ISSUE 12 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter 2015 The “Hear Here” Team wishes all our readers a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful Christmas & Best Wishes for 2016 CHRISTMAS CAROL CONCERTS This year Nugent Care’s Carol concerts are in aid of homeless people :- Friday 4th December 7.30pm: SS Peter & Paul Church, Liverpool Road, Crosby L25 5TE Featuring: Great Crosby Catholic Primary School Choir, Holy Family Catholic High School Choir and Liverpool Voice Saturday 12th December 7.30pm: Our Lady of the Annunciation Church Bishop Eton, Woolton Road, Liverpool, L16 8NQ Featuring: St. Austin’s Catholic Primary School Choir, New Era, plus other special guests Come and join us and sing some of your favourite Christmas carols. Ticket price: Adult £5, children free (inclusive of refreshments) Proceeds from this concert will support people living in poverty. There will be a raffle and a stall selling Christmas decorations during the interval. ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter TATTON PARK TRIP Lipreading class members from Southport, Formby and Liverpool went on a coach trip to Tatton Park. The weather held out for us and a good time was had by all. The house was as beautiful as ever and the gardens were in full bloom. You cannot beat a bit of English heritage on a lovely summer’s day. There were several cafes to choose from and some members did partake in all of them, as it would have been rude not to ! The cream tea looked delicious. Some members used the free mobility scooters around the gardens and the staff were very helpful with their instructions and guidance. The gardens are a must see attraction at Tatton anytime of the year. During the summer, Tatton Park had an exhibition of the work of Cristina Rodrigues which we were able to view on the day. Cristina is a Portuguese artist who has made her home in Manchester. The exhibition was called 'Guardian Angels.' The pieces were said to reflect her Portuguese origins but also her own integration into the British culture. Cristina’s art celebrates the role of women in society, across different cultures and tells their combined stories. We are hoping to put on another trip in early March 2016. If you have any suggestions please mention them to a “Hear Here” member of staff. 2 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter END OF TERM LUNCHES In July, the Formby group descended on Formby Hall & Golf Club which is set in beautiful grounds and has a lovely formal dining room so we were on our best behaviour. Brie, Mary's hearing dog, naturally was the best behaved! She is a real PR dog getting lots of pats and attention wherever she goes with Mary. Other groups there were most interested in Brie. She is a real ambassador for Hearing Dogs. Our meals were delicious and we all agreed it had been a lovely venue. Joyce Trueman Not to be outdone, the Old Swan group went to The Adelphi Hotel for their end of term lunch. They had a three course carvery. The staff arranged a quiet area and were very helpful on the day - ‘thank you’! These lunch outings arranged by Louise give us all a chance to get to know each other better and it is wonderful to enjoy a meal where everyone gives each other the opportunity to speak and lipread. Bring on more social events, Louise ! HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY PHILIP ! Some of you will remember Philip Graves from our Old Swan Lipreading group. He now lives in Formby. He had a significant birthday recently, he was 50 years young in October. Love and best wishes from all your ‘old’ friends in the Old Swan Lipreading Group Philip with Eileen, Louise and Anne, taken during the celebration meal with Philip’s family. 3 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter LIVERPOOL EMPIRE ‘ACCESS FOR ALL’ Liverpool’s Empire Theatre held an “Access for All” Open Evening in the theatre’s circle bar on the evening of Monday 20th July. Alison, Louise, Graham and I attended the event. The theatre’s disability officer opened the proceedings. She told us about her role and introduced the people who describe and interpret stage performance. They gave presentations about audio description, captioning and signing. All methods are designed to give access to live performances for those who are blind, visually impaired, Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. Audio description is a verbal commentary for the blind or visually impaired, which describes what is happening on stage. This description will include the scenery, dress, facial expressions and actions. The audience listens through a headset or earpiece. Touch tours may also be available for audio described performances. The BSL interpreter for Deaf people, described how he signs the words spoken and sung by the actors. The interpreter usually stands at the side of the stage. He