India is home

Deaf amputee charity worker Ian Stillman explains why he wants to return to the country that jailed him for a crime he didn’t commit.

Having followed Ian Stillman’s family’s dramatic two-year struggle for his release, it seems rather incongruous to see him eating biscuits in a quiet detached house in Hampshire. After a bit of a chat about mutual acquaintances in the deaf community, he confesses to feeling a little at odds with his English surroundings.

“When I came back to this country, I felt similar to a refugee. It seems extraordinary that this has happened to me," he said.  “I first went out to India in 1972. I came back last year. It was a strange experience - I’ve been away so long, even though I’m from Britain, there are many things that are new to me."

A simple cure?

RNID is campaigning to increase deaf and hard of hearing people’s access to the NHS

Last December Anne visited her doctor after suffering from back pain. She wanted some advice and medication, but left her GP’s surgery feeling angry and confused. “The doctor spoke far too quickly and I couldn’t understand a word he said,” says Anne, who is partially deaf. “I walked out feeling totally frustrated.”

A new RNID survey has revealed that the NHS is wasting £20m a year because of a lack of deaf awareness. A Simple Cure, the most comprehensive national survey of deaf and hard of hearing people’s experiences of the NHS, paints a stark picture of the poor access to healthcare faced by the one in seven people in the UK who have a hearing loss.

Upwardly mobile

If you need email on the move, an ordinary mobile phone can be too slow and fiddly. A laptop computer makes it easier, but is heavy to carry around. The BlackBerry provides an easy-to-use, shirt pocket-sized alternative.

You can use the BlackBerry to read and send personal e-mail and SMS text messages. It also has address book and calendar facilities. Compared with most mobile handsets, the BlackBerry is wider but not as thick, fitting comfortably in the palm of the hand. Its screen is considerably larger than most handsets and you can easily change the size of the words displayed.