Isle of Man in UK to survey deaf community

From IOM Today:

The Manx Deaf Society is commissioning research to find out what it is like to be a deaf person in the Isle of Man.

It has commissioned UK charity Deafway to interview every deaf adult living in the Island who uses sign language or who attended a school for deaf children or a partially hearing/hearing impaired unit.

Manx Deaf Society chairman Julie Smith said: 'We believe strongly that deaf people living on the Island should have the same opportunities and quality of life as hearing people, but we know that at the moment many of them don't.

'The aim of this research is to find out from deaf people themselves what difficulties and barriers they face.

'We can then work in partnership with the government and others to do all we can to change this situation for the better by removing those barriers and giving deaf people the same opportunities and quality of life enjoyed by the rest of us.'

Jimmy Anderson, of Deafway, who is a deaf sign language user himself, will be carrying out the interviews from July.

'There's nothing about hearing loss that should mean that deaf people are denied the same opportunities that hearing people have – but so often they are,' he said.

'Did you know for example that currently there is not one single qualified sign language interpreter on the Isle of Man?

'I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone and to us all working together to improve things.'

There are known to be more than 30 residents who would fit the criteria for the survey but the charity believes there could be more.

Relatives and friends of a deaf adult are asked to make them aware of the research.