Annual Review The Trust for Deaf Studies

Transcription

1 Annual Review The Trust for Deaf Studies 16 Whiteladies Rd Bristol BS8 2LG Charity Number: What is SignStation? A new development for Hearing people to learn about BSL? How is DST involved? We are carrying out all the research and evaluation. We need to know if it works.

2 Report from the Chair I said in my first report last year that the DST needs to be Deaf-led and this has been one of our major aims for the trustees. We have held several meetings and one major recruitment meeting, to encourage Deaf people to take an interest and to come forward as Trustees. We have also looked at the way DST is organised and Trustees have begun to draw up policies and procedures which have to be put into operation. We have improved our Trustee information pack and resource material. We have begun to review the policies of the Trust. The success of these initiatives will be seen in future. Several staff have left this year Monica Clarke to work in New Zealand, Alexy Dury to make a round the world tour and Jeanette Kyle, to have a baby. We have been missing all of them as they made a very significant contribution to the Trust work. We have also been able to welcome new staff: Andrea Taffurelli, Lucy Dunbar and Debbie Harvey. The output of the Trust has been very significant this year with reports to major funders as well as the continuation of practical work within the Deaf community. I wish to thank the Trustees themselves and everyone who has made a contribution, big or small. We look forward to your continued involvement to continue to take the Trust forward. Hal Draper, Chairperson, June 2005 Secretary s Report This has been a frantic year for the Deaf Studies Trust. We have had 10 projects running during the year and some of them had multiple funders which means we had more than one report to prepare for each one. Continued work with older people in video telecommunications (Sign Renew, Workshops for older people, Sign 50+) Sports for Young Deaf people (BBC Children in Need) BSL Access to services (Scottish Executive) Employment issues for Deaf people (Sequal project for ESF) Electoral Process for Deaf people with BDA Wales, Sign Language CODEC with DTI (on work on Eye Gaze and sign language) SignAware funded by DWP (part of the BSL Initiatives Programme) Deafblind Worlds a new project funded by the Big Lottery, in conjunction with SENSE. Jim Kyle Bristol, June 2005 Not surprisingly, this has put a great strain on staff and it is clear that we will need to move towards a model of more central funding to avoid the changes of personnel which we experience. DeafBlind Worlds is a major challenge for the Trust and is a very exciting development. There is still great potential for Trust work to build on the expertise and knowledge that we have and we hope to welcome more active Deaf Trustees to share the load. 2

3 Sign Videophones in Deaf Homes The project began over 4 years ago. With the support of BT, we were able to install videophones in the homes of older Deaf people (50yrs +). For the first time, people were able to contact each other at a distance. This reduced loneliness at home and people felt more secure. Last year we have added another 12 videophones with support from the Neighbourhood Renewal fund in Bristol. With the videophones installed by Bristol City Council, there were over 40 active videophones in the Bristol area. However, the costs were higher than for ordinary telephones and so people began to drop out. BT also stopped its funding but promised a new videophone in April 2005 (now October 2005). However, rather than wait, the Deaf Studies Trust has found money to convert ISDN lines to Broadband and this is going to be offered to all those who are still active. We have continued to arrange monthly workshops. These have been very popular. We will continue to support this development and are actively looking for funding for a national project to extend the benefits of videophones to Deaf people all over the UK. Deaf People in and out of Employment This is a smaller study carried out for the Sequal Partnership called A valued part of the workforce? Deaf Studies Trust has been collecting views of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people about work. When we interviewed Deaf people we found many complaints about the workplace. The problem was that he was rather patronising to me and embarrassed me in front of the other workers by using physical contact as a way of expressing himself hugging me, patting me on the head, patting my back etc. This then extended to other members of staff. My desk that I worked from always faced the wall and I hated this as I could not follow anything that was going on behind my back and. People would throw bits of paper at me. Some deaf people pointed out that meetings could be a problem not because of interpreting but because of their own English. meetings on a regular basis I have to write things down which is embarrassing because when they are read out, the English is written in BSL grammar and so therefore it is not always understood. Which then leads me to withdraw The work we carried out covers information on job interviews and fair treatment at work. Two reports have been submitted to the funding body. 3

4 BSL Access in Scotland The Deaf Studies Trust was awarded the contract by the Scottish Government to interview Deaf people throughout Scotland to discover how they could access public services in BSL. The study found that Deaf people have virtually no access to public services in BSL. There were no examples of health care, emergency services, or council provision which were delivered in BSL. Deaf people said they were surprised when they found staff who could sign. In the rare cases where a public service employee could sign, however, their signing was not always of a sufficient standard to allow proper communication. As a result Deaf people often brought family members. I never go anywhere without my daughter. If staff don t understand, I bring my hearing wife to sort it out for me. People found that hearing people preferred to talk to their children and were frustrated by lack of interpreters. When the police came to my house, my hearing daughter talked to them. I was left out. I asked my daughter what they said but they kept on talking. I really wanted to get an interpreter but I could not find one. I was really frustrated. Sometimes the situation in hospital was very serious. It happened to me some time ago, when I was pregnant I went for a check up in the hospital. I told the nurse I was deaf and her reaction was negative. So I got up and put on my clothes and walked out. I never went back until the baby was born. Lots of medical people do not sign and can t be bothered to write it down. Older people often have special problems with public services. Often I have a social worker with me but one time, when on my own, they took away my pension book, without explaining. I went home to my son and explained to him what had happened. My son had to sort it out and got my book back two weeks later. Everyone seemed to complain about the repair men. Scottish Gas man came no communication. He just came and fixed it and then went. No explanation. What if there was a risk. All services should be Deaf aware and learn BSL. When people took their family members along the situation could be difficult. Writing notes does not help. I am never happy with doctors. Last year I went to hospital, my daughter helped my as interpreter. It was impossible to find a interpreter. It was a very bad experience. My doctor told me I may have cancer but it really frightened my daughter because we are in the same family it was not right. I do not have any privacy. 4

