Read the piece >> Deafness at Third Level

A key point to remember is that each student prefers different supports at third-level. Some will favour speed-text (digital note-taking), or CART (ad verbatim note-taking), with others preferring sign language interpretation.

Further Reading

* What Tertiary Supports Do Deaf Students Need?

* Deaf Children and Inclusive Education (Disability Law News, March 2010)

* Write-Up: IDK’s Post-School Seminar (Nov 2nd, 2011)

Seminar topics covered:

• The DARE (Disability Access Route to Education) system
• Third-level college supports for deaf/hard-of-hearing students
• Internships and volunteer work for students
• Paid mentored placements for graduates
• Insights by deaf adults to their college and career pathways

The ‘Hearing’ Experience

First up, was IDK’s Caroline Carswell, who described her ‘hearing’ history, route to college and requests to TCD classmates for help to access teaching content. (Trinity College’s disability office was established in 2006). Happily, while at Trinity, Caroline discovered computers and that path opened up.

Niamh Hayes from GetAHEAD added a humorous summary of her mainstream schooling and college experiences, before outlining her current work.  A lead project, AHEAD’s Better Options Fair (Dublin, November 30th, 2011) is highly relevant to students considering college options for 2012.

A parent asked here, “which jobs are most suited to deaf people?”, in terms of finding a suitable college course. The unanimous response from the room was not to get stuck on “what jobs are possible” but to aim high, and to get into a college course of choice, THEN arrange your note-taking/ISL supports.

College Supports and Work Placements

Declan Reilly from TCD explained the DARE system, highlighting the critical application deadlines of February 1st, March 1st and April 1st – and college supports. (DARE will again be explained at Better Options, November 30th).

John-Paul Byrne from AHEAD’s Willing, Able Mentoring (WAM) project, showed an inspiring video to explain WAM’s model where a mentee (placed graduate) is supported by a workplace mentor. The mentoring relationship is facilitated by the manager, while the WAM team supports the placement.

Finally, Stuart Garland, manager at Fingal Volunteer Centre, presented volunteering and its ethos as a proactive way for students at any level to gain vital work experience. Volunteering by nature is inclusive, and allows students to test different areas of work, to identify their personal interests.

Further Reading

* Talking Your Way Into A Relevant Graduate Job

* Accessibility In Computer Training Environments

* Deaf Awareness For Business and Service Providers

Parents’ pain at special needs education cuts

This Wednesday (July 13th), the Dail Technical Committee is meeting to dedicate their three hours of private-members’ Question Time to the issue of changes in education and cuts in all areas of special educational resources.

A simultaneous family-friendly protest will be held at Leinster House, Kildare Street at 3pm that day, with several Technical Committee members inviting parents and educators to submit concerns for discussion during their review.

Let’s pause to recall a point made by Ann Heelan, director of AHEAD, in the Times (2010): ”The economic reality of high-tech jobs in a fast-changing world means employers need problem solvers, creative thinkers & technical experts. Many children with disabilities are great outside-the-box thinkers.”

Educational supports for these children is a first step to realising their value, both as individuals and as potential contributors to a multi-skilled workforce.

Further Reading

* Educational Supports For Deaf Children In Ireland

* Proposed SNA Cuts – Just The Tip Of An Iceberg?

* Parent Involvement In Child Education Is Essential

* Schools ‘Must Change Their Attitude To Disability’

* Inclusive Education Is ‘All-Encompassing Learning’

* Hearing-Aids + Learning = Education

Some deaf children (on a needs basis) have access to SNAs at mainstream schools, maybe with weekly resource-teaching hours approved by a Special Educational Needs Officer (SENO) on behalf of the NCSE.

At this point in time, thousands of families in Ireland do not know what (if any) support/s their child will have during the 2011-2012 school year, and may not get an update until late August 2011, or even in September itself.

Earlier this week, Fergus Finlay, CEO of Barnardos, published an open letter to Minister for Education, Ruari Quinn, in the Irish Examiner newspaper, in which several contentious points were raised as issues to resolve urgently.

