Features

To celebrate International Women’s Day, here are the achievements of 5 famous D/deaf and hard of hearing British women.

Whilst reading through a job description with a well-known deaf charity, I stumbled upon the phrase; 'Guaranteed Interview Scheme'. I hadn't come across it before so I looked into it, and I definitely think it’s something we should be spreading the word about…

I researched into whether there is a higher occurrence of mental illness in deaf people than hearing. Although a simple question, there is no simple answer.

William Stokoe (pronounced Stowkee) is the man most responsible for ASL being recognised as an official language rather than just a mimed vocabulary. Surprisingly, he wasn't deaf or a signer. He was an English teacher who had gone to Gallaudet college (the world's only Deaf University) in 1955 to teach Chaucer to deaf students.

Two deaf friends will hike the length of the UK to raise money and awareness for mental health in deaf people.

William Shaw (1869-1949) was arguably the greatest Deaf inventor. He invented Deaf-friendly doorbells, alarms, clocks, baby monitors and phones.

“Tracing your Deaf family history can be harder than you think,” explains Geraldine O’Halloran during our interview, “but once you start it soon becomes...

In August 1969, Allen and Beatrice Gardner of the University of Nevada published an article in the journal Science claiming to have communicated with a chimpanzee called Washoe. She had been brought up since 1966 in the Gardner's trailer and could use 100 signs. She was intelligent enough to sign "water bird" when she saw a swan. By the time of her death in 2007, she used 250 signs.

Martha's Vineyard is an island in Massachusetts and was home to the world's most famous Deaf community. Even though they were never more than a quarter of the population, nearly everyone used the local sign language which would go on to form the basis of ASL.

Troi Lee ‘DJ Chinaman’ has been organising Deaf Rave http://www.deafrave.com since 2003. I interviewed him about the barriers Deaf musicians can face and about his plans for a Deaf Festival.