5 One Deaf person summed it all up: Deaf people are more accepting and used to the problems which they face everyday. They never complain, compared to hearing people. If one hearing person was to swap places with me, the person would not cope and would become totally stressed. We are born with it. We do get stressed and frustrated but do not keep a note of these, so do not remember them. I think Deaf people are stronger than hearing people. We survive in the hard world of hearing people. This study has been finished, and is published. DST have also prepared a DVD which has the full report in BSL. There will be meetings with Deaf people again to feed back the results to the Deaf Community. The results should help the Scottish Government develop services for Deaf people which understand and use BSL. DeafBlind Worlds is a new project funded by the Big Lottery Fund - 210,317 for 2 years until Deaf Studies Trust and Sense will work together on this new project. The researchers in the project are Deaf and deafblind people. The project aims to find out if Deafblind people are part of a community like the Deaf community to find out about their everyday lives their experiences their views what they can do what they want to do We also want to know the similarities of Deafblind and Deaf experiences. Deaf people may be able to work with deafblind people in the same community if they used same language, BSL (some will use Deafblind Manual or Hands on). Some Facts Deafblind people are often told what to do when really they do have their own mind and want to have a say. Deafblind people need support and assistance in communication and guiding. They need to be part of everybody s everyday lives. We need to listen to them. We need to let them be part of the community and give them respect as they have the same rights as Deaf people do. The project team will talk to Deafblind people directly, face to face in interviews, in small groups and in workshops. We believe that Deaf people can work together with and support people who are Deafblind 5

6 SignAware DST is also involved in the SignAware project as the research and evaluation team. SignAware is funded by the Department of Work and Pensions in the BSL Initiatives Programme. The project is developing a range of materials for helping hearing people to learn more about Deaf people and sign language in the workplace. The main part of SignAware is SignStation a special website in video and text. SignStation is a resource which will be useful for Employees and colleagues of Deaf people Managers of Deaf workers Human Resource and training staff Those who deal with Deaf customers Trade union organisers, safety at work representatives, Disability Officers What is SignStation? A resource for all those who are interested in or need to communicate with Deaf People. It provides written and video information on how to work with Deaf people, teaches you sign language and offers the world s first mobile phone sign language dictionary. It is accessible anywhere and anytime. Who is Signstation for? Employers of Deaf people, workmates of Deaf people, those who have Deaf customers, in fact, anyone who comes in contact with Deaf people. How do you use SignStation? Just point your browser at and everything is free. How easy is it to use? There are simple instructions, easy search for video and for text information. There are sections especially designed for managers, workmates of Deaf people, organisers of events with Deaf People, Union Officials and those companies with Deaf customers. There are new sections for those who counsel Deaf people and the next new section planned is for Members of Parliament with Deaf constituents. DST will begin the assessment of SignStation in July 2005 and will produce a report. 6

7 Sports for Young Deaf People This project was set up to encourage Young Deaf people to try out new sports: To develop sports opportunities for young deaf people in BSL To allow young Deaf people to try out new sports (eg archery, lacrosse) with qualified instructors, and sign language interpreters. Although many young people were very interested in the activities, we found it difficult to support their attendance with transport and several events had to be cancelled. There will also be a video on this work to be prepared for the NHS Local Health Trust. We hope to continue this work when funding becomes available. Deaf People and the Elections As part of a project run by the British Deaf Association in Wales, we have been asked to assess the impact of training and materials on the knowledge of Deaf people in the political process. In the period up to the General Election, the BDA prepared a series of training workshops to give Deaf people the information which would help them to make better decisions and to understand how politics works. We know already that many Deaf people do not vote as they have very little access to the information which politicians use. The report will be completed in July New Projects DST continues to look for new projects and new partnerships. We are particularly keen to see Deaf-led projects develop and hope that we can begin to build on the huge amount of archive material which we have. 7

8 Financial Report for the year to 31 st March 2005 The Trust for Deaf Studies is a relatively small Charity set up in 1984 to carry out work with Deaf people and for the benefit of Deaf people. It aims to use charitable funding efficiently to carry out smaller and innovative projects which will lead to change in the Deaf community. It has a focus on BSL and projects within the community. Since we are a charity, we do not make a profit we try to cover all our running costs and aim to ensure that there is sufficient funding to deal with staff salaries and the administrative costs. These are our unrestricted funds which the Trustees aim to keep at a level which will cover our administration costs and allow a margin to support staff for 6 months. This year (to 31 st March 2005) has been successful, with more projects in action than ever before (10 active funding sources compared to seven in 2004). There has been a reduction of 8% in grant income to 107,095. This is similar to the level of Our administrative costs have been reduced by 40% to 16,783 and this is a low figure considering the amount of research work which we have been able to carry out. This confirms the approach of the Trust to try to use the money raised for the research rather than for the management and overheads. Our spending has gone down ( 79,434) compared to last year ( 94,243). This means that we have been able to increase our funds by 28%. This gives us a balance at the end of the year of 49,154. This is not the full picture because in many projects, we receive the payments after the work is completed and so the true baseline figure may be higher although we have commitments to various projects. The full set of annual accounts audited by Elliot Bunker is available from the Trust. The Trust for Deaf Studies 16 Whiteladies Rd, Bristol, BS8 2LG Tel: ; Fax: Textphone: ; Videophone: