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AN EAST MIDLAND REGION SEMINAR
Hosted by Leicester Branch
23
February 2002
The Leicester
Branch hosted this event, the first of two seminars ‘Independent Living; Sight
and Sound’. Members
of Leicester and Nottingham & Notts Branches attended together
with affiliates and guests.
The three
speakers, Margaret Young, Martin Rowe and Pauline Wells (standing in
for Valerie Law who was, unfortunately, unwell) concentrated on
ability not disability.
Margaret
Young profoundly deaf from the age of 14, summed up this approach,
saying that in the past deafness was associated with daftness or
just being difficult and that she had come to accept abuse as the
norm. However, having
taken an Open University Degree at her son's suggestion, Margaret now takes a more assertive
stance.
Martin Rowe,
partially sighted from birth, felt he always had to work harder to
prove he was capable of doing the same job as a fully sighted
person. He also spoke of the unwitting insensitivity to his
impairment that he frequently met.
Martin currently teaches computing to sighted students.
Pauline Wells
related the way in which her friend Valerie coped with the adult
onset of blindness and demonstrated some aids for people with sight
and sound impairment which she used in her work of raising awareness
amongst the young.
An
interesting discussion followed.
An edited
transcript is available. Contact
Sheila Jones 0116 241 2629
The second
seminar, entitled ‘Independent Living: Mobility and
Adaptability’, was held on 15 June 2002
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