Miss-Delectable
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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=661741
NORTHERN Ireland man Damian Barry is the new chief executive of Hearing Concern and from his office in London he organises services for the many thousands of deaf and hard of hearing folk who do not use sign language and try to integrate with normal society as much as possible.
I met Damian during one of his regular visits home to see his family and we chatted about the growing importance of the organisation and the need for government bodies and the general public to become more aware of the large numbers involved.
It is very difficult to compile definite statistics because, in spite of exhaustive efforts to spread deaf awareness, many folk remain ashamed or embarrassed about admitting any form of hearing loss; but the RNID estimate in Northern Ireland of people with all degrees of deafness is 200,000 and this number is expected to grow as the population ages.
The number of totally deaf people in the province is approximately 4,500 and in this group the quietest sounds heard in the better ear are 95 decibels or more.
Profoundly deaf people rely on lip-reading and, if they are deaf from early in life, may use sign language and come under the banner of the British Deaf Association. The cultural identity and reliance on sign communication in this group is very strong.
This leaves a very large number whose deafness varies from mild to moderate and severe, covering decibel loss as low as 25 where the only difficulty experienced may be following speech in noisy situations, and these are the groups Damian works with.
We usually describe such folk as the hard of hearing and many can use a telephone with a device to make it louder, but lip-reading is an adjunct for everyday speech even when using a hearing aid or cochlear implant.
Hard of hearing folk like this have no knowledge of or need for sign language and rejoice in the new technology that produced digital hearing aids and the special sound systems at theatres and churches which cuts out background noises and makes listening less stressful.
Some just soldier on with restricted or erratic information and accept the hearing loss as just one of the problems of growing older.
Probably the most difficult category Damian will have to deal with is people like me who became deaf in later life and have enjoyed years of normal hearing followed by a lifetime of the constant aggravation of missing out on music and conversation.
I live in the deaf community and find sign language an indispensable boon, but how much I would give to hear again Handel's Hallelujah chorus or the Last Night of the Proms!
There are about 2,000 of us in the province and the strange fact is that, unlike the born deaf who usually have some residual hearing and can sometimes benefit from hearing aids, we who became deaf through illness or accident are invariably stone deaf and the only way back to the world of sound is via the cochlear implant operation.
This may sound very complicated but will help you to understand why the word 'deaf' has so many different meanings, as well as the complexity of the task Damian is taking on.
He is famous for his bubbling energy and enthusiasm and I look forward to meeting him again when he has got his teeth into the job.
NORTHERN Ireland man Damian Barry is the new chief executive of Hearing Concern and from his office in London he organises services for the many thousands of deaf and hard of hearing folk who do not use sign language and try to integrate with normal society as much as possible.
I met Damian during one of his regular visits home to see his family and we chatted about the growing importance of the organisation and the need for government bodies and the general public to become more aware of the large numbers involved.
It is very difficult to compile definite statistics because, in spite of exhaustive efforts to spread deaf awareness, many folk remain ashamed or embarrassed about admitting any form of hearing loss; but the RNID estimate in Northern Ireland of people with all degrees of deafness is 200,000 and this number is expected to grow as the population ages.
The number of totally deaf people in the province is approximately 4,500 and in this group the quietest sounds heard in the better ear are 95 decibels or more.
Profoundly deaf people rely on lip-reading and, if they are deaf from early in life, may use sign language and come under the banner of the British Deaf Association. The cultural identity and reliance on sign communication in this group is very strong.
This leaves a very large number whose deafness varies from mild to moderate and severe, covering decibel loss as low as 25 where the only difficulty experienced may be following speech in noisy situations, and these are the groups Damian works with.
We usually describe such folk as the hard of hearing and many can use a telephone with a device to make it louder, but lip-reading is an adjunct for everyday speech even when using a hearing aid or cochlear implant.
Hard of hearing folk like this have no knowledge of or need for sign language and rejoice in the new technology that produced digital hearing aids and the special sound systems at theatres and churches which cuts out background noises and makes listening less stressful.
Some just soldier on with restricted or erratic information and accept the hearing loss as just one of the problems of growing older.
Probably the most difficult category Damian will have to deal with is people like me who became deaf in later life and have enjoyed years of normal hearing followed by a lifetime of the constant aggravation of missing out on music and conversation.
I live in the deaf community and find sign language an indispensable boon, but how much I would give to hear again Handel's Hallelujah chorus or the Last Night of the Proms!
There are about 2,000 of us in the province and the strange fact is that, unlike the born deaf who usually have some residual hearing and can sometimes benefit from hearing aids, we who became deaf through illness or accident are invariably stone deaf and the only way back to the world of sound is via the cochlear implant operation.
This may sound very complicated but will help you to understand why the word 'deaf' has so many different meanings, as well as the complexity of the task Damian is taking on.
He is famous for his bubbling energy and enthusiasm and I look forward to meeting him again when he has got his teeth into the job.