See-Hear Training – Edinburgh

Thanks to all participants who attended the first of a series of Sensory Impairment Awareness days organised by City of Edinburgh Council for the Social and Health Care Partnership.

The morning session on sight loss delivered by June Neil @RNIB which highlights how sight loss can affect individuals and how services can be adapted to assist independence.

This was followed with an afternoon session on deaf awareness & communication tactics with deaf and deafblind people delivered by our own Andy Irvine of COMMTACS.

Signature Awards 2017

Proud to be shortlisted for the Signature Superstar Awards 2017 under the category of ‘Professional Contribution Award’.

Congratulations to the winner Emma Caswell who was a worthy winner.

Fantastic evening at the Leeds Met Hotel where Dr. Terry Riley OBE was awarded Lifetime Achievement award.

We were delighted to be asked to create 2 short BSL videos for Young Scot: Year of Young People 2018 (YoYP2018). Videos included the application form for becoming a YoYP2018 Ambassador and a summary of the aims and objectives of scheme.

What was it all about?

Children in Scotland, Scottish Youth Parliament, and Young Scot are looking for committed and passionate young people from across Scotland to become the Year of Young People 2018 Ambassadors. Get involved, and represent the YoYP 2018 in your local community!

More information here: http://young.scot/yoyp2018/yoyp-articles/yoyp-2018-ambassador/

We were also pleased to use one of our newer and younger BSL presenters (Liam), who was very professional and prepared well for the task.

Well done to all participants at Deaf Links Dundee who participated in the introduction to Training the Trainers course over 4 (very busy) days!

We covered (at least):

Learning cycle
Learning styles
Identifying learning needs (LNA)
Aims, objectives & learning outcomes
Planning, preparation and delivery
Using resources
Group dynamics
Teaching methods
Giving feedback
Evaluation

And that was just the ‘How to teach’ – we also looked at ‘What to teach’ by breaking down course specifications, learning outcomes & assessment criteria with everyone delivering training sessions on a number of topics.

Thanks to Alana Harper at Deaf Links for securing funding and identifying willing participants. Also to the continued support of Elizabeth Adams and David Johnston who generously shared their experience as long standing BSL tutors. And to Denise Ryan for the ‘intro to linguistic’ session which was invaluable.

Deaf Links Dundee day 3 of 4

Day 3 of 4 at the Training the Trainers course at Deaf Links in Dundee.

Participants were demonstrating their teaching skills they have been developing over the weeks by delivering a number of short training sessions to group members. At the same time group members were tasked with providing feedback after spending a whole session on ‘How to give feedback’

Edinburgh Zoo – Deaf Aware

IMG_20161101_115656 Edinburgh Zoo (RZSS) recently held 2 x 2 half day courses for their staff – everyone from administrative roles, gardeners, animal keepers, animal demonstrators (to list a few) all actively took part in a Deaf Awareness & Communication Tactics course with an introduction to work based signs.

The park, which receives 1,ooo’s of visitors every year many of whom will be deaf to some extent. Remember that around 1 in 6 people will be deaf to some extent. The Park and the staff are keen to make visitors experience as memorable as possible and that includes being aware of the small changes in their communication tactics can make a huge impact and difference with a deaf or deafblind person.

http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/

efsli2016

That’s the efsli2106 website just gone live :o) http://efsli.org/2016/

BSL version – attainment of pupils with a sensory impairment

Completed in very short time-scale the BSL version of the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee’s 10th report on the attainment of deaf and visually impaired pupils.

“The Education and culture committee held an inquiry in May to find out what is going on in deaf education and education for children with visual impairment in Scotland. They have just published the report – attainment of pupils with a sensory impairment.
More work is needed to be done to improve access to education for deaf children.”

Dr Audrey Cameron

BSL (Scotland) Bill

IMG_20150917_180348~2 History in the making as the BSL (Scotland) Bill is passed in the Scottish Parliament on 17th September 2015 – a date that will be remembered very proudly by Scotland’s Deaf and Deafblind communities.

The even in the Parliament was a near ‘sell out’ with tickets (which are always free) becoming like gold-dust. This may have been the very first time that the Parliament had to arrange a ‘spill out’ room to accommodate the crowds that gathered to witness the passing of the Bill.

The Bill was a Private members Bill introduced by Mark Griffin MSP – (pictured) who gave a short presentation at an after party sponsored by the Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD).

Law Society of Scotland – BSL Bill Briefing

Law Society of Scotland – BSL (Scotland) Bill Stage 3 Briefing

law-soc-scot-tweet COMMTACS were happy to be involved in the #BSL production of the Law Society of Scotland’s briefing which is intended to inform MSPs of their comments on the British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill. The Bill was introduced as a Private Member’s Bill by Mark Griffin MSP on 29 October 2014. The stage 3 debate will take place on 17 September 2015.

More information on the Law Society of Scotland’s website here <<<

#BSL Bill also available in #BSL @scotParl @MarkGriffinMSP

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