Caroline’s Bio

Caroline Carswell was born with profound sensorineural deafness in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1970s, and was identified as being deaf at 16 months old.

She is now self-employed after 15 years in the online publishing, journalism and web marketing fields. The Irish Deaf Kids project began in July 2007.

One of Caroline’s earliest memories is of having a hearing test at Cabra. Every time she heard a sound, she had to put a figurine into a wooden boat.

Caroline’s assessments showed that a supported mainstream education was viable. This meant she wouldn’t have to travel to and from Cabra daily.

Schooling

Her parents enrolled her in the local primary school, where 3 deaf pupils were doing well. All went to the same speech therapist in Harcourt Street.

Caroline finished primary school with the support of one hour’s speech class every weekday and a one-hour visiting teacher session per week.

The daily speech classes ceased at this time and Caroline found that behind-the-ear hearing aids significantly boosted her residual hearing.

At the local secondary school, her weekly teaching supports were two hours’ extra maths, and a one-hour visiting teacher session, as at primary level.

Extra-curricular activities at this time included hockey, badminton and swimming, plus weekend & school holiday work at a local health-food store.

Caroline took the Leaving Cert on the same basis as her peers, with a view to reading History at Trinity College, Dublin, or taking a degree in the UK.

University

Trinity College (at the time) had no support for deaf students, but Caroline felt she would manage with self-motivation and help from fellow students.

While at university, she got involved with the student newspaper and the mountain club, and worked as an administrator in the Students’ Union.

For the summer vacations, she took out bank loans to work & travel in North America, where the equal opportunities and deaf awareness amazed her.

After graduating from Trinity College, Caroline took a publishing postgrad course at Oxford Brookes University (again, with no teaching support).

Working Life

The publishing course led to a job at Oxford University Press that involved the output of journals on CD, on the Internet and in print, in one operation.

At the time, the Internet barely had 300 pages - compared with billions nowadays - and Caroline knew this was where her future career lay.

On her return to Ireland, she took an IT conversion course & worked for some years in corporate web marketing, before going out on her own.

Caroline currently sits on the steering committee of Trinity College Dublin’s Deaf Support at Third-Level project and on the sounding board of Kanchi.

In her spare time, she enjoys salsa dancing, socialising, hiking, walking her dog, adventure travel and volunteering at the local animal shelter.