Lateral thinking puzzles and cultural awareness/norms

A friend gave us this lateral thinking puzzle on Boxing Day.  I'd heard it before but it took me half an hour to remember the solution.  The next day we asked my boyfriend's mum and partner it, and we asked another friend.  Some people got it within 20 seconds, others couldn't get it.   The puzzle is this:

A man lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building. Every morning he goes to work, comes back in a limousine, and gets in the lift to his apartment.  Some days he gets off at the 12th floor and walks the remaining 8 flights.  Other times he gets off at the 20th floor and goes straight into his apartment.  Why does he sometimes get out at the 12th floor?

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He is a dwarf (or little person - a quick google search says little people may be the correct term, but I feel awfully patronising saying that, however I realise that's my issue and if anyone who this affects is reading this I'm sorry if I'm causing offence) so he is too short to reach the button for the 20th floor.  He can reach as far as the button for the 12th floor though, and if other people are in the lift they press the button for the 20th floor for him.

Before I start waffling on about cultural norms, the pedant in me would like to ask whether lift buttons are always in one long vertical line, or if they are in sets of three or four vertical rows?  Because, this whole lateral thinking puzzle only works if the lift buttons are in one or two long vertical rows.

Right, cultural stuff.  For people who didn't get the puzzle straight away they went through tons and tons of ideas about why the man would get off t the 12th floor, all based around things they'd do.  E.g.  He had a girlfriend or lover on the 12th floor. There is a restaurant there  He liked the exercise.  There is a launderette on the 12th floor.  The lift was broken.  The limousine had a ramp to the 12th floor (that was my idea, no, I don't know why I said that either).  People who didn't get it were very surprised when they heard the answer.  I knew that the numbers of the floors were key, but I thought it was more of a numerical answer, rather than a physical capability answer.

Which led me onto thinking, that if we were all more aware of different abilities and disabilities would we get the puzzle earlier?  The answers that people gave were within their life experience, based on what they'd do, they was a certain amount of putting yourself into someone else's shoes, but not into something too different.  When I was trying to solve it I was thinking of cold hard data.  Logic.  I guess that's me not understanding the puzzle - lateral thinking isn't the same as logic.  The bloke who got it immediately is also quite short - about 5 ft 3, perhaps that helped him think outside the box?

Then I think what is the box? It's just the cultural norms that we operate with.  The way in which we think of certain body types as the default.  Men for instance.  Able bodied people.  White people.  I guess I'm saying that this puzzle really illustrated that for me.  How much does this type of thinking impact on all the other decisions and viewpoints we hold in our life?

I googled the puzzle and found this page which also has these puzzles:

2. Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they've got their man?

Answer - the carpenter, lorry driver and mechanic are all women.
(my question - were they all there dressed in their workclothes with their work equipment on show as well?)

6. A man and his son are in a car crash. The father is killed and the child is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate on this boy - for he is my son!!!' How can this possibly be?

Answer - the surgeon is the boy's mother.

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't get either of these before looking at the answers (I only gave myself about 5 seconds but let's be honest here).  That sexist programming is still in full force.

This post is yet another example of me having half formed thoughts and wanting to get them out on the page for no other reason than to clear my head!

One Stop Shopping for language interpreters does not work

I recently read this post, found here, which makes me despair, and worry about my career plans for being a BSL terp.

Argggghhh.  As follows:

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Outsourcing or One Stop Shops. Words that strike fear into the heart of the Sign Language Interpreter. A word that means the work that they previously did direct or though one agency for a council, a hospital or a court now has to go through a larger spoken language agency.

This seems nonsensical to the jobbing interpreter, but ultimately makes sense to the statutory organisation. The logic or process goes like this: we use many interpreters for many different languages. British Sign Language (BSL) is a language. Our staff do not know how to book interpreters so we will employ an organisation who can do this for us. We will save money by employing an agency to cover our interpretation and translation needs (which will include those difficult to source sign language interpreters)…

We will go through a lengthy procurement process where agencies will try to outbid each other to win a contract at a unit price that is ultimately unsustainable. Organisation will expect said agencies to put something in their tender about quality but really it is tokenism for we will only be awarding a contract on the basis of costs. We will award contract to cheapest provider regardless…

Spoken language agency will not understand how to source a BSL interpreter and will sub-contract a specialist agency. They will think they can pay BSL interpreter the same as a spoken language interpreter and when they start the contract will get a big shock. Specialist BSL agency eventually agrees to reduced price sub-contract as all previous work they did is now being outsourced to spoken language agencies who have little understanding of deaf people and BSL interpreters. Specialist BSL agency still wants to survive in market where they get less work. BSL agency asks BSL interpreter to work for less fees. BSL interpreter, if accepting fees, finds they are working for a lot less than before. BSL interpreter is then providing profit for two separate contracts. BSL interpreter considers leaving the profession as they can not survive as an interpreter and must consider another career. Deaf people get less experienced and maybe unregistered interpreters as a result.

Time for a real life example… One of the biggest culprits is Language Empire and Remark Interpreting. Language Empire has a contract to provide interpreting for ATOS. ATOS has the contract for the Government’s Department of Work and Pensions medical assessments. ATOS carry out assessments to decide if the claimant should be allowed incapacity benefit or if they are fit to work. There are problems for disabled people in general with these assessments. MPs themselves have stated the assessments are flawed. The ATOS machine rumbles on… so who do they employ to do the interpreting? Language Empire. An agency who is so ignorant of BSL it calls it British Special Language. The images of hands on its ‘BSL’ page are not of any recognisable signs and they state they have ‘special disability interpreters’. Nobody actually knows what this means. Their webpage has caused BSL interpreters much mirth but complete dismay at their ignorance.

The worst is yet to come. A deaf-led agency has now started to sub-contract for Language Empire. At least the RNID (now Action on Hearing Loss) when sub-contracting for The Big Word stood up for BSL interpreters and helped The Big Word understand the BSL interpreting profession. This organisation has done nothing for interpreters or the deaf community it proposes to serve. They continue to try to source BSL interpreters at greatly reduced cost for what it’s contractors call British Special Language. This particular agency states one of their aims as supporting and enhancing the lives of Deaf, hard of hearing and blind individuals.’ I don’t think so.

Meanwhile we hear of regular reports of yet another council, organisation or government department outsourcing or looking for a ‘one stop shop’. When the agency is not reputable, the cost to the organisation generally remains the same but the quality drops off. With BSL usually representing something around 2% of a contract, the interpreter or deaf person loses out. What used to cost an organisation £100 – £160 per booking average direct, now costs the same or worse (Freedom of Information requests by interpreters show this to be the case due to sub-contracting).

