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Lurnea's Onita Thornton, 95, is oldest surviving deaf student - Local News - News - Liverpool Leader
WHEN Onita Thornton, 95, was a schoolgirl, it was rare for hearing-impaired students to make it past year 10.
Deaf students weren’t allowed to sit the Higher School Certificate until the 1980s and many weren’t required to go to school at all.
Mrs Thornton, of Lurnea, was the oldest surviving student at the recent 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC).
She was eight years old when a charity worker knocked on her parents’ door in country NSW to tell them about a school for deaf children at Darlington.
“They hadn’t heard of the school but that made them think it would give me a much better start, and they sent me there as a full-time boarder in 1923,” Mrs Thornton said.
“It was difficult to leave my family but I loved being at Darlington with other deaf students.”
Mrs Thornton, who was born profoundly deaf, used her fingers to spell out words and communicate with her hearing parents and brothers.
She has never learnt sign language.
Her teachers used sign language and lip reading without interpreters and they had a different curriculum to most schools.
Now schools provide interpreters and note-takers, giving hearing-impaired students access to mainstream classes.
Technology such as closed captioning and teletypewriters are also available for a younger generation of deaf students.
Mrs Thornton has three deaf sons and eight grandchildren who are both hearing and hearing-impaired, and who have been given greater access to education.
“Now I see my grandchildren who are deaf achieving great things and this all starts with access to the same educational opportunities,” she said.
WHEN Onita Thornton, 95, was a schoolgirl, it was rare for hearing-impaired students to make it past year 10.
Deaf students weren’t allowed to sit the Higher School Certificate until the 1980s and many weren’t required to go to school at all.
Mrs Thornton, of Lurnea, was the oldest surviving student at the recent 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC).
She was eight years old when a charity worker knocked on her parents’ door in country NSW to tell them about a school for deaf children at Darlington.
“They hadn’t heard of the school but that made them think it would give me a much better start, and they sent me there as a full-time boarder in 1923,” Mrs Thornton said.
“It was difficult to leave my family but I loved being at Darlington with other deaf students.”
Mrs Thornton, who was born profoundly deaf, used her fingers to spell out words and communicate with her hearing parents and brothers.
She has never learnt sign language.
Her teachers used sign language and lip reading without interpreters and they had a different curriculum to most schools.
Now schools provide interpreters and note-takers, giving hearing-impaired students access to mainstream classes.
Technology such as closed captioning and teletypewriters are also available for a younger generation of deaf students.
Mrs Thornton has three deaf sons and eight grandchildren who are both hearing and hearing-impaired, and who have been given greater access to education.
“Now I see my grandchildren who are deaf achieving great things and this all starts with access to the same educational opportunities,” she said.