Building toward empowering, enabling and
supporting Deaf parents

Sabina Iqbal, Chair/Founder of Deaf Parenting UK: “As 90% of Deaf children comes from hearing families and when they grow up into adults and become parents and yet very little resources and support is available to them in an accessible format. This is particularly noticeable as Deaf Adults have a 90% chance of having hearing children where access is a real issue.”

The following is common in Deaf parents’ daily lives, as services offered to Deaf parents are sometimes non-existent, very limited or patchy as compared to those available to hearing parents:
Deaf parents are unable to access mainstream information, including maternity, parenting skills classes, midwives or health visitors. Deaf parents find it difficult to access to childcare, nursery or participate in primary and secondary school life adequately due to staff inability to communicate in sign language or because of lack of Deaf awareness. This has in turn prevented Deaf parents of their human right to participate fully in their family lives.

Sabina added: “Deaf Parenting UK are proud to have a fantastic speakers at our upcoming conference, working together on united front, enabling and empowering Deaf parents to have their voices heard, to influence decision-makers about their needs access to mainstream services across health, education, equality without barriers.”

Maria Miller, Shadow Minister for the Family: “Parents with deafness have the extraordinary task of not only looking after their children, but also dealing with the problems they face with everyday communication. Deaf Parenting UK is a fantastic charity that provides vital help and advice to these parents. I am delighted to be supporting the Deaf Parenting UK conference which will raise awareness of the particular needs of deaf parents in this country”.

Councillor Les Lawrence, Cabinet Member for Children, Young people, Families, Birmingham City Council: “As a city Birmingham is committed to unlocking the potential of young people. In order to do this, we have to offer services that are appropriate to those who need them. By working with organisations such as Deaf Parenting UK, and attending events such as this conference, we are able to identify exactly what is needed to achieve this.”

Professor Ulrike Zeshan, Deaf Parenting UK Ambassador: “I fully support the way Deaf Parenting UK has been set up by deaf parents for deaf parents – this is the right way forward, and it is this underlying philosophy that will make their upcoming conference a unique contribution of crucial value to the audience.”

Natalie Salmon, Head of Equality and Diversity, Nursing & Midwifery Council: “I am delighted to be invited to speak at the Deaf Parenting UK Conference, it is an incredibly valuable opportunity for the Nursing and Midwifery Council to engage with deaf people and parents, to learn form one another and discuss very important issues for deaf parents and the health sector generally.”

Department of Health: “DH has been involved with the work of Deaf Parenting UK since its launch in 2001. Like DPUK, we are committed to ensuring that all parents, regardless of circumstance or background, have the support they need to provide their children with the best possible chances in life. That means reducing the inequalities which sadly many disadvantaged people still face. It’s thanks to the invaluable work of organisations such as DPUK which are doing so much to help address those concerns – from making parents aware of their rights to providing the much needed practical help, advice and support – from pregnancy through all the key stages they and their children will go through in life.

As is so often with organisations such as this, it is down to the dedication, drive and personality of people like Sabina Iqbal, a deaf mother herself, and all DPUK’s supporters, to take up the challenge on behalf of deaf parents everywhere. It is thanks to their efforts that the needs of deaf parents are getting the recognition they so justly deserve.”

Disability Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission: “The Equality Human Rights Commission welcomes and supports the role of Deaf Parenting UK in working towards the greater inclusion of disabled and Deaf parents across all areas of society.”

Department for Children, Schools and Families: “DCSF wishes Deaf Parenting UK a successful conference”

-Ends-
For all media enquiries/ contact please contact Asif Iqbal via email media@deafparent.org.uk
http://www.deafparent.org.uk
If you want to know more about Deaf Parenting UK, please email them on

info@deafparent.org.uk

Editors notes:
• Deaf Parenting UK Conference held at Deaf Cultural Centre, Ladywood Road Birmingham from 9.30am to 4.30pm

• Speakers:
• Chauhdry Abdul Rashid JP (Lord Mayor of Birmingham) & Shafait Begum Rashid (Lady Mayoress),
• Sabina Iqbal (Chair/Founder of Deaf Parenting UK)
• Maria Miller MP (Shadow Minister for the Family)
• Councillor Les Lawrence (Cabinet Member for Children, Young people, Families, Birmingham City Council)
• Professor Ulrike Zeshan (Deaf Parenting UK Ambassador)
• Yasmin Kovic, (Safeguarding Advisor: Deaf children and young people, NSPCC)
• Louise Fitzergerald, (Senior Early Years Educator at a school for the deaf)
• Natalie Salmon (Head of Equality and Diversity, Nursing & Midwifery Council)

Workshops:
• Professor Alys Young, DPUK Ambassador (Chair the workshop summary & closing remark)

• Deborah Jamieson, Programme Director for Health-Led Parenting and First Years of Life, Dept of Health
(Parenting and Early Years)

• Lyn Frith, Director Children’s Services Policy, Implementation and Research Ltd
(Parenting Implementation Project/ Department for Children, Schools and Families – supporting
local authorities on parent support services to meet the needs of Deaf Parents?)