The fact costs have barely been saved is not important. It’s the ramifications to the profession and subsequently deaf people that matters. Spoken language agencies generally do not understand the NRCPD registration system for sign language interpreters. These agencies are more likely to employ someone with level 1 or 2 in sign language (equivalent to a GCSE or A Level in French) thinking this is acceptable. It may be if we were native BSL users but as interpreters, by the nature of the job, we are mostly people that can hear, and we tend to have English as our first language. Therefore, most people with a basic qualification in BSL do not have enough fluency to interpret anything but someone buying a cup of coffee much less a medical appointment. Would you try to interpret consent for an operation to a French man if you had GCSE French?

Every qualified registered interpreter has been to an appointment where the deaf person said but that’s not what the interpreter said last week. Take the case recently of an elderly deaf man who thought he was having a minor operation on his shoulder. The hospital had provided an ‘interpreter’ the week before to sign the consent forms. When the registered interpreter arrived a week later the patient was shocked to discover he would be having a a major operation that day under general anaesthetic. What will it take to stop this… A malpractice lawsuit? A death? Rumour has it that already happened but unless someone actually does anything about it, the government outsourcing machine continues, the big agencies profit and deaf people lose out.

#Spartacusreport : challenging the government

Over 2011 a group of disability activists got together and decided to challenge the government's welfare system reforms.

Headed by Sue Marsh, blogging on Diary of a Benefit Scrounger and tweeting on @suey2y, and by BendyGirl, blogging at Benefit Scrounging Scum, they conducted interviews, researched the meanings of the proposed reforms, analysed the data and developed conclusions on the proposed changes.  This was all pulled together into a document titled Responsible Reform and launched last Monday.  The twitter hashtag is #spartacusreport.

Before Christmas, Sue found out her application for DLA had been rejected.  Instead of appealing that, she elected to continue working on the report.  Several activists involved with the report made themselves ill and ended up in hospital, because of the workload.  These activists are all sick or disabled themselves.  The reforms will directly affect them.

There wasn't much national media coverage on the Monday, or the Tuesday.  Despite the fact that national organisations such as Mind, The Papworth Trust, Scope and United Response support the report.

But on Friday Sue Marsh went on Newsnight, with Chris Grayling, Employment Adviser to debate the Thursday night discussion in the House of Lords.

This is a victory for grassroots activism, and a victory for the cause itself.  It is amazing what these activists have done, and it amazing (in a very different way) what the government is trying to do.

Mega mega kudos to Sue and her colleagues.  Take a gander at the links, especially if you live in the UK.  I reckon most people who don't have direct personal experience of sickness or disability won't understand the implications of the proposed reforms.  Why would you?  But they ain't good.  They are being proposed purely to save money. 

This government is placing a greater importance on saving money than on providing a decent quality of life and standard of living to it's citizens.

This government thinks money is more important than people.

"...And that's what your holy men discuss, is it?" [asked Granny Weatherwax.]

"Not usually. There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment on the nature of sin. for example." [answered Mightily Oats.]

"And what do they think? Against it, are they?"

"It's not as simple as that. It's not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of grey."

"Nope."

"Pardon?"

"There's no greys, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."

"It's a lot more complicated than that--"

"No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts."

"Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes--"

"But they starts with thinking about people as things..."

--from Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.

State benefits in the UK

I've been following Diary of a Benefit Scrounger for a while now.  It's a campaigning site focusing on the proposed cuts to welfare benefits in the UK.  There's a few posts I think people should read.

The Very Definitions of Irony -the writer of the blog has severe Chron's disease, osteroporisis and malnutrition.  She takes chemo shots every 2 weeks, has had major seizures and a stroke.  Her application for Disability Living Allowance has been turned down.
3 Claimants die after being found for fit for work
An open letter to Iain Duncan Smith
Did you know this about your ESA50 form - Given how strict we are about data protection, why do royal mail sorting officers open the ESA50 applications, and sort them in the post office?  What's it to do with them?

Who is the most deserving? - Since 2008 75% of applicants got gurned down for Employment Support Allowance.  Apparently they weren't sick or disabled enough.
We all know someone who could work but doesn't - don't we? - Hidden, secret disabilities and illnesses.

Accessible site maps on a nature reserve!

 I recently went to France and was lucky enough to visit the Marquenterre nature reserve in the Baie de Somme.  I saw a kingfisher there!!  My first.  It was brilliant and I'm still excited about it.

I also noticed that they'd made their site maps accesible to blind and visually impaired people.  How you ask?  By placing braille over the written text and by using different types of material as the key for the site map.  See here:

Isn't that just fabulous?  So simple yet so effective.  I've never seen that kind of thing in England.

Meanderings on language

I keep using the word idiot to mean stupid. I know there’s been a lot of discourse in online activist circles about the use of ablest language, including how ‘idiot’ is used to mean stupid. I have come to the conclusion that idiot can be (is) offensive to quite a few people because idiot is/was (not sure which) a medical term for people who are..and here’s where I fall down, because I don’t know the right term. I want to say retarded, special needs or slow. What is right? Retard certainly isn’t, I’m pretty sure retarded isn’t either. There are probably loads of cognitive disorders/disabilities /syndromes that these terms are used to mean, and those folk who aren’t affected them probably gloss them all into retard/idiot/slow/special needs.

But back to idiot. I use it to mean stupid. And to me, with my limited knowledge, that is what it means. If someone is a bit slow they are stupid – not bright, not clever. I think where using idiot gets offensive is where it is used to dehumanise people, to outright say or imply that they are worth less than others because they are not as intelligent. That is plainly wrong.

And again, if people use special needs/retarded/slow to refer to a range of developmental abnormalities as the same thing, that again becomes problematic. I don’t know enough about this area of human experience to say what the different syndromes/disabilities etc are.  I know I wouldn’t call those with these disabilities an idiot – I don’t know if I’d call anyone other than myself an idiot to be honest, cos I don’t like abusing/insulting people (at least not to their face).

I was going to end this post by saying that I will continue to use idiot because I don’t use it in a dehumanising manner to other people, but if someone found it offensive I would stop using it around them. But then, someone could be reading this blog (it is in a public space after all) and could be finding it offensive, so I’d just be undermining my intention. I would be effectively making excuses for myself and putting the blame for the offence onto the person who is offended, and that’s wrong. The offender needs to take responsibility for their actions, I feel.

