A failed system of support ? Demands to change the way they operate these classes is essential. I did both BSL and lip-reading classes, both failed, and I was a lot easier to teach than some who were a lot older and others who were simply not deaf at all. It rapidly became clear the teachers had never worked with deafened people, or at least had no way of really including them because we had a lost all useful hearing and teachers could not start from the premise we had useful hearing they could build on. It means we had to leave the class or the class could not function properly. Is this OUR Fault ? It isn't.
What was the alternative ? there weren't any. The only practical use of BSL or LR classes was to hearing people/relatives and those HI with more than enough hearing left to follow the teacher that way. In effect late deaf/deafened have two 'communication' classes that are not designed to help people who have lost access to it.
The BSL classes contained only hearing people, these are people who are family or want to gain qualifications to work with deaf people. The LR classes appear to serve no function apart from establishing some sort of social group in miniature, and had 78% regular failure rates that no-one ever challenges. It is time to raise our expectation. 30% 'success', this stat is bandied about unrealistically.
The 30% means that is ALL you will ever get if you are at the top level of lip-reading, most class students never attain that 30% or anything like it. The Manchester speed - reading test via lip-reading, has never been attained by 96% We found that LR classes along with mainstream groupings polarised by decibel too. In the lip-reading class I along with 2 other people very deaf were asked to leave because we slowed other people down, and we were not included in the mini-social grouping that set itself up via the class, Hard of hearing had no patience to include us and at coffee break times, they would go in one room and we would be left in another, if we persevered and went with them they didn't attempt to talk or include us.
The tutor called 3 of us to one side and said I am sorry this isn't working you have to leave, or the rest cannot benefit from my class. I thought that a damning statement of LR failure as well as poor show from the teacher herself and told her. I also suggested in the future classes she ran to make it clear deafened could not benefit via her tuition, she refused. "We act as a referral too, we refer them to appropriate services..." I told her there weren't any, why else do we go to classes like hers ? so where was she referring them ? (Basically anywhere but her class). If people want to keep this pointless set up for the hearing and hard of, OK, but they must stop projecting themselves as a service that provides qualification, because clearly that only applies to hearing students of BSL. I was naive I thought lip-reading and sign language was for us, a service, clearly it isn't and the teachers are not qualified to do that. With no 'level' or expectation of any attainment or skill in LR what is the point of it ? The overall view is negative. HoH benefit, that is until they go deaf then they are in the same boat we are.
Why set up another set of classes for deafened ? both LR and sign are useful but NOT as they are taught now and certainly NOT in respects to our sector at all. Mostly our people give up and leave, THESE are the people most in need of help, they do not return to classes, to me that is the biggest issue of all. Because there is nowhere else to go. If we don't question this system there is none other we can. The approach cannot be the same to deafened people as it is to HoH or hearing, it is surprising they haven't realised this after 45 years of awareness. It's a system for teachers, not for students and fails those who most need the help.
What theysaid
And they never responded........
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