pretend to be somebody we are not.

Why don’t disability awareness DVDs have subtitles? What’s that about? I’ve just received one in the post – it’s pretty awful all round but that’s not the point here (but still a point worth discussing elsewhere). The point is how can any disability trainer hope to demonstrate inclusion when they don’t even subtitle their own training material? I know from experience that the team making the DVD are not necessarily au fait with the issues involved (yes, I know they should be, but so often are not) which is why we often end up with a crap unsubtitled product that we can’t ever use.

I had an interesting experience the other day. I was watching three people in a cafe – it was clear one was a deaf person, the other was her hearing line manager and the third was the interpreter (how do I know this? body language & type of interaction, but that’s another story). The manager talked most of the time but it was clear she wanted the deaf person to talk and offer her opinions. She (the deaf staff member) and the interpreter looked at each other the whole time and there was very little eye contact with the manager. Anyone observing and not being aware of who was who, would simply have seen two friends chatting with the third person slightly out of the loop. We (as deaf people) would be furious if people left us out of the loop eg: the manager and the interpreter talking to each other and yes this is exactly what we often do ourselves – leave the hearing person out! How can we hope to progress in the workplace if this is what we do? Just a thought.

(PS : by the way, I did not recognise any of the three people )