Celebrating Gwen Raggett MBE

We would like to share with you another celebration of the achievements of deaf and hard of hearing people in our local community and today we are featuring Gwen Raggett MBE. Now a spritely 96-year-old, great grandmother, Gwen has been hard of hearing all her life though perhaps only being diagnosed during her World War II service in the Women’s Land Army aged 19. At that time, she was a charge hand for a group of 100 girls from all over the UK, working and living together in Redenham House, Weyhill near Andover. She recalls that some of the girls thought her aloof and stuck up, probably, she now realises, through her not always hearing or responding appropriately to their conversation and the tendency like many deaf people to withdraw from group social interactions. Her astute mistress and mentor noticed her behaviour and correctly ascribed it to her hearing loss rather than indifference or snobbery. Remarkably Gwen had excelled at school, even winning a scholarship to Talbot Heath Girl’s Schools that regrettably her parents barred her from taking up, partly through being unable to afford the cost of her uniform but also through a belief that a young woman’s place is in the home as a housewife and mother rather than pursuing a short-lived career. Prior to her diagnosis and the issue of smaller transistorised body worn hearing aids on the NHS, Gwen had relied on her naturally acquired ability in lip reading to follow one to one conversation. She acquired her first hearing aid in her late 30’s at the same time her younger son, George was also diagnosed with a mild hearing loss as a result of the national screening program set up in the 1950’s to identify school children with a hearing loss and hence to provide technical aids and educational settings best suited to their needs. As with many parents of deaf children then and still today, she was tenacious in her efforts to ensure the best possible outcomes for him. Of course, she had her own experience of deafness and so, well understood the issues of living and learning with hearing loss and the pros and cons of body worn hearing aids. She used this knowledge to challenge the perceptions of both medical and educational experts who did not have this first-hand life experience. Looking back, she was an early champion of raising deaf awareness in these institutions.

An interest in family history research and with support from her daughter in law led to the revelation that there is a long history of hereditary hearing loss In her family beginning with her great, great grandmother, Elizabeth Court, born in Weymouth and who was herself described as “deaf from birth” in the 1871 census when she was 39 years old, as indeed were several of her children. Prior to the 1871 census this information was not routinely recorded. Many of Gwen’s close relatives, brothers, nephews, nieces, grand and great grandchildren also developed hearing loss, seemingly starting from about 7–8 years of age. Such hereditary hearing loss is relatively uncommon, when statistically, 9 out 10 deaf children are born to hearing parents with no family history of early onset of hearing loss. Her own family would no doubt provide an interesting genetic study for this condition. Since her Land Army days from 1943–1949, Gwen has continued to dedicate herself to the service of others in the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service, WRVS, (now homogenised to RVS) for over 55 years and with her work in Bournemouth Libraries Home Book service and further voluntary work with Stroke patients and their families. In 2004 Gwen received the MBE from her majesty the Queen for these services and only stopped when the Covid pandemic gave rise to local council policy of not allowing people aged over 65 to work in these voluntary capacities. Despite this, Gwen has kept herself busy corresponding with former colleagues and customers by letter, phone and occasional visits to drop off birthday and Christmas gifts. She has also been in demand to recount her personal testimony of her life in the Land Army for various projects and exhibitions to show case and record this important history for future generations. Her personal story has been included in a recently published book; “Remarkable Women of World War II” by Victoria Panton Bacon, The History Press (ISBN 978 0 7509 9996 0) Her illustrated story can also be found on the Women’s Land Army website. Gwen keeps herself up to date with the work of Wiltshire and Dorset Deaf Association that she has supported since it’s inception in 2007 and their signing choir, Significance, donating equipment and funding for social activities. She is one of many deaf and HOH people who have enriched the lives of their own families and countless others they have met in their life’s journey, ever cheerfully and uncomplainingly. All of them role models for all with any level of hearing loss that they too can contribute to their local communities and wider society when given the opportunity.

Gwen Raggett MBE

Music to Deaf Ears

Congratulations to Evelyn Anne Riggs on passing her Music Teachers Board, Performance Keyboard Grade 1 examination, with Merit. Evelyn has been deaf since birth and struggled in early life due to a lack of suitable technology for her type of hearing loss and several failed operations from the age of 10. Then, 40 years ago in 1982, she became one of the first people in the UK to be fitted with a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) that she says transformed her life.