signed and spoke throughout his presentation which included visual expression. The captioner described how he would prepare the captions in advance and cue them live at a performance. He is likely to know the production very well. The captions are similar to television subtitles and give Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people access to a live performance. When making a booking it is necessary to check where to sit in order to have a good view of the captions. There is also an infrared sound amplification system at the theatre. The theatre provides neck loops for the use of hard of hearing people. We were shown a stage show on a small screen to see, hear and watch the transcribers and interpreters at work all at the same time! They were very professional, well trained and entertaining. It was fascinating to see how they were able to combine different forms of communication in such detail. We then split into groups and fed back our thoughts. There was then an opportunity to have a look around other parts of the theatre whilst ‘out of hours’. The evening was very useful and there will be further meetings to ensure the accessibility needs of theatre-goers are met. Val Eden 4 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter MSDP VISIT OLD SWAN CLASS Chris and Peter from MSDP were guest speakers at the Old Swan class in October. This was a very informative talk on the referral and assessment process for specialist equipment. Specialist equipment can make a huge difference to those living with a hearing loss. Merseyside Society for Deaf People exists to promote and advance the quality of life for all D/deaf, Deaf Blind and Hard of Hearing people. The Society exists as a guiding hand to support and promote independent living and access to services. For further details please contact MSDP : Phone (Voice or minicom): 0151 228 0888 Email: [email protected] Fax: 0151 228 6021 Find us at our Head Office: 3TC House, 16, Crosby Road North Waterloo L22 0NY COMING SOON ! CHAIR BASED EXERCISES We are very pleased to be able to offer exercise sessions for our members and others with a hearing loss. The sessions are chair based and suitable for most people. The sessions will start in the New Year (date to be confirmed). Please contact Clare for more information (contact details on page 12). A short health check will be undertaken to ensure suitability before commencing. CONDOLENCES We offer our sincere condolences to the families of Dorothy McGauley and Sylvia Jackson who passed away recently. They were visited by “Hear Here” Volunteer Visitors in the Southport area. 5 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter HEARING LINK “HEAR & NOW” EVENT A large group from “Hear Here” attended this event in “The Devonshire Hotel & Conference Centre” Liverpool. All the professional speakers were superb. Helen Dowber from “Resound” brought us up to date on the research they are doing to improve hearing aids by suppressing feedback to give clearer quieter sounds, free of the noises surrounding the listener and cutting out whistling. She highlighted that Skype allows lipreading and improves communication. Smart phones and Bluetooth can be linked to hearing aid systems and this can make it possible to personalise sound input. Laura Arends from “Stagetext” said they are encouraging theatres and cinemas (even museums and conferences) to install equipment which makes it possible to follow what is happening on the stage/screen. (A later speaker highlighted it was essential for each actor to have a microphone as central microphones would not work satisfactorily). During the lunch break I told her about the sub-titled films shown by the Mount Pleasant pub in Southport and she will follow this up - the pub may get more people for lunch if they provide subtitled films - Southport trendsetting! Gaynor Chittick reported on the special developments at Aintree Hospital Audiology. Awareness courses have been held so that nurses can test hearing aids, fit new batteries and insert the aids when a patient is unable to do this themselves. Every nurse and doctor is now trained in this way. Vibrating devices alert people when it is their turn at Outpatient clinics. Clinics have loop systems and wards have bedhead notices for patients which include details of hearing needs. Each ward has a deaf ‘champion’ who knows how to arrange language interpreters. 6 ISSUE 12 Autumn/Winter HEARING LINK “HEAR & NOW” EVENT Dave Barratt on the BT stand had a lot of enquiries about specialist equipment and gave lots of tips on best phone reception, T-switches, hands-free systems, cordless phones, on-line chat “Livechat”, “Next Generation Text” - an app direct giving speech text links see http://ngts.org/uk Dave suggested before buying equipment, ask to try it or borrow from friends, ask around and find out what helps other people.