Miss-Delectable
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Deaf Talkabout: Time to get involved in running of our city - Opinion - News - Belfast Telegraph
Belfast's Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers was a colleague of mine in Mackies all those years ago and we chatted about the good old days during an informal meeting last week in his parlour at the City Hall organised by RNID training officer John Carberry.
John had brought his PA along to help with communication, but the Lord Mayor has such a bubbly personality, had such good eye contact and was so easy to understand by lip-reading and body language that signing was hardly needed.
John and I discussed the possibility of having a deaf person and interpreter at some of the city council meetings so that we could get first hand reports on the way our rates are spent and gain a better understanding of the many new building developments taking place in our bustling capital.
RNID estimates the number of deaf and hard of hearing folk in the province is put at 250,000 and it's hardly fair to keep such a large proportion of the population secluded from the decision making process.
The Lord Mayor listened carefully and made notes as we drank tea from china cups. He said he was genuinely interested and would bring the matter up at the next council meeting, but it was a difficult time for such a motion as extensive refurbishments were under way and the City Hall would be closed for two years. A sum of £12m was being spent on the work and all 350 staff would be moving to alternative accommodation until the work was completed.
Jim was sitting near me as he wrote and I couldn't resist the opportunity for a little deaf awareness training. I explained that John and I could follow the conversation better if he moved his seat so that he was beside the interpreter and we could have both in our line of vision.
He obeyed with alacrity and understood at once how signs and lip-reading complement each other. And he took no offence at all when John asked him to look at us when he was speaking and not address his remarks to the interpreter.
We took the opportunity of referring to other council affairs like bus tours and the open-top tours of the city that are proving so popular with visitors. These tours have a running commentary from the driver but deaf people are excluded from the information. Could interpreters be provided?
I told Jim about the time two years ago when Evelyn and I booked an Ulsterbus three-day trip to Killarney and a tour of the lakes. We left Belfast at nine in the morning and arrived at our hotel in early evening.
We were on the coach for ten hours there and back and, in spite of the beautiful scenery, it was very difficult not to become absolutely bored with the almost complete lack of communication, both while travelling and during the frequent comfort stops. A moving overhead text display with information on the places we were passing through would have been a godsend.
The Lord Mayor nodded in agreement. Yes, he understood our predicament, but private firms over which the City Hall has no control run these tours. He would see what he could do, but it does seem that the new Disability Discrimination Act does not fit into all situations where deaf people feel deprived, and, without a seat on the council, it's hard for us to make our needs known.
We really enjoyed our chat with the Lord Mayor and appreciated the genuine interest he displayed in deaf affairs. While leaving us to the lift he told us the City Hall cost £346,000 when it was built 100 years ago - the price, he agreed, of a good house in present-day Belfast. One of the staff, he said, has a good knowledge of sign language and is available for tours of the beautiful building.
We hope that in days to come more of our deaf citizens will get the chance to become more involved in the day to day running of our beautiful city.
Belfast's Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers was a colleague of mine in Mackies all those years ago and we chatted about the good old days during an informal meeting last week in his parlour at the City Hall organised by RNID training officer John Carberry.
John had brought his PA along to help with communication, but the Lord Mayor has such a bubbly personality, had such good eye contact and was so easy to understand by lip-reading and body language that signing was hardly needed.
John and I discussed the possibility of having a deaf person and interpreter at some of the city council meetings so that we could get first hand reports on the way our rates are spent and gain a better understanding of the many new building developments taking place in our bustling capital.
RNID estimates the number of deaf and hard of hearing folk in the province is put at 250,000 and it's hardly fair to keep such a large proportion of the population secluded from the decision making process.
The Lord Mayor listened carefully and made notes as we drank tea from china cups. He said he was genuinely interested and would bring the matter up at the next council meeting, but it was a difficult time for such a motion as extensive refurbishments were under way and the City Hall would be closed for two years. A sum of £12m was being spent on the work and all 350 staff would be moving to alternative accommodation until the work was completed.
Jim was sitting near me as he wrote and I couldn't resist the opportunity for a little deaf awareness training. I explained that John and I could follow the conversation better if he moved his seat so that he was beside the interpreter and we could have both in our line of vision.
He obeyed with alacrity and understood at once how signs and lip-reading complement each other. And he took no offence at all when John asked him to look at us when he was speaking and not address his remarks to the interpreter.
We took the opportunity of referring to other council affairs like bus tours and the open-top tours of the city that are proving so popular with visitors. These tours have a running commentary from the driver but deaf people are excluded from the information. Could interpreters be provided?
I told Jim about the time two years ago when Evelyn and I booked an Ulsterbus three-day trip to Killarney and a tour of the lakes. We left Belfast at nine in the morning and arrived at our hotel in early evening.
We were on the coach for ten hours there and back and, in spite of the beautiful scenery, it was very difficult not to become absolutely bored with the almost complete lack of communication, both while travelling and during the frequent comfort stops. A moving overhead text display with information on the places we were passing through would have been a godsend.
The Lord Mayor nodded in agreement. Yes, he understood our predicament, but private firms over which the City Hall has no control run these tours. He would see what he could do, but it does seem that the new Disability Discrimination Act does not fit into all situations where deaf people feel deprived, and, without a seat on the council, it's hard for us to make our needs known.
We really enjoyed our chat with the Lord Mayor and appreciated the genuine interest he displayed in deaf affairs. While leaving us to the lift he told us the City Hall cost £346,000 when it was built 100 years ago - the price, he agreed, of a good house in present-day Belfast. One of the staff, he said, has a good knowledge of sign language and is available for tours of the beautiful building.
We hope that in days to come more of our deaf citizens will get the chance to become more involved in the day to day running of our beautiful city.