Text messaging

Former newsreader John Suchet tells Claire Wills why he is such an enthusiastic supporter of theatre captioning.

As patron of Stagetext, Suchet has seen how captioning can transform people’s lives. "If you could see the reaction of deaf people after the show, it’s humbling," he says. "'At last,' they say, 'I can go to the theatre again, I haven't been for years'."

Hush little baby…

How do you know if your baby is crying if you are deaf and in another room?

RNID South West information officer Libbie Sheppard has learned that babies can sometimes find their own unique way of keeping mum and dad on their toes.
"I know some deaf parents who were sitting downstairs and they noticed the alarm was flashing on ... off ... on ... off ... on ... off – regular as clockwork. So the mum went upstairs to see what was going on. And she found her toddler, standing up in his cot, swinging the mike around above his head, round and round, on the end of the flex, like a lassoo. So that is why it was flashing: as it whizzed round  it created a vibration that made it flash!"
Seems that some babies are just natural attention seekers!

Members’ Questions  to easyJet’s Mike Cooper

Question

Recently my wife and I were booked on an easyJet flight. We were first on the plane and sat down in one of the emergency seats. I was told that I could not sit there with "those things" in my ears. I was "disabled". 
   
Answer

The cabin crew member was referring to safety regulations. However, the wording is ambiguous, which leaves the final decision to the discretion of a cabin crew member. Essentially the cabin crew must be confident that any passenger sitting in the emergency exit must not impede the exit in the event of an emergency evacuation. However, the cabin crew member was over-zealous in applying this regulation to a passenger who was simply wearing a hearing aid.

We apologise to the passenger for the inconvenience and embarrassment, but would like to reassure him that the reason was based on safety which is our top priority. Our customer services department will be writing to him to officially apologise and offer him a free return flight with easyJet to give us the opportunity to redeem ourselves and prove that our service can be an enjoyable one.