Time for Quinn to prove that education is truly for everyone

The main issues at stake in the SNA controversy, are:

1. SNA allocation is complicated by misunderstandings about the scheme
2. SNAs are in fact hired in a care role, and not in a teaching support role
3. SNAs were hired by schools/parents where no need may have existed
4. Certain SNAs had their care roles extended beyond the initial DES brief

Workable solutions proposed to date, include:

1. Define the obligations of schools/parents to meet DES/NCSE guidelines
2. Annotate the role and responsibilities of each SNA assigned to a school
3. Clarify the SENO’s role, responsibilities and input to allocations/reviews
4. Increase communication between the schools, the NCSE and parents
5. Restructuring of the existing NCSE appeals process, for transparency

For now, it remains to be seen, how this education-resourcing issue will play out this summer. If your child is affected by the education cuts, remember the children of other parents and carers visiting this website will be, too.

(compiled by the IDK Team)

Further Reading

* Educational Supports For Deaf Children in Ireland

* The Salamanca Statement and EPSEN Act 2004

* Mainstream Education For Special-Needs Children: Significant Research

* Schools ‘Must Change Their Attitude To Disability’

*Inclusive Education Is ‘All-Encompassing’ Learning

Dear Derek,

I refer to your recent interview with Eithne Carroll and Liam O’Dwyer concerning services for deaf children in Ireland. It is my opinion that a very one-sided and biased viewpoint was presented and I feel compelled to express another and possibly more representative view of, in particular, educational supports available to deaf children in Ireland. I am the mother of 2 profoundly deaf children now aged 11 and 8, both deaf from birth.

Read the full article (in PDF format) >>

Further Reading

Transcript of the Derek Mooney radio show (Feb 8th, 2011)

Home-Preschool Supports: A Mum’s Positive Story

The Visiting Teacher Service ‘Is Often Forgotten’

Hello Derek,

My name is Ide Roche, from Newcastle West in Co.Limerick, and I listened with great interest to your show about the challenges for hearing parents of deaf children. Firstly, may I applaud Eithne Carroll for the way she told the story of her son, Callum. She reminds me of myself, devoted to her son.

This is my story:

Our son Tomás was born in 2006 and I had concerns about his hearing when he was two and a half. My husband and I thought Tomás needed grommets as his speech was delayed. Tomás had an ABR test in July 2009 and we were told Tomás was profoundly deaf in both ears. Our lives were absolutely shattered that day. Tomás had visits to Beaumont hospital where we got fantastic support and in May 2010 he got a cochlear implant.

Meantime, we got great support from our audiologist, who suggested the (free) “visiting teacher for the deaf” service. We met this “visiting teacher”, and NEVER looked back. Our VT visits our home every Friday. Tomás had to learn to listen and speak, starting at the very basic of words.

The VT sat with Tomás and taught him to listen and speak. The VT has been and still is the backbone of our lives. Tomás is now in preschool and the VT organised for him to get community speech and language each week. We have regular meetings at the school where the VT, speech teacher, preschool teacher and I make a timetable to suit Tomás’ language progress.

Schooling:

The preschool teacher is fantastic. Tomás is doing so well with the VT’s help that we enrolled him in mainstream school. The VT is doing reports so Tomás will have school supports  (i.e, a SNA). Once Tomás starts primary school, the VT will ensure he gets the best of help. There is no doubt in my mind that with the school’s good work and the VT’s input, Tomás will reach his goal (being a boy of his own age).

I really appreciate what our VT did for Tomás. He went from a child with limited understanding and speech, to a boy that understands everything and speech-wise, well I must say the VT pumped her heart and soul into Tomás speech progress and we can see how well he is doing.

I wanted everyone to hear how Tomás’ journey was and still is in progress. I also want people to know there IS help from the Department of Education (the VT) and for Tomás, this was and is 100% successful. The VT will be in our lives till Tomás finishes school and we are honoured to have her input.

Thanking you,
Ide

Dear Caroline,

[IDK] is a wonderful site, very cheerful and informative. I noticed in your bio, you studied history in Trinity. So did I! Like you, I had an offer at another university – Queens in Belfast, which had better support for deaf students. But I really wanted to go to Trinity and luckily got an interpreter and notetaker.

There’s no way I could have followed lectures without them – I’m amazed you got through without this support. However, it was still a struggle: [TCD] didn’t know how to book interpreters, so I had to lead them by the nose not knowing any of this stuff myself.

While I was in college, Trinity finally got a disability officer and things got much easier. As an explanation for his total lack of awareness, the senior tutor said when I started I was their first deaf student. Later, I discovered another deaf student studied occupational therapy a few years before me. Now, you …

Great website! Keep it up.

Personal accounts like this, show the importance of college supports to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Trinity College’s Deaf Support in Third-Level (DS3) project now advises students arranging tuition supports. Check the DS3 Facebook page for updates on the Summer School and other outreach.