Where am I going with this? I don’t really know. Other than that I shouldn't use the word idiot in public.

Fit for Work?

Cross posted in it's entirety from this Guardian article:

Larry Newman was assessed by an Atos staff member and awarded zero points. To qualify for sickness benefit he needed 15. He died from lung problems soon after


Larry Newman attended a work capability assessment in March 2010, when a degenerative lung condition made it impossible for him to go on working in the wood veneer showroom where he had spent much of his career. His weight had dropped from 10 to seven stone, and he had trouble breathing and walking.

The Atos staff member who carried out the medical test awarded him zero points. To qualify for employment and support allowance, the new sickness benefit, he needed to score 15 points, and in July he received a letter from jobcentre officials stating that he was not eligible for the benefit (worth around £95 a week) and would be fit to return to work within three months.

He was devastated by the decision, and dismayed to note a number of inaccuracies in the report that accompanied the letter. He decided to appeal against the decision, but before three months was up he died from his lung problems.

His widow, Sylvia Newman, recalls that one of the last things he said to her, as doctors put him on a ventilator, was: "It's a good job I'm fit for work." He was trying to make her laugh, she says, but it was also a reflection of how upset he had been by the conclusion of the medical test.

"He was so hurt by it. It made him so upset that they thought he was lying, and he wasn't," she says. "I think it added to him just giving up."

Mrs Newman has lodged an official complaint, with the help of Citizens Advice staff, highlighting 12 inconsistencies in the report by the Atos assesser. It said her husband had been unaccompanied. "I was with him, although in his medical report they claimed that I was in the waiting room," she says. The report says that Mr Newman's pulse was fine, that he had no scars on his chest and that he managed to climb on to the examination bed without any problem. Mrs Newman says that her husband did not get on to the examination bed, that his pulse was not taken, and that the assesser did not look at his chest, otherwise he would have seen scars.

"He never touched Larry, he never took his pulse.There were endless inaccuracies," she added, describing the report as "make-believe".

They were both dismayed by the assesser's casual attitude. "At one stage, he took a phone call. We were trying not to listen, but it seemed to be a personal call," she says. "It went on for a few minutes. It wasn't very professional."

Although they had given written permission for Atos to seek written medical reports from Mr Newman's hospital consultant, who had diagnosed extrinsic allergic alveolitis, the assesser said that he didn't have a copy of his records or the questionnaire that he had filled in when he applied for the benefit.

"They could have just got a report from the hospital to see how sick he was. It seemed a pointless exercise," Mrs Newman says, profoundly distressed as she recounts what happened.

She is angry at the treatment she and her husband received from Atos staff.

"They are charging the government a lot of money for these assessments, and I know that other very sick people have been treated as Larry was. I promised him I would pursue it. It wasn't a fortune, and we were struggling to survive. It wasn't anything he wasn't entitled to."
An Atos official said: "We are sorry to hear that Mr Newman has died. We cannot comment on individual cases. We do expect the highest standards from our staff. All complaints are taken very seriously and thoroughly investigated."

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This not an isolated case.

Killing Hawkwoman

So, seeing as the whole DCU is gonna be rebooted after Flashpoint, what the fuck was the point in killing Hawkwoman off at the end of Brightest Day?    I mean, Flashpoint has changed the world already so the new universe doesn't have to tie in with the old, at all, so why not let Sheira survive Brightest Day?


After reading this interview I am keeping a more open mind about Babs becoming Batgirl again.  But given the choice, I would prefer her to remain as Oracle, as a wheelchair user.

Blogging against Disablism Day

I missed it.  Again.   It was on Mayday (1st May). So I am going to cross-post the entry from The F Word.

What is disablism?
Disablism is arranging a meeting in an inaccessible venue.
Disablism is sitting in the ‘priority’ seats on public transport and not offering those seats to a disabled person, if you are not disabled yourself.
Disablism is when a doctor ignores physical health problems because you have mental health problems.
Disablism is parking in a disability car parking space when you are not disabled (even if it is *just for a minute*).
Disablism is using words like retard, psycho, spastic, handicapped and lame.*
Disablism is thinking that making buildings accessible is ‘bending over backwards’ and political correctness gone mad.
Disablism is presuming that disabled people are less than you.
Disablism is not hiring a disabled person because of assumptions you have about their abilities or needs.
Disablism is staring at someone because they look different.
Disablism is making assumptions about what someone can and cannot do.
Disablism is making offensive jokes about a group of people on the basis of their impairment.
Disablism is presuming that disabled people’s lives must be awful.
Disablism is casting a non-disabled person to play a disabled person in a play or TV show.
Disablism is disability hate crime.
Disablism is refusing to prescribe contraception to a learning disabled person because they can’t possibly want to have sex.
Disablism is not acknowledging that many disabled people experience discrimination on multiple levels.
Disablism is frequently institutionalised.
Disablism is assumptions.
Disablism is not asking whether your event needs a sign language interpreter**.
Disablism is going ahead and doing what you think might help, rather than asking someone what would help.
Disablism is refusing to prosecute men who rape mentally ill or learning disabled women, because the women are ‘unreliable witnesses’.
Disablism is thinking that you don’t need to consider access needs, because disabled people don’t come to your events (and not wondering why they don’t).
Disablism is assuming that someone you haven’t met (or even that you have) is not disabled.
Disablism is presuming that people diagnosed with schizophrenia are dangerous and violent.
Disablism is thinking it is less tragic when a disabled person kills themselves than it is when a non-disabled person does.
Disablism is presumptions about ‘quality of life’.
Disablism is behind all these news stories.
Disablism is sacking somebody when they become ill or disabled.
Disablism is not in the dictionary.
Disablism is telling us we are being punished for something we did in a past life.
Disablism is thinking that if someone doesn’t look disabled, then they are not.
Disablism is ignoring somebody because you don’t understand.
Disablism is thinking that disabled people ‘have it too easy these days’ and are therefore being overly demanding if they want to be able to get into a building.


* I do this.  I say spas a lot.  I need to stop it.
**I would add to this, disablism is also assuming a Ddeaf person needs a sign language interpreter, and not for instance, a lipspeaker, notetaker or other form of communication support, or even assuming that communication support is what they need at all.

Cameron's Cuts

Over on Diary of a Benefit Scrounger I found this interesting post, which I am crossposting and reformatting to make easier to read:

"any cabinet minister … who comes to me and says 'Here are my plans' and they involve frontline reductions, they'll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again"....

