Living History

Sophie Woolley talks to Yeoman Warder Derrick Coyle about his deafness and the ravens at the Tower of London.

It’s 8am and breakfast time for the ravens at the Tower of London. Ravenmaster Derrick Coyle brings out Branwen to pose for the One in Seven photographer. Meanwhile, a large male raven called Thor is tearing off a large piece of the front door of his wooden pen. Apparently he’s been working on the door for a week now. The ravens aren’t destructive, Derrick insists, just mischievous. He lets Thor out and the magnificent crow-like bird emerges, ambling along lopsidedly – rather like the black-suited civil servants in Monty Python’s Ministry for Silly Walks.

Strength in numbers

Menière’s disease can be distressing and isolating. Self-help groups could be the answer you’re looking for.

John Tyrrell was at his local gym when he had his first bout of Menière’s disease.  He stood up after bending down and found the room suddenly spinning terrifyingly fast. He was violently sick and had diarrhoea. The gym called an ambulance and John was treated for heart trouble but he continued to have feelings of nausea and dizziness.

He was later diagnosed with Menière’s disease and after a while spent struggling alone, John decided to get help.

“Being so fed up and being alone was so scary. I decided to contact the Menière’s Society [www.menieres.org.uk]. I read about people a lot worse off than me. I also read about self-help groups, which gave me the idea to set up a local group. The Menière’s Society was extremely helpful and sent me all the information I needed to set up a meeting.”

Out with the old

A clever piece of technology will change the way larger businesses handle textphone calls – and should mean a better service for their deaf and hard of hearing customers.

“The problem with textphones in office environments is that if they are not in frequent use staff become scared of using them,” says Mark Catling, director of RNID Sound Advantage.

This could change, however, with a new product called TexBox. A server-based system, TexBox allows organisations to receive incoming textphone calls and send them through the computer network directly to any member of staff with a computer. Outgoing calls can be made in the same way, straight from the user’s own PC. Far from being complicated or difficult to use, making and answering calls is as simple as writing and receiving e-mails.