See Hear: Looking behind the Curtain of Silence

Deaf Child

In 1973 BBC Two’s Horizon – which celebrates its 50th birthday this month – made its first documentary about deafness. Some forty years later it serves as a fascinating time capsule of attitudes to deafness at the time.

“In our loquacious society, the deaf are linguistic lepers,” notes the commentary from the Curtain of Silence.

“Rarely can we be bothered to make that little extra effort in talking to them, trying to understand them. We give them the jobs we don’t want. Having struggled into our world of speech, their opportunities are very limited.”

But without teletext subtitling and in-vision signing 40 years ago, deaf audiences had little chance of knowing what was being said about them.  More … http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-27219354

 

Full disclosure: When Should You Reveal a Disability at Work?

The OED defines “disclosure” as the action of making new or secret information known. But for disabled people, it tends to have a more specific usage – one that causes much soul-searching and indecision.

What is disclosure?

It’s never far from a disabled jobseeker’s mind and usually comes to the fore when filling in a job application form. It’s the word used to describe that tricky situation that many people with disabilities will recognise – do I choose to tell a potential employer that I am disabled or not?  More … http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-27193964