"Our plans involve cutting wasteful spending....our plans don't involve an increase in VAT....

"I wouldn't change child benefit, I wouldn't means test it, I don't think that's a good idea".....

"It is sick and frankly disgusting to say we will end the two week cancer guarantee" .....

"Hospitals are my number one priority to be totally protected"......

"I Absolutely support the EMAs".....

"I will lead the greenest government ever"......

"Tax office is to soften stance on tax avoidance, FT".....

"Tax breaks for wealthy heirs, FT".....   

"measures to tackle the budget (VAT) would have to be "pretty permanent" - but he (Cameron) hoped the 50p tax rate for top earners would be scrapped, BBC".....

"This is the support, trust and respect that parents of those with disabilities deserve. Because we can never forget what an amazing job they do. Just consider what it would mean if the army of parents and carers in this country gave up, packed up, said they couldn't cope any more. The financial cost of looking after those children would be immense" .....

"David Cameron and Mr Osborne sought to kill off Labour claims that they would slash public services by pledging to match the (Labour) Government's (spending) plans during the first two years of a Conservative government. The pledge ran until 2010/11, Daily Mail, Feb 08"

I really loathe this government.

The #projv project on twitter has been throwing up some enlightening stories: 

digitalkatie : we get top level #dla but Gov plan to reduce claims by 20% tho it'll cost 2x current level of fraud! http://bit.ly/fAXdw1

queerpup : I'll swap my DLA + pain + brain-fuzz with someone that has the ability to work 5 days a week

 

digitalkatie : Getting toddler wheelchair gloves for @digitallouis (paid for by DLA) They cost more than wool mittens.... DLA is important! 

 

queerpup 

Bliss - have a lovely soothing wheat bag to shove on my hip. Guess what I paid for it with?

 

sheppeyescapee

For some #DLA isn't extra money. #DLA is the lifesaver that makes life worth living,things most people take for granted.Protect #DLA 

brokenofbritain

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." 

~BFranklin

mnicsleepteachr

I gave up my #DLA when I could earn; it was my lifeline when I couldn't. I weep at the loss of dignity if it goes

 

Chica1988

my partner works 17hrs p/w cares4me the rest of the time unpaid.apparently 17hrs is sufficient for2people to live on

 

oldmankelv

I 4got #DLA + #ESA disability premiums also fund internet access without which I'd have no social contact whatsoever

Clairepie

That's great you both have one another, I'd be lost without my fiance. DLA means I can walk down the aisle

 

@BrokenOfBritain #ProjV #DLA + #ESA disability premiums enable me 2 eat, exercise, read, sleep & leave my house.

 

StaceyUK 

Without DLA I would be housebound and unable to contribute to society. #ProjV #TBofB

 

VoLFC

Really, it makes me sick (speaking as an unpaid carer who completed the monster of a form for Dad's paltry amount of #DLA). #ProjV

 

This government is not for us.  It is not governing with our mandate.  We do not want it.  Speak out.  Speak up.

Hurrah for Norwich Theatre Royal!

Last week I was looking for interpreted (into BSL) performances at my local theatre - Norwich Theatre Royal.  I knew they had interpreted performances, I've seen some before and as I'm gearing up to do my level 3 I thought I'd go see some shows and gaze in awe at the fluent, accomplished terps they use.

I went to the What's On page, as you do, and expected to have to scroll through each show to find which ones had signed performances.  How tedious.  Then I noticed they had a listing for Audio described dates.

A-ha!  They are disability aware, there will also be a hyperlink to the signed shows!  There wasn't  Oh dear.  So I emailed them asking for a list of signed shows and asking why they didn't have a list on their website (seeing as they had gone to the bother of the listing the audio described dates).

This was at 11.41 am on 13th January.  At 14.19pm the same day I got an email back, giving me info about the signed shows (including the names of the interpreters) and saying:

"I am sorry there isn't a separate list on the website, and I will ask our Data & Online Manager if this can be arranged"

On 17th January at 13.33 I got another email saying:

"I have updated the website too, and will endeavour to do so for future signed events"

Wow.  They fixed it almost immediately (well, in 4 days, that's immediate enough for me).  You can see the hyperlink on the website here.

Congrats Norwich Theatre Royal!  I am incredibly impressed with the theatre and stunned that they took my query seriously and then did something about it.

Now I have tickets to see Yes Prime Minister (signed), and am thinking about another 2 or 3 shows!

Norfolk County Council's ideas for saving money

OK, I've been gearing up to write this for about a month but haven't quite managed it.  The whole task seems rather daunting and somewhat futile as I have no doubt that they will go ahead with the cuts regardless.  On the other hand, I also believe that it's really really important for people to speak up about things that are wrong.  If you do not voice your opinions about the reduction in public services, how are those making the decision going to know how you feel?  We need to tell them so that the decision, so that all responsibility stemming from that, will be on their head.

This a very long post, but please read it through to the end.

All the ideas and plans that the Council have are detailed in these documents here.  About a  month ago I first heard about the proposed cuts and went to a public meeting.  I had assumed the meeting was held for the Deaf community and was going to be focused on the Sensory Support Unit.  It wasn't, it was a general meeting and was dominated by people, both on the panel and in the audience, who were concerned about the job cuts.  Well, losing up to 3000 jobs is bad, there's no way round that.  But removing so much of the support services around vulnerable people in Norfolk is as bad, if not worse.  Most people at the meeting had no idea about the work of the Sensory Support Unit and no idea what the closure of it would mean to it's users.

I came out of the meeting fairly angry and frustrated.  There will be a march on 4th December throughout Norwich to protest against the cuts, but again, I fear the emphasis will be on job cuts, and not on the support services which we will be losing.  I know it isn't entirely the fault of Norfolk Council, the Conservative* government has told them to expect a £155 million gap in funding in order to help reverse the national deficit.  With an ageing population (you know, the service users) growing, the cuts form central government, inflation and a promise not to increase council tax the Council needs to find ways to save money.

How are they going to do this?
They have come up with various suggestions, put them in various documents and called it the Big Conversation.  A lot of it boils down to withdrawing services and expecting the private sector or volunteers to step in and take over.  Getting people to do jobs for free is really ethical, amirite?

• They are reducing eligibility or services from those with 'substantial' need to those with 'critical' need.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that people categorised as having substantial need could soon move to the critical need list, and that in the long run this will cost them more money.

