Lee's BSL lessons: The Bristol Deaf Epidemic

Subtitles will be made soon.

The Bristol Deaf scene is in crisis at the moment. The Centre for Deaf people, which has been around for 125 years, has now had its funding removed by Bristol City Council. The Centre is one of the many voluntary sector businesses that are subject to having funding removied. £250, 000 worth of funding is to be removed and the date for the Centre's closuing is at the beginning of November. Read the story on BBC News;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-14817125
Please sign the petition in order to save it.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-close-deaf-centre-bristol.html
And also for Leeds Deaf Social Club too.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/13660

Remark website:
http://www.remark.uk.com/

Links for the videos of the closure of the Deaf Studies course in 2010 (YouTube and on The Hub) are below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXHyOx-RRi8 - Film footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFDEvcSB28 - ITV News
http://www.bslbt.co.uk/programmes/the-hub/the-hub-pilot/

Links for videos of Elmfield School (Vimeo and The Hub) are below:
http://vimeo.com/23152956
http://www.bslbt.co.uk/programmes/the-hub/the-hub-programme-3/

Here's a recent news story I found in The Guardian regarding the closure of Bristol Deaf services:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/15/bristol-deaf-centre-fundi...

The link for the Action on Hearing Loss story on The Hub is below:
http://www.bslbt.co.uk/programmes/the-hub/the-hub-programme-1/

Enjoy them programmes, and write a comment below about what is happening in your local Deaf community, or tell me what you think of the RNID's name change to Action on Hearing Loss. See ya ;)

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[Charlotte823]

thanks @LeesBSLlessons for this informative video. I have signed the Bristol petition and was thinking of mentioning the Leeds petition but you already know about it!

[forgottenartform]

I think it's awful that they're cutting the services funding - it's great for the community, it provides people a place to go and meet new people. It really make a difference to peoples lives (I used to work as a volunteer in a drop-in centre in Bridgend and it made such a positive difference to the people who used it)

[Fieryhellcat]

@theweepywillow !! Whoops sorry!!

[Fieryhellcat]

@theweepingwillow - what level are the courses you're looking at? I live in blackpool (about 35mins away from Lancaster) n they offer courses here too, and although we don't have a huge deaf community what we do have is very friendly and open and I'm sure would be pleased to meet you :-)

Also I believe preston (about 25/30 mins away) has a good deaf community aswell.

If you'd be interested in meeting up with people from b'pool please get in touch :-)

xXx

[Fieryhellcat]

I agree, its terrible that these services are closing down!!

And I can can also see how the deaf community feel about RNID changing its name, let's just hope they stick to their word and keep providing for the deaf community.

[TheWeepyWillow]

I'm in Lancaster, we have deaf club,There are two problems, tho - first, I'm hearing impaired American, so I know ASL and want to learn BSL because I live+ hope to stay in UK. But as a post-grad student I can't afford the £260+ for the starter course and the £450+ for the advanced course. So it's hard for me to find a way to learn it, and so I can't even get involved here! But there isn't much hapning in our deaf club here so even if i learn BSL there's really little in my area to do with it :(

[pyrothesis1]

i'm surprised by the lack of respect people show to deaf people, i'm the only hearing member of staff where i work who can sign but i'm not proficiant i still have to spell a lot of words, but 1 of my managers at work has managed to drive out 2 of the 3 deaf people working there, and said to the remaining one "listen harder" when she asked for her sign for her till because she's profoundly deaf but can lip read, as 2 customers had already complained she'd ignored cos she wasn't looking at time