How Do I Get Into Deaf Culture?

Mieke said:
Where in UK are you?
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I'm in Oxford. We have one primary school and two secondary schools with a deaf unit in the whole of the county. The primary school (4-11) has 3 deaf children on roll and all are mainstreamed for most of the day. The head Teacher of the Deaf for the county is currently doing a BSL Level 2 course, having been in the job for over a decade. As well as some of the colleagues. I've heard the excuse that most kids have CIs these days but I think it's a cop out.

There are areas of the UK with thriving Deaf communities though - Oxford is notoriously oralist. The friends I knew as a child are all signers* now, even the ones who went to Mary Hare. It didn't used to allow the kids of sign out of class, though.

*and they've got CIs just as much as the rest of the people my age. But the major hospital most of us went to was big on visual communication - so much that at a moderate loss my parents were told to learn.

The government have been shutting down lots of Deaf schools, though. My wife and I are unsure whether we'd move or homeschool if our child is Deaf. (My wife is a trained teacher.)
 
appleeater said:
I'm in Oxford. We have one primary school and two secondary schools with a deaf unit in the whole of the county. The primary school (4-11) has 3 deaf children on roll and all are mainstreamed for most of the day. The head Teacher of the Deaf for the county is currently doing a BSL Level 2 course, having been in the job for over a decade. As well as some of the colleagues. I've heard the excuse that most kids have CIs these days but I think it's a cop out.

There are areas of the UK with thriving Deaf communities though - Oxford is notoriously oralist. The friends I knew as a child are all signers* now, even the ones who went to Mary Hare. It didn't used to allow the kids of sign out of class, though.

*and they've got CIs just as much as the rest of the people my age. But the major hospital most of us went to was big on visual communication - so much that at a moderate loss my parents were told to learn.

The government have been shutting down lots of Deaf schools, though. My wife and I are unsure whether we'd move or homeschool if our child is Deaf. (My wife is a trained teacher.)
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Well the thing is, for some reason it is very hard for parents to get their dhh kids into deaf school. It's so strange.....the UK GUSHES about supporting Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Manx and even Cornish, but for some reason doesn't support BSL or Deaf ed for dhh kids.
 
appleeater said:
I'm in Oxford. We have one primary school and two secondary schools with a deaf unit in the whole of the county. The primary school (4-11) has 3 deaf children on roll and all are mainstreamed for most of the day. The head Teacher of the Deaf for the county is currently doing a BSL Level 2 course, having been in the job for over a decade. As well as some of the colleagues. I've heard the excuse that most kids have CIs these days but I think it's a cop out.

There are areas of the UK with thriving Deaf communities though - Oxford is notoriously oralist. The friends I knew as a child are all signers* now, even the ones who went to Mary Hare. It didn't used to allow the kids of sign out of class, though.

*and they've got CIs just as much as the rest of the people my age. But the major hospital most of us went to was big on visual communication - so much that at a moderate loss my parents were told to learn.

The government have been shutting down lots of Deaf schools, though. My wife and I are unsure whether we'd move or homeschool if our child is Deaf. (My wife is a trained teacher.)
Click to expand...

Wow that's pretty sad...

Is there any reason to assume your future child would be Deaf? Deafness runs on the family ?
 
deafdyke said:
Well the thing is, for some reason it is very hard for parents to get their dhh kids into deaf school. It's so strange.....the UK GUSHES about supporting Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Manx and even Cornish, but for some reason doesn't support BSL or Deaf ed for dhh kids.
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't say there's actual preservation efforts for Manx and Cornish in the schooling system but I completely agree about Welsh and Gaelic - though I suspect much of that has to do with the devolution of those countries. Unfortunately, I suspect a lot of it is due to misunderstanding that BSL is it's own language and the government's longstanding hatred of the disabled. See, wider use/promotion of BSL would have knock on effects of needing funding for parents of dhh children to learn BSL, expensive interpreters needed in schools and later through Access to Work funding and of course disability payments. (At the moment, the government have set up the Personal Independence Payments so that people who lipread rather than use BSL are ineligible unless they have another disability - there does seem to be a way around this, but the goverment are quite cross about the way courts are overturning decisions at appeal.)
 
Mieke said:
Wow that's pretty sad...

Is there any reason to assume your future child would be Deaf? Deafness runs on the family ?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure - we certainly don't have a strong linage of Deaf individuals but my grandfather was deaf (though whether he became deaf in early childhood owing to measles was rifely disputed in the family when he was alive), his grandfather was deaf and one of his sibling's grandchildren was also deaf. My hospital as a child thought this meant it probably was genetic but the hospital I'm with now scoffed and said that was more likely chance. Plus (though it is now less marked) my hearing loss is/was in the mid-frequencies which tends to be associated with genetic origin. In any case, it's none of the known genes as testing brought up nothing.

I was offered some genetic counselling but as my wife is, well, my wife there wouldn't be any use as they'd need to test the sperm donor instead. Most of the hearing people we know are women whereas we know quite a few deaf men, so if we did have a known donor (which I'd prefer so that the child would be less likely to experience an identity crisis) then they'd probably be deaf.
 
@appleeater

Wow a known sperm donor, my hat off for you on wanting to do that, I would be scared as hell for interference in the child's lifew later on.

But then again I'm not in that position. All done with having babies, 2 is plenty ;)

Good luck on that process :)
 
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