• They intend to "provide leadership and influence to ensure Norfolk's voice is heard".  What use is this if you are not serving your constituents?  It's a cop out.
• "Commissioning efficient, responsive and cost effective services to meet people's needs" - this means outsourcing to private companies who in all likelihood don't or can't give a stuff about the pastoral care of their clients, because they are in it to make a profit.
• "Supporting, developing & maintain the infrastructure that helps our economy" - How???  Where is the funding for business and employment support that helps boost the economy?  What other services will be lost?
• Signposting people to the services they need and providing information about the services they need - so, that means outsourcing then.
• "Helping & enabling others to build and maintain strong, sustainable and caring communities" - relying on volunteers to do the job they used to do.
• Encouraging people to use their personal budgets to buy care and support for themselves.  These personal budgets are ALREADY being spent on things the recipient needs.  Personal budgets won't increase, so how will it be possible to afford everything?  This seems to me like people are being punished for requiring state aid.
• "People will be paying more towards the real cost of providing the services they receive or
  receiving help and support from others within their neighbourhoods"  Because vulnerable people are known for being rich aren't they?

There's a particularly disgusting section about the meals on wheels service (emphasis mine)-

"Many community and commercial organisations now provide options that give people a choice they
simply didn’t have before. For example, balanced ready meals are now available widely through
supermarkets with delivery options at a greater choice and lower cost than the council can provide through its more limited Meals on Wheels service. Similarly, community based leisure options offer a wide choice of daytime activities. Norfolk is blessed with a vibrant community life and voluntary sector, and strong parish and town councils. So we propose to modernise our services to take account of these changes in society and importantly, make sure we are targeting our services to where there is greatest need."

The Meals on Wheels service does not just provide meals.  They provide human contact, help with preparing the food, checking the person is eating enough and social interaction.  The supermarkets will not do this.  Not everyone has a credit or debit card to buy online.  Not everyone has a bank account.  Not everyone has Internet access to order food, or even know how to use the Internet, let alone afford it.

They talk about the cost of support for children coming into council care:
from ‘critical and substantial’, to ‘critical’ only."

Are we expected to believe that £51,000 is too much to spend on a child?  Note that they are reducing the eligibility to critical for adults only - because to reduce that for children would put them in breach of their statutory obligations.

Here are other costs they have quoted:

"Here are some of the costs we face:
· One fire engine costs £27,000 each year to lease.
· A residential care package for one older person can range between £15,000 and £93,000 a year.
· Providing residential care packages for adults with a learning disability can cost between £16,000 and £206,000 for one adult each year – although the average cost of care is £45,000.
· On average it costs the service £17,368 per year to deliver day care for an adult with a learning disability.
· Average cost of foster care for one child is £550 per week.
· Every tonne of waste that householders bring to our recycling centres costs us £91.
· The cost of subsiding Park & Ride journeys currently costs the council 89p per journey."

I mean seriously, what £27,000 is too much for a fire engine?  That saves lives?  £17,368 is too much to spend on day care for adults?  People providing foster care should do it for even less?

Then there's the bit about wanting to cut the rural bus service - with fewer buses, fewer people will use them, meaning the Council will argue that demand is decreased, so more buses will be cut, and so on and so on.  Meanwhile the infrastructure is disappearing from our villages so to access vital services you have to get into the towns or cities, but now you won;t be able to. Great.  Isolation beckons.

They appear to think that volunteers and members of the family will step in as carers.  They forget that not everybody can care for their family.  Not everyone has family.  Not everyone has the mental, physical or financial resources to help their family (or friends).  What happens to these people, these potential carers?  What happens to those needing care?

They intend to produce an Equality Impact Assessment of the proposals and use this to inform their decision.  This just stinks of bullshit - removing the Sensory Support Unit is obviously going to have an adverse impact on those with visual and hearing disabilities, because they are it's target user group.  If the Council was really interested in equality they wouldn't be proposing the closure of the Unit. 

The proposals state that they will "Reduce the scale and capacity of the sensory support service - We propose to scale back this service so that it meets only statutory requirements. It would mean the work of the current sensory support team would cease and statutory services commissioned through other providers."

At the public meeting the staff said they had already been told their jobs were going.  All of their work is a priority.  The Unit funds other vital services in the area.  It's a bloody disgrace (and really require scary) that it;s being considered for the axe.  I see now they have put up an extra document talking specifically about the Unit, go here and click on the documents tab, then consultation document.  Unfortunately it's in word, but if you need to read it and don't have word email me on paicomics [at] yahoo dot co dot uk and I'll get a pdf (or other) version emailed to you.


In the introduction, it states:

"We propose to reduce the level of services offered by our Sensory Support Service. We propose to do this by meeting only the needs of people who are eligible for social care services as set out by the Fair Access to Care (FACs) criterion. At present, we provide specialist support for people who have sensory support needs, but do not necessarily meet the FACs criterion.

If this proposal is agreed and implemented, we would no longer fund the sensory support team. People who are eligible for services under FACs criterion would continue to receive support services, but from their locality team through self directed support and personal budgets.

This proposal would see savings of approximately £1.06m."

Face to face meetings are being held with the user groups affected, some have already been held but I believe that one is due to take place at the Norwich Deaf Centre on 11th December.

The consultation runs from 26th October 2010 to 10th January 2011.  The Council Cabinet will meet on 24th January to decide what to do.  The full, horrific list of what will get axed is to be found here.  I would list them, but I'm too sickened by the proposals to look at it anymore. The next 4 years of this pissing Tory government are going to be hell on toast..

You know what else I'm sick of?  Mentioning this to hearing people and having them say 'yeah well something has got to be lost to save money, so it's the SSU or something else.'  I don't even have the energy to argue with them about it, if you have no empathy or understanding of how lucky you are to be able bodied in a society which does not value disabilities or people with disabilities, you..well, you annoy me.  And by the way, everyone is gonna be fucked over by these proposals.  The elderly, the young, those with mental health issues, learning difficulties, those with HIV/AIDs, the arts, parents and the museum service.

Fuck I'm depressed.

*OK OK, technically it's a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.  I place the blame for these ridiculous economic policies at the Tories feet.

Norwich's Sensory Support Unit is at risk of closure

The Unit supports Deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind and visually impaired people.
For Deaf and hard of hearing folks they help with:
Transport to the Deaf centre
Equipment for the house (e.g. flashing fire alarms, doorbells etc)
Funding an advocacy and open door service where Deaf people can get help with a wide range of issues
Funding a deaf social worker


They also do a lot of work for people with visual impairments.  It's a bloody disgrace that closure of the unit is even an option.  Information on the proposed budget cuts for Norfolk County Council is to be found here, and I believe it covers the Sensory Support Unit.