• Neil Crowther, Disability Programme Director, Equality and Human Right Commission
(The Future of Disability Equality and Human Rights)

• Deaf Parenting UK is the first ever charity and small national organisation to be run by Deaf parents for Deaf
parents. It represents the needs of Deaf parents in the UK, who have hearing children, deaf children or children
with disability.

• Deaf Parenting UK was established following research done on gaps in services for Deaf parents within the
UK. From research, a picture emerged demonstrating the lack of awareness and consideration for the needs of
Deaf parents.

• Because of communication issues within the home and at school Deaf children often lack access to basic
Information in the area of personal, social and health, such as growing up, sex education, pregnancy and parenting. Yet the background statistics are:

90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents. As well as mainstream support and information, which is available to parents in general, parents of deaf children have access to information, resources and support via Social Services and organisations providing services to deaf children and their families. Information on parenting is also readily available in print, Video/DVD material and Parenting Classes etc.

Deaf children grow up into adults and become parents and yet few resources and support is available to them in an accessible format. This is particularly with services noticeable as Deaf Adults have a 90% chance of having hearing children where access is a real issue.

• The following is common in Deaf parents’ daily lives, as services offered to Deaf parents are sometimes non
existent, very limited or patchy as compared to those available to hearing parents:

Deaf parents are unable to access mainstream information – parenting skills classes, midwives or health visitors. Deaf parents find it difficult to access or participate in school life adequately due to staff inability to communicate in sign language or because of lack of Deaf awareness.

• Deaf Parenting UK offers the following services for Deaf parents and Deaf parents to be:

Deaf Parenting Skills Workshops for deaf parents with young children, teenagers and expectant parents.
Befriender Services
One – to – One Parenting skills support at private home or at own discretion.
Tailor – made parenting support services to meet Deaf parents’ needs.
DPUK can deliver presentations/consultation meetings giving an insight into the service that we offer.
• Deaf Parenting UK have been recognised on local, national and international level especially on recent World
Federation for the Deaf’s conference where we realised the uniqueness of Deaf Parenting UK as a national organisation in UK. We checked with other countries and there were none like Deaf Parenting UK apart from small projects here and there, but not a formal organisation of Deaf parents for Deaf parents. It shows on how important for Deaf Parenting UK to present itself as a good model for other countries across the world on enabling confidence, supporting and empowering Deaf parents

• To learn more about Deaf Parenting UK and to qualify for free membership for Deaf parents/ families, please
visit our website on http://www.deafparent.org.uk.

And yeah,..”controversy!!”

I couldn’t make a correction of the misspelling of my version of “controversy” after I had put it into the forum!!

Have you ever met Miss Pelling? She is hard to avoid!!

Hey! come on over, Janice C., to my blog at Xanga, and raise cain with me there!1 this is miska’s blog!! Just click on my name above this post and you’ll be at my blog!!

I get the rhetoric. Great job. You really told me!! News, ideas, controversy, attitude what due you think this is.

If you want to meet someone with hearing loss, who is disAbled,..go meet up with some of the victims of the old oral training programs and see how that “training” crippled those poor people for their entire lives! Those people were blocked from learning any useful or functional form of language at all and those are the deaf that I truly consider..”disAbled!!”

I read Mishka Zena’s blog just BECAUSE it is full of news, ideas, attitudes and controveries that are of interest to me and I am using Mishka’s blog here at Deafread to teach my Hearing college age son and his hearing friends that there is truly a culture and language and visual way of life beyond their world of sound!!

…..Stanelle

It’s not a tell it all blog. Again like I said, it is not a personal diary

Simple question.

Often, even when I write commentaries, I don’t share my personal opinions unless I clearly state that I’m doing so.

Commentaries are commentaries, not personal diaries. The only contradictions you find here are because you expect them to reflect my personal feelings.

Mishka Zena is not a diary blog, and people who read it should know that what appears here doesn’t always reflect how I truly feel and if that doesn’t satisfy you, there are many other blogs for you to read. MZ has a high readership and is very respected, so I must be doing something right