Category: News & Events

The conductor of St Mary’s signing choir in Cabra set out not to form a ‘cute deaf choir’ but one that would be respected as a choir in its own right – and she has succeeded.

It’s often assumed that when profoundly deaf children are involved in any kind of musical performance it’s mainly for their therapeutic benefit: a worthy attempt at confidence-building or something that might help with their speech development.

Further read at: www.irishtimes.com/news/education/st-mary-s-signing-choir-in-dublin-for-deaf-people-their-voice-is-their-hands-and-their-bodies-1.2034299

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Two bills for the welfare of marginalized and hearing impaired people came up in the state assembly last week.

The Kerala sign board study act bill, 2014 proposed to make sign language as part of the school curriculum, so that it makes the lives of lakhs of differently-abled people better.

The private bill mooted by Congress MLA Benny Behanan said that there were thousands of students who were finding it difficult to follow the mainstream curriculum and it was high time that the government introduced sign language as second language like Hindi, French or Sanskrit.

Further read at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/Bills-to-support-tribal-and-sign-languages/articleshow/45410244.cms

Irish Deaf Society: This poster shows that even a small group of people are powerful and can make a change – together as a group, the Deaf community CAN make changes!

Do you want Irish Sign Language recognised in Ireland? You can do it! Support our campaign by clicking on the ISLR facebook page for more information:

https://www.facebook.com/IrishSignLanguageRecognitionCampaign

Irish Deaf Society: Have you filled in the ISL Survey? We need more people to fill it in.

If you ever use Irish Sign Language (Does not matter if you are Deaf, HOH, Deafened, CODA or Hearing) — we want EVERYONE who uses ISL to fill this survey in!

Read more »

We can make use of those who would be interested from the estimated 70,000 who already know and use BSL, along with those interested in learning it, to develop teachers who can then teach it to primary school children from age 4 until secondary school, by which point they should be fluent.

Once the first wave of children have become parents, employees and teachers, BSL can be taught to even younger children at home and in nursery school, and throughout primary and secondary school.

By this time, BSL would not have to be taught as a separate subject, but used to deliver other subjects. This would ensure continued use and fluency until university age.

Further read at: http://limpingchicken.com/2014/10/27/tabitha-laksimi-the-uk-needs-bsl-as-a-second-language-heres-why/

DeafHear.ie: Would you like to know more about Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia? You can view the last in the series of information films on dementia with ISL presentation here:

View at: What’s the difference between Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia?

A TEN-year-old boy will be responsible for a historic contribution to the Late Late Toy Show on Friday night when sign language will be used for the first time.

Further read at: www.herald.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/better-late-late-than-never-as-toy-show-to-use-sign-language-30778959.html

DeafHear.ie: Parents! Check out the Winter Update on Parents Corner, Christmas events and highlights of 2014 here: www.deafhear.com/ParentsCorner/

The 112 SMS service lets deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people in the Republic of Ireland send an SMS text message* to the Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) where it will be passed to An Garda Síochána, the Ambulance service, the Fire service, or the Irish Coastguard. The ECAS operator will act as a relay between the texter and the required emergency service.

Further details including ISL video at: http://www.112.ie/112_SMS_Service/142#.VGIecVIqW71

Well done to Sinead and Gaye for completing the course! We at IrishDeaf.com are pleased to have supported Irish Deaf Women’s Group with this important project.

Irish Deaf Women’s Group are hugely grateful to IrishDeaf.com for their kind donation and supports to send IDWG board members Gaye Regan and Sinead Winters-Smith to Gallaudet University, Washington DC USA for a week training ‘Deaf Women’s Leadership Seminar’ last July 2014. This donation helped pay for flights expenses so it was very much appreciated.