If you've got any networks that have an interest in this please let them know that there will be a Public Meeting on Monday November 1st @ 7.00pm at City Hall Norwich.  Thank you.

Where are all the Deaf superheroes?

Both the DCU and the Marvel Universes have quite a lot of superheroes/villains/supporting cast members who are disabled, but fuck all that are Deaf.  Or deaf.  Or hard of hearing.  I'm not picky. 

Peter David put a couple of lipreaders in his Supergirl and Young Justice comics and Green Arrow/Black Canary had that villain last year that was deafened by Dinah, but that's it.  Where are the rest?  We've got Babs in her wheelchair, Chunk, Professor Xavier, Daredevil, Dr Midnight, Speedy/Red Arrow, Tony Stark, Dr Niles Caulder, Captain Marvel Junior, Osiris, Crazy Jane.  I'm sure there's more, that's just what a quick google search turned up.

Where the Deaf heroes?  I'll tell you where there's one - Echo, from the Daredevil comics.  That's it.  I should be able to name more.

Echo first turned up in Parts of a Hole (soon to be reviewed over at New readers...) and I was stunned when the story actually constant reference to her lack of hearing.  Her abilities aren't linked to her Deafness, unlike Daredevil's abilities and so I felt like I did when I read Venus Envy - it's a regular superhero book about a woman who happens to be Deaf.

The book isn't about her Deafhood, but because she is Deaf she experiences life different to a hearing person, and so the story show that.  On the whole it does this well, and it also explores Daredevil's blindness well.  There's a great scene where they are in the cinema and Echo is describing the action on screen and Daredevil is describing the dialogue when the actors are off screen.

But.  (You knew there was a but coming didn't you?)  It isn't quite good enough.  The problem with having just one Deaf hero is that she becomes representative of all Deaf people and the mistakes that are made are amplified and picked upon over and over.

For example, Echo can mimic any physical action she sees.  This makes her an ace fighter.  Luckily for her she's also quite bright and so can work out how to put the moves together in order to win a fight or choreograph a dance show.  I imagine that being able to mimic physical actions must have made it easier for her to learn the handshapes and movements needed for American Sign Language (ASL).

But, this ability is used in book to explain why her speech is not slurred.  Because she can copy mouth patterns I suppose... Wait.  Just back up there one moment, what?  Most speech isn't formed on the lips.  Lip reading is hard, very hard.  If it was easy to lip read everybody we wouldn't need trained lipspeakers.  How on earth is Echo meant to see and mimic the movements of the tongue and the throat in order to produce clear speech?

Ignoring all that, the in text reasoning seems to assume that no Deaf people have clear speech.   Well, quite frankly that's bollocks.  The level of speech will depend on things like when the person lost their hearing and what speech therapy they've had.  Ooh it makes me angry when people get basic stuff wrong.

What else, oh yes, how she learnt ASL.  Apparently her father taught it to her using Native American folk stories, and possibly shadow puppets.  Well I'd be really interested to know where he learnt it and how she developed her knowledge of the language.  Because we see nothing of this in the book, she doesn't sign once.  I don't think I've met a signer who never signs when they speak.  When a sign language is your first language you tend to use it alongside your spoken language.  You just do.

Echo somehow manages to lipread people in the dark and never makes a mistake when she is lipreading.  The former is impossible and the latter is highly unlikely.  But, I guess if you had a book full of communication errors it would get a bit dull and prevent the flow of the story.  For the same reason we don't tend to see protagonists going to the toilet.  So I'll forgive them the perfect lipreading.  The rest isn't really forgivable, it's just ignorant.

This is such a shame because it's clear that the writer has done his research - there is so much stuff in the book that is Deaf aware.  It becomes an odd half and half mix.  I'm very keen to read more about her and I just hope that other issue build upon the solid base that this book gave, but improved the rookie errors.

And I want more Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing heroes.  Please.

Incidentally, Echo's sign name would either be the sign for Echo, a handprint across the face (she wears this when she performs), or possibly dancer.  Daredevil's sign name would be the devil horns on his costume.  Matt Murdock (Daredevil's civilian identity) would be lawyer I reckon.  His partner Foggy Nelson's sign name would be Fog.

Where stuff that gets made public reveals a nasty side

Having joined up on twitter recently I have been following various people.  Some are famous, for example Gail Simone.

Following Gail Simone has increased my respect for her a thousandfold.  Her tweets are funny, and she's so far exhibited only decent-person ideas.  Today (Tuesday 8th June) she has been talking about The Killing Joke, y'know, that comic where Barbara Gordon, then Batgirl, got shot in the spine by the Joker and paralysed.

When editorial approval was sought for this particular plot, the editor (Len Wein) reportedly yelled down the hall:

'Cripple the bitch'

Isn't that hateful?  Isn't it venemous?  Granted, I do not know the tone in which it was said, but the words are ugly.  What struck me after asborbing this bit of (old) news, was the way in which feminist are accused of treating characters like real people.  Isn't that just what this editor is doing?  Why ascribe the word 'bitch' to a fictional character, in that context, if they are not in some way real to you?

And if Barbara Gordon is indeed real to you what does this say about your attitude to real flesh and blood women and wheelchair users?

Which is why I find the statement 'Cripple the Bitch' quite disturbing.  It's along the same lines as Bill Wilingham saying:

"I wanted to gun down those girls who kept asking about the memorial case"

at the recent heroes con (reported on here).

I am someone who believes words are important.  I think those sort of casual throwaway line regarding violence usually betrays some feeling of anger, hate or violence within a person.  Or at the very least some sort of detachment towards others.  You certainly can't fully appreciate and support the full meaning of those phrases without being a very malevolent person.*

So this leaves me kind of sickened.  And this is exactly the sort of thing that says women (and people with disabilities) are not welcome.  It's the same mentality that puts rape scenes into comics (or any popular culture medium).  It's the sort of shit that makes me very wary about the types of internet sites I inhabit and makes me distrustful of any new people I meet (men and women, because these views permeate all genders).

*I am not in any way stating that using a wheelchair is a negative thing.  But I believe that the editor who uttered those words thinks that it is a punishment of some sort.

Events! Comics and LGTBTI Deaf and Disabled ones!

