While not professing to be an academically recognised researcher into the field of Deaf Studies, I’d like to present some thoughts on the current UK Deaf community: past, present and the future.
Past
Traditionally, the Deaf community has been centred around Deaf Clubs across the country. There are approximately 250 local Deaf Clubs ((Paddy Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture, 46)) in the UK, with around 50 in London alone. Sadly many are in decline as older generations of Deaf people give way to younger generations, who are usually not interested in Deaf Clubs and what they represent. From working with RAD and in RAD centres around London, I have seen first hand the importance of such Deaf Clubs; a meeting point on a weekly basis for Deaf individuals to go and meet their friends, acquaintances and enemies, to play bingo, have a nice lunch or a bevvy or two, and catch up on news and gossip.
However, they are considered to be uncool by young Deaf people. Also, the mainstreaming of Deaf children, advances in technology, such as SMS, and greater mobility and access to other parts of the country ((Ladd, as above n.1, 47)), have rendered some Deaf Clubs obsolete.
Present
It seems that alongside Deaf Clubs for the older generations of Deaf people, the young tend to hang out with their school crowd e.g. ex-pupils of schools Mary Hare Grammar School or Ovingdean Hall School tend to be socially active with fellow ex-pupils. Youth Clubs up and down the country are also popular places for gatherings of young Deaf people, but again, with mainstreaming, this could be in decline. Pubs are also popular meeting places for younger Deaf people, with regular meeting places nationwide.
Technology also features prominently in present times. Although still in use, textphones are on the way out, and RNID Typetalk/TextDirect, while annoying and rather crap, offers a valuable service for the Deaf community, allowing Deaf individuals to contact hearing people and mainstream services. However, it is really the use of mobile phones and SMS that has really taken off within the Deaf community, and of course, emails and Windows Live Messenger (or alternatively, Yahoo! Messenger and ICQ). These offer vital communication tools for Deaf people to maintain contact with each other.
It is arguable that the UK Deaf Community has moved in some ways to the World Wide Web. E-groups and forums are incredibly popular, with Deaf-UK, Deaf-UK-Jobs, Deaf-Wales, and Deaf Forum and the BBC See Hear Messageboard, cited as strong examples. There are also moves within the UK Deaf Community to improve accessibility to information by way of Deaf-UK-Events and Deaf Blogs, with a number of other projects in the pipeline.
BSL Recognition and Deaf activism
Deaf activism was quite strong in the 1990s, with the members of the UK Deaf Community up in arms against the Government, demanding recognition of BSL, with in BSL marches in 1999, 2001 and 2003, led in the main by the Federation of Deaf People. On 18 March 2003, the Department for Work and Pensions formally recognised BSL as a language, and since that time, Deaf activism in the UK has become practically non-existent. This is despite the fact that since the DWP recognised BSL, nothing very much has changed. Many quarters argue that the Government should be encouraged to enact a BSL Act, protecting the language and ensuring that mainstream services provide access in BSL. This would also increase the number of BSL/English Interpreters (akin to the BSL Futures project in Wales). With little or no activism within the Deaf Community, thankfully, Malcolm Bruce MP has taken it upon himself to do something.
What has happened to the UK Deaf Community? Why have Deaf people become so apathetic and indifferent? Initially, it would appear that Deaf people within the UK are either burnt out as a result of campaigning in the 1990s, or are just too lazy to get off their arses and do something. We really need a BSL Act to ensure equality, as the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended) is plainly insufficient for our purposes (due to that damned “reasonable adjustment” get-out clause).
It seems that petty squabbles, backstabbing and conflicts are the order of the day within the UK Deaf Community. This is quite saddening. We need to unite in order to affect changes in the future, but the Deaf community at present seems to be so bitterly divided. You only have to look at Deaf-UK and various forums to see personal attacks on prominent members of the Deaf community, disproportionate amounts of of criticism and general bad-mouthing, and above all, moaning about injustices, and yet, NO ONE SEEMS TO BE DOING ANYTHING!
Future
It’s hard to say what will happen in the future. It is likely that as the world moves on technologically, the UK Deaf Community will continue to embrace innovative technologies which will make interacting with each other that much easier, as well as hopefully improving access to mainstream services. Deaf Clubs are likely to disappear, and if the current trend of mainstreaming Deaf children is not reversed, youth clubs may also disappear. Deaf people like to have a drink or two, so Deaf pubs may remain popular. However, it is most likely that the way forward will be the Internet. Hopefully, something will happen in the UK to unite the Deaf community once again, like the Gallaudet protests in the USA late last year/early this year. In the meantime, it would be nice if we could all work together on common issues.
Your comments on the current state of the UK Deaf Community would be appreciated.
This is a good overview of the current situation in the UK.
It is worth looking at the nature of some of the “deaf” charities which have outgrown their usefulness. Run in the main by hearing people (eg: Jon Low – RNID, Tom Fenton – RAD) they no longer campaign for deaf people as they are too busy delivering services and are frightened to bite the hand that feeds them. This is a common theme across the charity and voluntary sector, not just deaf people.
Some other charities such as deafplus should have closed down long ago. Established to create innovative solutions to barriers faced by deaf people in the 60s and 70s, they no longer do such work and have become just another service provider.
