Features

Finding employment can be challenging but when you have a hearing loss, it can become much harder. The theme: To disclose or not disclose, was sparked by an experience of mine and discusses whether deaf people should have to reveal their deafness to potential employers.

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.

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.

“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...

Swim England and UK Deaf Sport have teamed up to make swimming more accessible for deaf participants. The start of a swimming race can be challenging for deaf athletes: particularly those who are unable to wear hearing aids or cochlear implants in the water.