Evelyn Anne Riggs

Evelyn has a deep passion for music and learned to play piano and keyboard. She has a beautiful singing voice and is a member of the voice choir at St Clements Church, Poole. Evelyn studied British Sign Language (BSL) part time, at Bournemouth and Poole College, achieving her Level 1 qualification taught by Paul Kirby and continues to develop her skills, attending workshops with WDDA. In 2011 she became one of the founding members of the WDDA Signing Choir, Significance and subsequently, St Clements Signs in Worship Group from 2015.

For both, she is always the first to arrive and last to leave at weekly practices and performances. Her determination, unruffled and stoical character makes her a wonderful role model for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in performing songs and music in these diverse and expressive forms. Well done Evelyn and all good wishes for your continuing development and sharing of your passion.

Deaf Awareness Week 2022

Deaf Awareness Week is run on an annual basis by the UK Council on Deafness, it will be taking place between 2nd – 8th May 2022.The theme for Deaf awareness week 2022 is Deaf Inclusion, to explore the entire theme of inclusion within our community.

The aim of the campaign is to highlight the impact of hearing loss on everyday life and increase visibility and inclusion of Deaf people.

Emphasising the importance of mental health, and empathising with underrepresented groups amongst Deaf such as migrants, BMIs, and women, as well as raise pertinent issues of deafness being overlooked in education, health settings and the workplace.

Get involved with Deaf Awareness Week use the following hashtags on social media: #DAW2022 and #lnclusionDeafness and #MyDeafStory

2021: A Year in Review

2021 saw Stefy’s BSL Level 1, 2 & 3 students (20/21 intake) achieve 100% of their personal learning goals against all the odds, as we navigated the Covid restrictions and switched from classroom to online lessons and back again! George successfully guided three students through their receptive resits to achieve their full Level 3 qualification and George and Louise supported another six ‘fast track’ students to achieve their full Level 2 qualification in just 8 weeks.

This week saw 40 Bournemouth School for Girls students achieve their BSL101 qualification thanks to George, Amber and Lynn.

We said a fond farewell to Stefy who moved on to pastures new with City Lit in London.

Thanks to the The National Lottery Community Fund we delivered 16 FREE Online Bite Sized Deaf Communication Skills training sessions during the national lockdown.

In September we hosted a much needed Family Fun Day with Significance Sign Choir, Squidge and Pop and Diamond Faces Professional Face Painting at Picnic Park Deli after the previous years events having to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions.

Thank you to our fabulous team of trustees, volunteers and teaching staff who have worked so hard in 2021 to empower deaf people to play a full part in the community and support so many on their BSL learning journey with us.

We’ll be back in 2022 with our Signature Deaf accredited BSL Level 1 and 2 classes as well as our BSL Conversation Class, BSL Access to Level 3 Class. George, Louise, Amber and Lynn will also be delivering a range of bespoke deaf and deafblind communication tactics workshops for University Hospitals Dorset and introduction to BSL sessions in schools.

We also have a BSL Workshop (All Levels) scheduled to take place at Bournemouth Deaf Club on Saturday 8th January.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Wiltshire and Dorset Deaf Association.

Learn to sign in 2022!

Thinking of a New Year’s resolution for 2022? Why not learn a new language: Not only will learning a new language help improve your communication skills, it will also look great on your CV and possibly open up some doors for you. There are 75,000 deaf people in the UK whose first language is British Sign Language (BSL) and 1 in 6 people have some form of hearing loss.

Rose Ayling-Ellis’ appearance on Strictly Come Dancing has led to a huge surge in interest in learning British Sign Language, with the Google search for learning sign-language seeing an increase of 488%!

Register now to attend our upcoming BSL Workshop running in Bournemouth. Suitable for anyone with an interest in learning BSL or wishing to practise their BSL in a safe, friendly and supportive environment.

‘Sign for Change’ Family Fun Day 2021

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make our ‘Sign for Change’ Family Fun Day such a huge success! The pandemic put a stop to last year’s event so it was very special to be able to bring so many d/Deaf and hearing families together again to mark the final day of ‘International Week of Deaf People 2021’.

The sun was shining on us and the fabulous team at Picnic Park Deli made us very welcome. The day kicked off with a performance by local singer/songwriter Nick Braunton who warmed up the Sunday morning crowd with a mix of well known songs as well as some of his own songs. Next up was WDDA Trustee, George Raggett, who led a beautiful performance by the St Clements Signs in Worship Group quickly followed by our award winning ‘Significance’ Sign Choir. It was fantastic to see so many people join the ‘Sign-a-Long’ and learning some basic sign language and the support from the general public and passers by was incredible. So many people stopped to find out more about the work of Wiltshire and Dorset Deaf Association and learn more about the steps they could take to become more deaf aware. We gave out so many leaflets and BSL finger spelling charts throughout the course of the day and our #Make It Clear clear panel face masks proved a real hit.

