It’s that time of year again for me to ask you to please donate generously what I think is a really good cause. As part of my role as Director of Legal Services at the Royal Association for Deaf people, I am responsible for RAD Deaf Law Centre.

I am sure you can appreciate that times are hard for legal advice services that provide free advice to those who really need it, with cuts to funding right left and centre. It is now that we really need your help in order to ensure that we continue to do the really important work that we do.

Background

Deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) as a first language often have poor literacy levels (the average reading age for Deaf school leavers is 8-9 years). This means that they cannot understand information leaflets and correspondence, or access telephone helplines using a textphone.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into the provision of advice services in the UK, “Responding to discrimination: the geography and geometry of advice provision in England, Scotland and Wales” was published in July 2009. On pages 105-107, it found that:

  • “ … the advice system of CABs, law societies, union sources and private firms of solicitors are often still inaccessible to profoundly Deaf customers in spite of the DDA having been on the statute books since 1995”
  • “ … when disabled people are treated as a homogenous group then the specific obstacles facing Deaf customers and those with learning difficulties often slip through the net.”

Legal aid cuts

As a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, from March 2013, the areas of welfare benefits and employment, incidentally the areas of law most in demand by our clientele, all legal aid funding will be cut, except in appeal cases to the Upper Tribunal and above where there is a point of law for welfare benefits, and in employment matters involving discrimination.

This means that Deaf clients will not get any free legal advice in relation to claiming Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments, Universal Credit, Employment & Support Allowance, nor bedroom tax and the benefit cap. Where can they now go to receive advice on claiming the benefits they are entitled to and appealing any decisions?

What can be done?

We have calculated that the approximate cost for RAD DLC to deal with one welfare benefits enquiry for 1 hour is £27. We need to raise this money as we do not currently receive any funding to provide this type of legal advice, and are unable to rely on central funds.

We would like to raise at least £1,000 in order to be able to give a total of 40 clients one-off advice on their welfare benefit issues. Obviously, the more we raise, the more clients we can advise.

So there you have it. I’m asking you please, please, please to donate as much as you can so we can provide free legal advice to Deaf people who are going to be hard hit by the welfare reforms and the cuts to legal aid.

The link you need is: http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/RADDeafLawCentre.

Thank you SO much!

I recently had an audiogram with a new audiologist who I’d never met before because I’d been having difficulties “hearing” with my then digital hearing aids and thought that my hearing had deteriorated as a result of the vertigo attack in May. It turned out that the problem was my then hearing aid was kaput.

The audiologist said to me: “I don’t know your history but I have to ask, what is your view on cochlear implants?”. I replied, “I’m not interested in having one”.

However, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself asking her whether she thought I would be a suitable candidate for one. She responded saying that she couldn’t give a definite answer as I would need to through the assessment phase to determine my suitability for one. She did say, however, that she was of the opinion that I wouldn’t really benefit from one.

That was interesting: she didn’t mean I wouldn’t benefit from having a cochlear implant per se, she actually meant that I wouldn’t benefit from one because I didn’t really need it.

I’ve not suddenly gained hearing and can hear well enough without a cochlear implant. The audiologist was really referring the fact that I don’t really one because it wouldn’t make a difference to me.

I thought about it and realised that it was true; what would a cochlear implant give me that I don’t already have? I’m able to be alerted to sounds with the one digital hearing aid I have and it lets me listen to some music, I can communicate bilingually in English and BSL, I have good lipreading skills, at home with family I don’t have any communication difficulties, nor do I when I’m at work.

So what would a cochlear implant five me? Not much.

It’s apparent that I’ve reached a happy equilibrium in my life where I don’t have any major communication issues, and I’ve also become immune to hearing people leaving me out of conversations: if they want to leave me out without a second thought, fine, I don’t want to talk to them anyway and will find someone else to talk to or just do my own thing on Twitter via my iPhone where there are no communication issues.

Disclaimer: this post doesn’t intend to suggest that there is anything wrong with cochlear implants. Im aware that they have and do benefit some D/deaf people. They are just not for me.