What we are starting to see is the rise of deaf people setting up companies that deliver services for deaf people and do them really well. (eg: Neal Communication Agency) This is encouraging as there is no patronizing by hearing management/trustees. The time is coming for charities to withdraw from delivery of services, return to their original remit of campaigning and leave delivery of services to the government or private sector.
Agree re charities. They create services, fill in funding forms just for the sake of it. And to cover their running costs, not actually looking at the bigger picture. Trustees are quite passive in this respect. In fact trustees are not actually democratic, or rarely elected: appointed to suit the CEO or Chair. Yes I get sometimes the board needs specific skills. However, I have a bigger concern: they are not reflective of their core client group, or users.
Charities are meant to exist because of exactly that: their users. Yet, their governance and services are two different things.
Deaf clubs: most people who use them will all be dead in 10 years or so. A time bomb waiting to go off. The issue with this, is trying to fit old day solutions in 2007. It assumes that the wider picture variables remain constant, when they do not. Life is fluid, and that includes for Deaf people.
Relating to campaigning, there’s two things.
a) People who did the key work got burnt out, and illustrates perfectly re too few people do the hard graft. It could be laziness or a lack of leadership skills.
b) noone is doing anything because the *ownership* of a campaign was taken away, and basically Deaf people have stuck their two fingers in the air and said fuck off. Take BSL recognition, people who organised marches etc, were the last people to find out. We had a really absurd situation where UKCoD announced this to its circle *before* the official announcement, plus local deaf orgs knew. Half of these people had never been on a march in their lives, nor could even articulate what BSL recognition really was! Activists were left out of the picture. It reverted back to the missionary days.
Thanks for raising the issue of deaf charities within the UK. I am inclined to agree with both Stephen and Alison; that deaf charities are no longer interested in campaigning for the Deaf community, rather more concerned about maintaining services and securing further funding.
I do strongly agree with Stephen’s statement that there is a rise in Deaf people setting up companies to deliver services for Deaf people. Stephen was too modest to say that he is one of them, with his successful company, Dering Employment Services Ltd. I plan to set up my own law firm one day, and I intend to set up services for Deaf people nationwide, and hopefully, that will contribute to the trend.
It’s time for the Deaf community to reject the paternalistic attitude of deaf charities, and seize control of the situation. After all, we no longer need “help”, do we?
Obviously charities these days, are simply service providors, in reality that’s all they have ever been, the foray into campaigning for rights and such was a mistake. I think the RNID should drop the whole idea and leave the campauigns to grass roots, who only attack them anyway, but, as was pointed out the activists are burnt out. BDA/Signmatters is also switching more to support service provisions, leaving grass roots out of it.
That’s where the wages are let’s face it, not even the deaf work for nothing. Why criticise the charities providing a service to you ? They exist because of nil government run systems, and the government craftily responded to critics, that deaf and HI want to run their own support systems, and got us supplied with support on the cheap and with no real security of continuation, or having to pay qualified people either.
There aren’t enough deaf professionals to run a service industry for the deaf and HI in the UK. It’s not good enough you are deaf or HI too, you need corporate skills to run a nation-wide support service, so, no amateurs. You wouldn’t take an unqualified interpreter, so why accept an unqualifed deaf or HI person deciding if your need is good enough ? Because they KNOW what we need ? Do they ? Most HI would treat cultural deaf tellingthem about services as utterly … what ? Imagine MM telling cultural deaf the best way to run signing services.. I suppose.
Facts show they don’t, they know what THEY need and their immidiate peers might, but a deaf person running HI support ? or a HI Person running deaf support with no qualifications ? That is why groups like the RNID are hiring hearing people. The fact the BDA hires only the deaf hasn’t done it uch good has it ? It’s near bankrupt, and its members are moianing it isn’t touchy-feely enough, I mean who CARES ? the services are the thing, I can drink with my own social circle !
The real issue is not we aren’t running the show, but, we haven’t been trained to. As service providors go, the RNID has the rest beat let’s fess up on this. Once the RNID drops the campaigns, there’ll be no basis to go at them either, and they will still prevail. There’s no-one to take over the job.
No group can be paternalistic unless you let it. Service provision MUST be delivered as it suits you, and it is up to users of services to insist on it, and not grudgingly accept sub-standard help and then whine after, that is too late. As a TEXT user the RNID were the ONLY group to offer me my support, the BDA and others were on a different communication thing altogether, they had vry able people but apart from BSL, that was it….
I’ll take support wqhere I can get it, and yes, I am at the point it doesn’t matter who provides that support so long as it is what I need. The answer is still in education, and leaning on charities to include us as trainees too, neither the RNID nor the BDA is doing nanyhing to assist that, unless we get the work experiences and the training, we will never be in any position to manage our own support need, but be doomed to moan ad infinitum.
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I couldn’t understand some parts of this article orth of the Stupid Line, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
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Speaking of Paddy Ladd’s book, there is a new critical review by a newcomer to the world of Deaf culture (Orally knackered mainstreamer!) at http://tribalvillages.org/deaf/Paddy-Ladd.html . Included are some more comments on the state of the UK Deaf community.