Such a lovely day, thank you!

Such a great event! Really enjoyed it!

Fabulous day and even the weather smiled on us. Hopefully see you all next year!

Great day had by all! Thank you Zoe and George.

What a fabulous day! So many special memories made and shared by so many.

In the children’s entertainment area Sarah from Diamond Faces made LOTS of children (and some adults!) very happy with some truly impressive face painting and Lisa from Squidge & Pop WOWED the crowd with an incredible interactive bubble show. Children and families got involved in the arts and crafts activities and got creative with our makeshift chalk graffiti wall.

Back on the stage we were lucky to be joined by internationally renowned violinist Barbara Gasior who put on an incredible performance and even got some of the crowd up on their feet dancing! We welcomed ‘Significance’ Sign Choir back to the stage to round the day off with another performance and a final ‘Sign a Long’ with the audience. A All in all it was a fabulous day. Thanks again to Adam and the team at Picnic Park Cafe, WDDA Trustees George and Donna, members of the St Clements Signs in Worship group, ‘Significance’ Sign Choir, Nick Braunton, Barbara Gasior, Sarah from Diamond Faces Professional Facepainting, Lisa from Squidge & Pop and to ALL of you who joined us on the day. THANK YOU!

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Enrol now for our Autumn Term BSL courses!

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for British Sign Language (BSL) Level 1 and 2 courses starting in September 2021.

Our BSL Level 1 course with Lynn will run on Tuesday evenings 7-9pm at Bournemouth Deaf Club starting on
Tuesday 7th September 2021 (32 weeks)

Our BSL Level 2 course with Louise will run on Wednesday evenings 6:30-9pm at Bournemouth Deaf Club starting on
Wednesday 8th September 2019 (36 weeks)

We are also running the following non-qualification courses suitable for those of you who are looking to further develop your skills and put your learning into practise:

BSL Conversation Class with George and Amber will run on Tuesday mornings 10am-12pm at The Eco Hub (Dolphin Centre), Poole starting on Tuesday 2nd November 2021 (5 week block).

BSL Level 3 Access Class with George and Louise will run on Thursday evenings at Allendale House, Wimborne starting on Thursday 16th September 2021.

Please contact Zoe at admin@wdda.co.uk or phone/text 07793284109 for further information.  WDDA is able to offer a concessionary rate to those with hearing loss in both ears/have dependants with hearing loss.  Course fees can also be paid in instalments to help spread the cost.

Law changes open doors to deaf jurors

Sign language interpreters are to be permitted in jury rooms in England and Wales, enabling most deaf people to take part in jury service for the first time.

The planned legal change announced on Monday will amend strict rules that mandate only the 12 selected members of a jury can be present during private deliberations to also allow for a British Sign Language interpreter where needed.

While there is no specific ban on deaf people serving on juries, many have previously been found ineligible to serve or left to rely on lip-reading and limited hearing during private jury discussions.

Tune in to BBC Radio Wiltshire tomorrow morning (12/03/21) at 7:40am to catch WDDA Trustee, George Raggett, give our reaction to the news that the law has been reformed to allow BSL Interpreters to assist Deaf Jurors in jury trials.

104.3 & 103.5 FM I DAB bbc.co.uk/radiowiltshire

FREE Online Bite-Sized Deaf Communication Skills Training!

Fancy learning something new in lockdown?

Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund we are able to bring our popular Bite-sized Deaf Communication Skills training sessions to you online for FREE as part of our ‘Make It Clear!’ Campaign.

The session is for anyone that wants to know more about how varying degrees of deafness impacts on the daily lives of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. It provides some useful skills that can be quickly mastered to begin communicating with any deaf or deaf blind person as your patient or their family member, colleague, or acquaintance.

On completion you will be issued an individual certificate of achievement. In addition, customer facing groups and teams will receive a, “We are Deaf Friendly” certificate for public display.

Various dates available.
Places are limited. Booking essential.

https://forms.gle/eRoo37KuGoewgHZf6

Season’s Greetings

Thank you for your valued support in 2020. From all of us at WDDA we wish you a very Merry, Safe and Peaceful Christmas!

George Raggett, WDDA Trustee
Donna Cheese, WDDA Trustee

Check out our Social Media channels for some more festive cheer in the form of some beautifully signed Christmas songs and poems kindly performed by George.

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