Bristol Comic con, right.  I only found out about this a few months ago and was reminded of it again in the last few weeks.  This year they have actual real DC creators there.  Guess who?

Phil Noto of Batgirl and Ramon Bachs of Red Robin.  Both do the art for their titles.

Waaaaah I can't go :(

It's slap bang in the middle of my next BSL course and I can't afford to miss a day.  Waaaahhhh.  Could you imagine Supergirl as drawn by Ramon Bachs?  And Phil Noto I'd just want to compliment on Stephs new costume.

If anyone reading this is going do you fancy getting me a comission?

And in other news, something else I can't go to.  Glasgow Museums have an exhibition on titled A Spot of Bother: LGBTI Deaf and Disabled cultures.

Norfolk's a wee bit far away from Glasgow.  The exhibition is on until the 21st Feb.  If anyone reading this does go would you mind coming back and telling me how it was?

Redness and screams and Christmas and hearts and cracktastic fun

Spoilers ahead for Green Lantern Corps # 43, Supergirl # 48, DCU Holiday Special 2009, Superman/Batman:  Blackest Night # 67, Power Girl #7.
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Green Lantern Corps # 43
In the aftermath of Kyle's death Guy really doesn't cope very well.  Natu pleads with Guy not to succumb to the rage, because Kyle wouldn't want it.  Guy replies 'But I do'.  Which is a somewhat unusual way to deal with death isn't it?  At least, it is unusual in cultural depictions.  In real life, the (thankfully) few funerals I've been to there is always the emphasis on what the deceased wants for the living, both immediately and for the future months.  Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, the fact is the living are left behind and they are the  ones hurting.  I'm not one to live your life according to the how the dead would prefer.  Honour them, yes, but I can see why Guy reacted he way he did and I think it's perfectly legitimate.

Aside from that, there are plenty of other good moments in this book.  If you are in any way interested in Guy Gardener I recommend you pick this issue up.

Supergirl # 48
At last, a Kara centric issue.  Some have described this story as rushed and a bit forced.  I disagree.
We open with Kara bawling Lana out for not telling her about illness - she goes through self righteous anger, disbelief and fear.  Kara is then called away to meet with Inspector Henderson.  We get exposition regarding the Silver Banshee and her curse and then we get the cofnrontation.  Silver Banshee arrives to reclaim one of the lost treasures that will restore her humanity, and through a series of twists and turns Kara is transformed into a second Silver Banshee.  My guess is she has manifested as a sister of the original Banshee.    She has a subtly different costume to the original Silver Banshee and it looks great.

I should mention I am a big fan of the Banshee and her outfit.  When she's cropped up in previous Supergirl issues I've loved it.  Sty35st5ca33, (or stylistically, if you don't have your num lock on), I think the contrasting colours between the Banshee and Supergirl's outfit work really well in any panel or piece of art.

As for the issue, I adored it.  As mentioned above it has been a long time since we had an actual Kara story and not a crossover.  Add to that the good art and some interesting layout, and this is a winner.


DCU Holiday Special 2009
Overall, this was pretty weak.
Batman has very good boots.
The Wally west story was fun.
The Doom Patrol art was good (pity about the story)
The Deadman story was moving - but only because I'm a schmuck.
I should have liked the Huntress story more, but it was a bit dull.

Everything else was utterly forgettable.

Superman/Batman: Blackest Night # 67
Crap.  Solomon Grundy, Man-Bat and Bizzaro are possible my least favourite characters.
I did discover that Man-Bat became so due to an experiment - he was trying to develop a cure for deafness but it somehow backfired.  I suppose this could be read as a just punishment but on the whole this angered me.  It ties into cultural assumptions that to be deaf is to be incomplete, not whole and that deafness is similiar to a disease that needs curing.  Man-Bat was created in 1970 (according to Wikipedia, so it could be wrong), but this view is still prevalent today.  It's part of the medical model, wherein able bodies are to be aspired to and all other types of bodies are wrong and something to be fixed.

Ddeaf people don't need your pity.  To be Ddeaf is not to be automatically deserving of pity.  I know there are Ddeaf folks who would prefer to be hearing, there are also Deaf folks who are proud to be Deaf and wouldn't want to be hearing.  To eradicate deafness would be to eradicate all the sign languages of the world and to eradicate Deaf culture, which, incidentally is very different to hearing culture.

Recently the disability activist movement has sprung up, should you be interested in learning more about this topic may I recommend FWDforward - standing for feminists with disabilites forward.  It is a new site, launched in October 2009 and is updated several times daily.  It has become an excellent resource for disability information and views.

Power Girl #7
Well, wasn't this just cracktastic?
A villain who speaks in the third person, who has travelled from another galaxy to woo Peej and convince her to bear his children.  All because a contraceptive bomb was dropped on his city rendering all other inhabitants infertile.  He wears thigh high boots, little pants and sort of fluted shoulder pads on his waistcoat.  He is convinced of his desirability and sexiness.  Need I say more?

I associate Amanda Connor so strongly with this title I forget she doesn't write it.  Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti do writing duties, Paul Mount does the colouring, John J Hill letters.  Credit must go to all of them.  This is a great title.  Download a preview here.

Quotes

All nicked from FWD/Forward.  Which is a great site that y'all should be reading.

“Feminism is the political theory and practice that struggles to free all women: women of color, working-class women, poor women, disabled women, Jewish women, lesbians, old women–as well as white, economically privileged heterosexual women. Anything less than this vision of total freedom is not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandizement.”
–Barbara Smith, “Racism and Women’s Studies,” 1979 (text is available at JSTOR; unfortunately, it’s subscription-only)

“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ”
- Paulo Freire, “Pedagogy of freedom: ethics, democracy, and civic courage” (1998).


"Being discriminated against or exploited because one is female may be painful and dehumanizing, but it may not necessarily be as painful, dehumanizing, or threatening as being without food or shelter, as starvation, as being deathly ill but unable to obtain medical care."
- bell hooks, Feminist Theory From Margin to Center

 "Definitions of disability affect people’s self-identity. Recognizing yourself as disabled and identifying with other people who are disabled and learning about their experiences can all contribute to understanding and interpreting your own experiences, and to knowing that you are not alone with problems you may have believed were unique to you. But being identified as disabled also carried a significant stigma in most societies and usually forces the person so identified to deal with stereotypes and unrealistic attitudes and expectations that are projected on to her/him as a member of this stigmatized group."


- Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York: Routledge. 1996. pg 12.

