[D]eaf people can realize their dreams too, to support the deaf community in an original way that would allow them to sell themselves, show their skills and versatility and allow others to see how creative they are.

To be honest, I find this quite patronising. Although I would agree that Deaf individuals have a hard time of it in terms of access to education, employment and mainstream services, I don’t think VeeSee is the way to go about it. The hearing world needs exposure to the Deaf community and BSL if attitudes are to change, and I don’t think hearing people are going to be interested in features such as ‘See and Learn’, ‘Chat & Discuss’ etc. There’s also a rather disturbing lack of BSL integration on the website. Ok, individual articles have BSL translations, but compared to Sign Community, Deafstation, it’s evident that BSL is not a priority.

Alison Bryan thereafter provided some constructive feedback, which Susie apparently saw as an opportunity to post some really personal attacks on Alison, going as far to suggest that Alison is not allowed to reveal which interpreters have worked for her. Er, what does that have to do with VeeSee? And besides, the interpreters’ Code of Conduct doesn’t apply to Deaf individuals unless they are interpreters themselves! That’s like saying Deaf people are not allowed to recommend, discuss or talk about interpreters! I would say to Susie, stop it now before you go too far.

Also, although VeeSee is quite pleasing on the eye in terms of colours, it is very badly designed. Navigation is difficult, and there is far too much text. It tries to do too much, which makes it difficult to process. If you are a Deaf BSL user, you would find the website difficult to use. The video clips don’t work in Mozilla Firefox, and you have to upgrade to the latest version of Windows Media Player to be able to view the clips in Internet Explorer.

Finally, I’d like to mention that I am on the VeeSee website. I agreed to contribute, to raise awareness of my career progression and how I decided to become a solicitor. When Susie first approached me, she convinced me that doing so would encourage Deaf individuals to become solicitors. I, of course, want to see more Deaf solicitors out there, so I jumped at the chance. However, I would like to point out that I am not a Solicitor, YET. I will qualify on 27 May 2007, and only then am I allowed to refer to myself as a Solicitor. Susie, if you read this, I would be grateful if you could change any reference to “Solicitor” to “Trainee Solicitor”.

We stayed at the Guanabara Park Apartments (NB. the first picture on that page is not Guanabara Park, it’s Portonovo) in Puerto Rico, on what was basically a cheap Teletext holiday. For the price we paid, we were happy with the accommodation, even though it was 170 steps from the local shopping/restaurant area to the apartments. Hey, a bit of exercise never did anyone any harm.

The weather was great – it was really warm in the sun, with very strong sunrays, but cool in the shade and during the night. It meant you could have a nice hot shower without sweating buckets while trying to dry yourself in vain, and sleep through the night without sweating buckets into the sheets. I came home with a reasonable tan – not bad for 7 days.

I came back refreshed and raring to go; shame it only took a day back at work to get rid of that fresh feeling!

Don’t worry, I will settle on a template/design soon enough – until the next time that is.

The way in which the posts are laid out accentuates the most recent post. The only problem with this is that it splits longer posts, so that you can only read an excerpt. But then, if you were interested in what you’d read thus far, you’d be happy to just click on the link to read the full post.

We’ll see how it goes.

Update: Ooh, just noticed the “new!” image next to this post. I like!

Bear with us while we modify the template, which is called “unsleepable”. You never would have guessed, would you? (!). Actually, bear with me while I experiment with different themes till I find one I like.  I’ve settled on Hemmed, which you can see in front of your very eyes.  I like it because it is neat and clean.  It’ll do for now.

Jen Dodds is banned.

There are 4 banned members of Deaf-UK.

One of them is Jen Dodds.

John Savva gave her a “Final Warning” after claiming that she is posting emails to Doug Alker without any proof whatsoever (Yahoo! does not keep records of where Jen Dodds is forwarding emails to from the website of YahooGroups)

To be frank, John Savva is making up the fact that Jen Dodds is forwarding emails to Doug Alker to give that Final Warning.

And without informing the Deaf-UK group at all, Jen Dodds is now a banned member. No reason is given.

Is the the sign of a moderator that is being fair?

Is it fair that Jen Dodds should be banned? You all know she is a valuable resource of information for Deaf-UK and always have been fair to all.

List of banned members

Here is a list of members that John have banned with the reason given:

Joseph Gwynne-Jones:
no reason given

Jen Dodds:
no reason given

Alison Bryan:
Banned from DUK for deleting her posts. Why did she delete them? Because John Savva (through his 100 per cent own Deaf-UK as stated on Deaf-UK website) thinks he owns the content of other people’s e mails, which is an infringement of copyright law. Not to mention he is breaking Yahoo! terms and conditions.

Tony Nicholas:
for swearing at John Savva – in Deaf UK policy, it states that normally emails of this nature would be rejected however it was during when Deaf-UK is unmoderated so this might be justified.

He was swearing at John’s action over deleting the entire Deaf-UK-Events members list (thousands of them) but this is up for debate if he deserve to be banned.

Some emails have been blocked by John Savva where members question the above. They was forwarded to us instead in those cases.

Deaf-UK to be unmoderated Poll

Rob Wilks have emailed to Deaf-UK talking about what happened. It was blocked.

He posted it to his own blog instead. He have provided a BSL video for John Savva to easily follow:

http://www.robwilks.com/blog/?p=314

John Savva have replied to Rob as below:

http://www.robwilks.com/blog/?p=315

He have created a poll on his website as to whetever Deaf-UK should be unmoderated or not. Since we have no faith in John Savva’s moderation, it is done outside of Deaf-UK (aka outside of John’s control)

http://www.robwilks.com/blog/?p=325

Please vote at the above.

