Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,164
- Reaction score
- 5
The Weston Mercury - Plea for deaf funding
A LIP-READING tutor from Weston, who is retiring after 20 years, has highlighted the need for continuous funding to help deaf people in the area.
Jean Miles, aged 70, has worked for Somerset Skills and Learning, Weston College and the Centre for Deaf People and has taught more than 50 people a year for the past two decades.
She said: "It has been an enjoyable 20 years but I have had to fight to keep classes going, as it is not the case of going for six weeks. Lip-reading is continuous and you never stop learning.
"The world as far as lip-reading is concerned has been put on the backburner. The education department has closed all classes by withdrawing all funding."
Jean, of High Street, Yatton, began to lose her hearing over 25 years ago and she is now profoundly deaf.
She found her way into teaching after she attended a lip-reading class on the advice of a hearing therapist at Weston hospital and became a deaf awareness trainer.
Jean added: "Over the years I hope I have helped people to come to terms with their hearing loss, and they are able to cope better in their everyday life.
"You can become very isolated, as I do at times, and it is very easy to shut yourself away.
"When you say you are deaf, people assume that you sign, but that is not the case. A lot of people who have a hearing loss have no signing skills.
"We are often thought that because we can't hear we have a screw loose - they forget our brain still works as it used to."
Jean and other members of the Centre for Deaf People, which is based in Bristol, are fighting for funding for lip-reading classes in North Somerset to cover two classes a week.
She will be teaching these classes to 'keep her hand in' but has retired from her busy role as a deaf awareness trainer.
"It is quite sad that I am giving up something that has been enjoyable to do and has been such a help to me personally," said Jean.
"I came from a family whose mother went deaf at 25 and a sister who went deaf at 24, so I was lucky - I was 39.
"Now at the age of 70 I hope I will continue to help those who have a hearing loss and say 'don't give up, there is help out there'."
* If you or someone you know is struggling with a hearing problem and would like advice, contact the Centre for Deaf People by calling 0117 924 9868, minicom 0117 944 1344 or emailing office@centrefordeaf.org.uk
A LIP-READING tutor from Weston, who is retiring after 20 years, has highlighted the need for continuous funding to help deaf people in the area.
Jean Miles, aged 70, has worked for Somerset Skills and Learning, Weston College and the Centre for Deaf People and has taught more than 50 people a year for the past two decades.
She said: "It has been an enjoyable 20 years but I have had to fight to keep classes going, as it is not the case of going for six weeks. Lip-reading is continuous and you never stop learning.
"The world as far as lip-reading is concerned has been put on the backburner. The education department has closed all classes by withdrawing all funding."
Jean, of High Street, Yatton, began to lose her hearing over 25 years ago and she is now profoundly deaf.
She found her way into teaching after she attended a lip-reading class on the advice of a hearing therapist at Weston hospital and became a deaf awareness trainer.
Jean added: "Over the years I hope I have helped people to come to terms with their hearing loss, and they are able to cope better in their everyday life.
"You can become very isolated, as I do at times, and it is very easy to shut yourself away.
"When you say you are deaf, people assume that you sign, but that is not the case. A lot of people who have a hearing loss have no signing skills.
"We are often thought that because we can't hear we have a screw loose - they forget our brain still works as it used to."
Jean and other members of the Centre for Deaf People, which is based in Bristol, are fighting for funding for lip-reading classes in North Somerset to cover two classes a week.
She will be teaching these classes to 'keep her hand in' but has retired from her busy role as a deaf awareness trainer.
"It is quite sad that I am giving up something that has been enjoyable to do and has been such a help to me personally," said Jean.
"I came from a family whose mother went deaf at 25 and a sister who went deaf at 24, so I was lucky - I was 39.
"Now at the age of 70 I hope I will continue to help those who have a hearing loss and say 'don't give up, there is help out there'."
* If you or someone you know is struggling with a hearing problem and would like advice, contact the Centre for Deaf People by calling 0117 924 9868, minicom 0117 944 1344 or emailing office@centrefordeaf.org.uk