Ddeaf and BSL sites and resources

I'll try and keep this as up to date as possible.  It's mostly filled with sites and resources that I find interesting.

If you're not happy with the description attached to your blog please leave me a comment and I'll change it.

If you want a description and you haven't got one, that's because I'm not sure how to sum up your blog. Give me a suggestion and I'll add it!

BSL websites
Deafstation - Brilliant resource for those at level 2 and above.  Provides daily news in BSL (in term time) so is great for improving your receptive and voiceover skills.
Signstation - Great for level 1 and level 2 learners.  It's got a dictionary, and a -z of sign, a free online BSL teaching course and loads more.
BSLBT - The British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust.  They make tv programmes in BSL, usually with subtitles included.
See Hear - The TV magazine for Ddeaf people, focusing on Ddeaf issues.  Broadcasts at odd times so catch up with it on the i-player!
Deaf Bananaman - These are videos on facebook.  Very very funny stories about a Deaf bananaman!
Signature - The accrediting body for sign language learners.  Visit Signature to find BSL courses near you.
Deafchurch - Info on the Deaf church including the first BSL Bible translation.
Spread the Sign - providing vocabulary from mnay different sign languages from all over the world, including BSL.
BSL Corpus project - Collecting stories from deaf people and culture/time/place specific signs. 
Science signs
Engineering Signs
Christian Signs
Jeff's vlog - BSL blog
Art signs
Deaf Church 

Blogs
The Regency - A blog focusing on the RNID (now Action on Hearing Loss) and how they fail to help Deaf people. British. 
At the Rim - Linked to The Regency
Deaf Japan news - Does what it says
Deafread: Best of Deaf blogs - a round up of the best Ddeaf blogs, worldwide
Grumpy Old Deafies - Deaf musings, usually written from the UK
I Look So I Can Hear - Written by a deaf person in London, this blog looks at issues surrounding hearing loss and provides links to deaf accessible events and resources.
SPEAK UP LIBRARIAN  - a hard of hearing librarian attempting to find her way in the world as a late deafened adult.
The Rebuttal - An independent website and ezine concerning Deaf and hearing impaired issues. Australian. 
DeafRead - Link blog of lots of Deaf sites, worldwide. 

BSL interpreted songs on YouTube
Specific YouTube users doing this as follows:
Lees BSL Songs He's bloody fabulous!
zombiecoterie Does a brilliant Eleanor Rigby, Dancing in the Street and Country House.
AlisharahUK Islamic prayers and greetings on Youtube

My silly little things

My posts done as part of Learn to Sign week.
My posts on superhero sign names.
My twitter list of people and organisations with some link to Ddeafness and BSL.
My youtube channel - all posts in an apporximation of BSL, b/c really, when I review them they look awful.  But some folk might find them of use.

A note about books - Forest books is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to read about anything linked to Ddeafness and sign languages.  It has academic stuff, fiction books, things for children, DVDs to help you with all levels of sign class, stuff for health professionals and social workers and much much more.

Non fiction books!

The Linguistics of British Sign Language - R Sutton Spence and B Woll

Excellent for anyone who wants to learn more about BSL. Refreshingly jargon free and you don't need to know anything about linguistics to understand it. I read this while doing my level 2 and it was a great help in sorting out the grammar.

Easy Way Guide to Signing - From the website: "This pocket book includes 1,700 if the most popular used signs in a convenient sized format. It has an easy to understand structure, together with signs mostly used in their logical place rather than in strict alphabetical order.

The individual pages are border indexed making it easier and quicker to locate a specific subject sign. There is a more comprehensive index to the rear of the book. This sign language book has been created, graphically drawn, planned and produced on its entirety, by three born profoundly deaf young men"

I have found this book very useful for looking up vocabulary.  It is easy to use and the illustrations are simple to understand.

Revision on Multi-channel signs - Although not all the signs in here are strictly multi-channel signs, this book was incredibly useful to me when doing my level 2.  There's 53 signs in here and when you have to memorise 3 to put into your conversation or story this is a great book to pick the signs from.

Communication Link - This is a ring bound dictionary of signs, arranged in alphabetical order by English word, and was also incredibly useful when I was doing my level 1 and level 2.
Dictionary of British Sign Language - ye gods this is a big book.  It's like a doorstop.  It gives a complex breakdown of signs and is something for use at home or in the classroom.  It is not portable.  From the description:
"This comprehensive BSL/English dictionary contains over 1,800 photographed Sign entries ordered by handshape and linguistic principles. Each entry is accompanied by a clear description of how to produce the sign. A cross-referenced guide to the meaning or meanings of each sign is provided in English in the second section. This dictionary is therefore unique as an equally valuable reference for hearing people learning BSL at an intermediate to advanced level, and for Deaf people studying English as a second language."
Given it's size you'd think there would be more signs included, alas no.  I have probably used this less than the other mini dictionaries, but it definitely has it's use.

Deaf people in Hitler's Europe - This is just incredibly interesting and a great history book.  It taught me loads about Deaf people's lives in the second world war and and about Nazism, the Holocaust and the mass sterilisation carried out by the Nazis on those they deemed sub human.
Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity - Interesting book examining Japanese culture, Japanese Japanese Deaf culture and Japanese sign language.  It's very different to BSL and the UK Deaf community.

Double Whammy: Deaf Women and World History - From the website:
"A talented archivist, the author here outlines a long story of pride and resilience in the face of what many see as the double discrimination of being Deaf and female. By putting local history in the context of world events he firmly brings it out of the ghetto and, incidentally, provides a literary tonic to help to prevent Deaf women feeling sorry for themselves."
Interesting book, not the most readable of tomes, but worth persevering with.  My main complaint was the small font used.

Fiction Books!
The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan From the Forest Books (deaf bookshop) synopsis:
"Forced into marriage to an older man to save her family from eviction, Marnie is soon widowed by a freak accident. She is befriended by Raven who she discovers is not mad but deaf. They form a friendship through sign language. But this brings accusation of witchcraft by the villagers.."
This is an utterly readable and utterly gripping book. This would be good for young adults.

An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
A young woman is deafened and continues to play the cello. This book covers how she manages (hides) her deafness and other's attitudes to it. Not the most readable thing, I quite dislike Seth's writing style, but the book is interesting for it's insights into deafness.

Deafening - Frances Itani

Brilliant. Set in Canada around the time of the first world war. This is a love story between a Deaf woman and a hearing man. Shortly after they marry he is sent to the trenches.

Let me know if you think anything else should be added!