The pressure on audiologists to become glorified salespeople on behalf of hearing-aid companies reveals an ugly side of what used to be a dedicated public service. Almost everyone I know who has ever worked in organisations for deaf and for hearing-impaired people has heard stories of hearing clinics which badger hearing-impaired people into buying expensive […]
When actors in foreign films dip into English
I watched a DVD of the Swedish detective series Wallander just recently. This steers a satisfying middle ground between gung-ho American shoot-em-ups and the British genteelism of Midsomer. The Swedish series naturally has the actors speaking in Swedish, and obligingly, the subtitles make all the difference. As usual, I rejoiced in the subtitles. It would […]
Give pees a chance
Films often show scenes of women gathered in their powder room during interval at the cinema, or at a social event at the local town hall. We see them peering into mirrors and chatting with girlfriends as they adjust dresses, plot strategy, review tactics, and perhaps even powder their noses. They are going about women’s […]
Our shout
When I was part of a social group of deaf people during the 1970s, a popular outing would be to a pizza restaurant. “Restaurant” is a word I use loosely – these places were large fast-food feedlots. There would be about 15 to 20 of us, seated at benches in a cavernous dining hall. The […]
This (Interpreted) Life
TUQ Blog 01 I used to avoid parent-teacher evenings at my daughter’s school. They always took place in the gym, a pandemonium of a hundred clashing and echoing voices. I could have asked for the interviews in a private room and taken the chance that maybe I could still follow voices, which inevitably danced just […]
The little deaf theatre company that did
Forty years ago, a small deaf mime company performed at Melbourne’s Pram Factory. It performed for six nights in August 1975, and again the next year. Then it dropped out of sight. In 1974, the National Theatre of the Deaf from the United States toured Australia. The group that was to become known as Earforce […]