Deaf UK Policy Rule 17 – I wish to complain…

Dear all,

JGJones is a banned member of Deaf-UK

However following the recent posting of Deaf-UK policy earlier, he read through and he came across this rule:

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17. The moderators reserve the right to ban or suspend a member where they have complete disregard to the rules. Members do have the right to complain, and this can be either done by contacting the 3 moderators direct, or where you have asked, we will post your complaint to the list.
========

He now want to exercise his right to complain about his banning.

First some history from his point of view:

He is a member of Deaf-UK and Deaf-UK-Events.

One day in August, he got an email from Deaf-UK-Events asking him to re-join again. he was a bit puzzled as to why this is since he is a member. Soon he discovered that the entire membership list of Deaf-UK-Events was deleted – thousands of members was deleted on purpose.

he then got in touch with Jen Dodds who he know is one of the moderator for that list and was informed by her that John Savva had deleted the entire membership list of Deaf-UK-Events. Without any warning whatsoever to the moderators or members.

Please note, he have no idea nor do he care about any background dealings between John Savva and Alison Bryan and Jen Dodds about the Deaf-UK-Events – that’s nothing to do with him.

So he posted on Deaf-UK to complain about it since John Savva is a member of that list. he felt he had the right to complain about his membership being deleted without warning from a list without consulting with anyone on that list – remember, there are thousands of
members on that list – not one email came from John Savva asking if it was ok to close down the list or something else and that’s what he is complaining about in Deaf-UK.

In all of his emails to Deaf-UK where he was complaining about Deaf-UK-Events membership list being deleted – he did not swear to anyone. Instead he demanded an explaination as he believe it was a stupid thing to have done.

Very soon after he find hisself a banned member of Deaf-UK. And he get an email from John Savva to Deaf-UK saying that he was banned along with Tony Nicholas.

Now as for the reason of his banning…

he still have not to this date been given a reason why he was banned. All he have to go on was this line John Savva said in an email to Deaf-UK:

“JGJones is banned because he is asking for it”

It’s not the exact wording, but it’s along that line. That does not justify his banning. he have not broken any rules in the Deaf-UK policy and was simply demanding an explaination from John Savva as to WHY he deleted the Deaf-UK-Events membership list without warning or explaining.

he is now banned for asking that. To rub it in, John Savva claims he believe in freedom of speech. Yet he is denying freedom of speech to ask a simple question – why?

Once again to remind you of this Policy No. 17:

========
17. The moderators reserve the right to ban or suspend a member where they have complete disregard to the rules. Members do have the right to complain, and this can be either done by contacting the 3 moderators direct, or where you have asked, we will post your complaint to the list.
========

JGJones and other banned members have the right to complain. Since we don’t have 3 moderators anymore, it’s all under a rather tight control of John Savva, they cannot contact him directly as they do not think he will give them a fair trial. And so…do it this way instead since JGJones is unhappy in his unfair banning from Deaf-UK yahoogroups. So
instead of asking “3 moderators” where it doesn’t exist, he is now asking you, the members for your decision.

If you think he broke the rules in Deaf-UK policy that was sent out as of 1st Dec 2006 and is the same one from when he was banned – and you believe that John Savva was right in banning JGJones – please do say so.

If you believe John Savva is wrong, please say so (I would appericate it if John doesn’t block those emails).

And to repair damages done to Deaf-UK-Events a new website was created. its better for events tracking etc and will prove to be a valuable resource for all Deaf people in UK because it is a completely unmoderated list with open membership (ie no pre-approval) and
membership are NOT needed to view, anyone can view without a membership.

Deaf UK Events: http://deafukevents.info

The Deaf UK Moderator responded with the following:

Dear Members,

I inform you that I do sincerely apologise for all inconvience it may
caused to you. I have already warned this would be happen.

But Hacking to send emails as John Savva are not acceptable, and as
seen as childish. This is seen as an attack to the DUK and the Owner.

Please support for DUK, and move on focus on deaf issues.

John.

So, once again, all Deaf UK members are denied the opportunity to discuss this really important issue. I’m almost tempted to unsubscribe, because this situation is beyond pathetic. Grrrr.

Those of you who have not yet voted on whether Deaf UK should be moderated or unmoderated, please vote here.

I had to drive through about three MASSIVE puddles/almost floods, and there seems to be a burst water pipe on Penmaen Road, flooding the road in the process.  Combined with the buckets of rain and the darkness, it was really quite a surreal experience.

The weather these days is completely bizarre.  We’ve had the warmest November on record, with fairly dry weather (actually, I thought it’s been quite cold, so it’s actually meant to be colder than this?! /shivers).  Now the weather is pissing down.  The nights are drawing in earlier and earlier, and everything’s just so miserable and dark!

Don’t you just love British winters?  Spring, here we come!

A few points I’d like to raise in response to this article:

‘normal’ language skills

/coughs. So sign language is not normal?

Eleven children who received implants before the age of one developed language normally, a team at the University of Melbourne found.

I totally abhor the thought of all these poor little mites who have received cochlear implants without any say in the matter.

‘The children don’t have normal hearing, but they have normal language,’ a team member said.

There they go again with that phrase: “normal language”. Grrr.

Harlan Lane, a psycholinguist at Northeastern University in Boston said: ‘The idea of operating on a healthy baby makes us all recoil.

‘Deaf people argue they use a different language and with it comes a different culture, but there is certainly nothing wrong with them that needs fixing with a surgeon’s scalpel.’

Hear, hear (!). Nicely put, Mr Lane.