Deaf Information Gateway

Background Information

dda A deaf member of the community joined MCIN as a volunteer in January 2004 and identified that it was difficult to find information relating to the deaf community. The volunteer undertook some research on what information was available online and found that, although some information existed, it was scattered and not in one central location.

Development Process

As a result, MCIN identified potential stakeholders and formed an electronic information steering group. This was made up of four local authorities across Greater Manchester (Manchester, Bury, Trafford and Tameside), The Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People, The British Deaf Association, MCIN, Community Pride (a community and voluntary sector organisation) and the Manchester Deaf Centre.

This steering group contacted a number of local deaf residents and MCIN worked with them to help develop their ICT skills. This resulted in a number of people producing websites using the MCIN web page creation tools. An event was then held in June 2004, at which participants were presented with certificates of achievement.

This group worked with MCIN staff and members of the steering group to identify web-based information that would be relevant to the deaf community. This was placed on the Deaf Information Gateway site which MCIN created using its portal creation product. The site was launched in June 2004.

The steering group is a unique one and represents the statutory, voluntary and community and residents’ groups. It continues to meet and is exploring other ways to use ICT to raise policy issues and reduce social exclusion of this community.

You can visit the Greater Manchester Deaf Community Information Gateway at http://www.deafgateway.info.

Our Stories in Our Language Project

In 2005 work started on the “Our Stories in Our Language” Project. This was a broadband project looking at ways in which Deaf people could communicate more effectively using the internet and new technologies. The focus was on video, as it is a visual medium and BSL (British Sign Language) is a visual language.

deaf story Deaf people from across Greater Manchester, with support from MCIN, created simple, yet effective, videos showing Deaf people telling jokes, recounting stories or raising issues of concern.

This work took place with groups from Salford, Bury, Trafford and Manchester with the sessions taking place in the group's own space eg: Manchester Deaf Centre and the Hearing Impairment Unit at Bury Library..

At the Manchester Deaf Centre MCIN worked closely with a journalist from the BBC on “secondment” to MCIN, which highlighted a different way of working with community groups. Also at Manchester Deaf Centre MCIN ran two groups of taster sessions on using internet. This ran over eight weeks and covered a basic introduction to IT, introduction to internet, email, discussion forums/ message boards, webcams/ video conferencing and video.

MCIN set up a small IT room at the Deaf Centre which has been used as a drop in and “cyber cafe” by Centre users meaning that users have access to internet/ computers in a friendly environment.

Watch videos online:

http://www.deafgateway.info/home/videos

There was a launch event in central Manchester to showcase the videos in January 2006.

Deaf School of Participation Project.

MCIN worked in partnership with Community Pride on the Deaf School of Participation project which grew from the Our Stories in Our Language launch event.

The School of Participation used video as a way of highlighting the issues faced by the Deaf community seeking employment. Participants included Deaf people that MCIN had worked with previously from Trafford, Manchester, Bury and Salford plus new members from areas such as Stockport.

Over several months the group met on a regular basis discussing content/ focus of the video and finally filming and editing the video.

The video was launched with an event in central Manchester in November 2006 and invited attendees included Job Centre Plus, employers, council staff etc.

Watch video here:

http://david.mywebconnect.info/2006/11/28/world-turned-upside-down-video/

Alongside the School of Participation project MCIN continued to work with the groups in Bury and Trafford producing longer videos highlighting issues of concern.

The Deaf group who meet at Bury Library Hearing Impairment Unit produced a video highlighting the problems faced by Deaf people in Greater Manchester contacting the emergency services.

Watch video here:

http://david.mywebconnect.info/2006/11/29/999-emergency/

The Trafford Group produced a series of videos including an introduction to the Genie Project and a film highlighting the problems faced by Deaf people attending Doctors' surgeries.

Watch videos here:

http://david.mywebconnect.info/2006/11/28/genie-project/

http://david.mywebconnect.info/2006/11/28/doctors-waiting-rooms/