November 2008 Bulletin
In this Bulletin
UK Council on Deafness 2008 Annual General Meeting
A the 14th Annual General Meeting on 6th November 2008 the following people were elected to the Board to serve a three year term: Brian Archbold, John Brennan, Lorraine Gailey, Katherine Phipps and Bryan Sheppard. They join John Adams, Susan Daniels, Steve Matthews, Bert Smale and Paul Tomlinson.
The full text of the Keynote Address: Challenging perceptions of deafness and hearing loss – RNID’s new approach
by Jackie Ballard, RNID’s new Chief Executive, discuss
ing RNID’s new strategy in the light of the changing political, scientific and public context
is available to download here (word doc).
Recruiting new Director of UK Council on Deafness
UK Council on Deafness is the national infrastructure body for organizations working with deaf people. It has grown substantially over the last 7 years and we now wish to appoint an experienced and highly effective Director who has the vision to take this influential organization forward.
We are seeking a passionate and highly competent individual who can develop the innovative work of UK Council on Deafness for the benefit of its member organisations and the wider deaf sector. The Director will manage the work of the organisation, building its membership base as well as taking responsibility for securing diverse funding streams to support the work of the Council.
With excellent communication, negotiation, networking and influencing skills, you are likely to have knowledge of organisations in the field of deafness as well as an understanding of and empathy with the issues relating to deafness. A thorough knowledge of the statutory and voluntary sectors, the funding regime and government processes relating to the operations of an infrastructure body is essential. You will have experience of developing organisational strategic plans and a successful track record in substantial income generation for perhaps a similar body.
If you share our vision of a world where all deaf people have the opportunity to participate fully in society and will enjoy the challenge of working closely with member organisations and government bodies to maintain UKCoD as the leading voice for deaf organisations, contact directorrecruitment@deafcouncil.org.uk for more information.
The closing date for this post is 1 December 2008.
Opportunities for Volunteering Scheme Grants
The closing date for submission of the First Step application is 28th November. After scrutineering, you will be required to complete the full Dept of Health application form. The closing date for these is 31 December 2008.
Successful projects must be able to demonstrate how they contribute to the Department of Health’s Strategic Objectives of:
Better health and well-being for all: Helping people to stay healthy and well, empowering them to live independently, and tackling health inequalities
Better care for all: The best possible health and social care, offering safe and effective care, when and where people need help, and empowering people in their choices
Better value for all: Delivering affordable, efficient and sustainable services, contributing to the wider economy and the nation.
Aiming High. 24 January 2009
“Aiming High” is a forum event organised in conjunction with Action Deafness, Leicester City Council and Deaf Parenting UK to discuss opportunities for D/deaf and hard of hearing families. January 24th 2009 10.30am – 3.30pm (with lunch and children’s activities provided). For Deaf and hard of hearing parents with deaf, hard of hearing or hearing children; Hearing parents with D/deaf or hard of hearing children; Carers for D/deaf and hard of hearing children and young people; Deaf or hard of hearing children and young people who have deaf, hard of hearing or hearing parents; Hearing children who have D/deaf or hard of hearing parents.
Deaf Children To Be Taught Synthetic Phonics Using Groundbreaking Free Software
The THRASS synthetic phonics programme is widely accepted as having the potential to more than double the normal rate of progress for reading and spelling in English, and soon it will also be possible to use synthetic phonics to teach deaf children through a new Cued Speech version of the groundbreaking THRASS Phoneme Machine software.
The THRASS Phoneme Machine, which uses moving human lips to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) in hundreds of frequently used English words, is a key component of the THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) programme pioneered by British Educational Psychologist, Alan Davies. It is an excellent resource for parents and teachers for learning about, and also teaching, the fundamental building blocks of English in an entertaining and fun way.
The value of the Phoneme Machine was recognised in the September 2007 edition of Independent Talking Points, the magazine of the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice, in which Catherine Redmayne, the editor, wrote, "I would have paid just for some bits of this programme. Considering the whole thing was free to download, it was a wonderful offering from THRASS".
This latest version of the Phoneme Machine, version V6-CS, follows a request from Cued Speech Association UK to include a Cued Speech option, and is being developed by THRASS UK as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility Programme, which aims to improve the quality of life for the local community and society at large.
THRASS UK expects to launch the Phoneme Machine version V6-CS on 1 December. Anyone who wishes to be informed of when the software becomes available for download, should visit
www.thrass.co.uk/cuedspeech.htm.
British Deaf Association Conference & AGM 2009
Swallow Hotel, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne. Friday 30th, Saturday 31st January and Sunday 1st February 2009. “Bright Memory - Bright Future”. The next AGM and conference of the BDA will take place in Newcastle upon Tyne on the weekend of 30 & 31 January 2009. This will be just sixteen years after the tragic death of Britain’s finest Deaf poet, Dorothy (Dot) Miles, who spent some time working in Newcastle in the 1980s. We thought it would be fitting to celebrate Dot’s life and work, as well as to remember her death, at this AGM. Not only that, but to find in Dot’s work inspiration for the future too.
For further details please check the website for updates: www.bda.org.uk
Research on Deaf Parenting Issues
Deaf Parenting UK is on a mission to collect all research papers, references, policies and information and add then onto Deaf Parenting UK website as a central resources with view of sharing information and good practices with Deaf Parent/Families and professionals/ service providers working with Deaf parents (including academic and governments) on local, national and international levels as this would enable us to centralise all information onto one place to avoid duplication of work as well as to encourage new ideas of research development to enable, empower and support Deaf parents.
Have you been involved or know someone who has been involved in research on the subjects of: Deaf parents with hearing children
Deaf parents with Deaf children; Deaf parents with disabled children; CODA (children of Deaf adults). If yes, we want to hear from you with details what the research entails? It can be broader topics covering maternity, health, education, social services, anything that is relevant to Deaf parents and professionals/service providers working with Deaf parents. There is no timescale of how far back the research goes back, but ideally we want to know what is happening in the last 10-20years. Anything includes any university research carried out by students/ academic researchers are also welcome. Also in addition to research, we want to know of any policy, model of good practices, information leaflets, sharing experiences etc that are useful for Deaf parents so that we can add links or even upload research papers as attachments onto our website. Please forward all information to info@deafparent.org.uk.
Back to News Section
