I'd like to ask you a question.
Irish Sign language interpreters are here.
Who are they here for?
For me?
Well yeah, they are here for me.
But most of all, they are here for all of you
so you can fit in with my language.
The ISL interpreters,
what are they doing?
I sign,
and then they voice-over and translate into English for you.
Let me tell you a story.
I was born Deaf.
The doctors identified me as Deaf at six months old.
My Mom and Dad,
did they get the support they needed?
No, they didn't.
Did they get the information there was
about the Deaf community and their language
and their culture and their potential opportunities
I had for me in the future?
No, they didn't.
My life was doomed as a negative from that moment forward.
I initially went to a hearing play school
with other children.
I can remember once sitting in the circle
with two teachers sitting out front.
All the children were involved in an activity of singing a rhyme.
The children sang away.
What was I doing?
Nothing.
I just sat there doing nothing.
I was lost.
The children continued singing,
then they stood up,
which was part of the actions of the nursery rhyme,
and they dropped to the floor.
What was I doing?
Still sitting there doing nothing.
Just sitting,
lost,
isolated,
left out.
I gestured to a little boy who was on the ground,
"Come. Sit with me."
He did that. He came and sat beside me.
That just went to show
just how I was feeling alone sitting by myself,
and having him there sit with me made me feel a bit more the same.
Later, I went to the local state school for hearing children.
I was there for about a year.
It really didn't work out.
My parents had to make the agonising, difficult decision
to send me to Dublin, to a boarding school for Deaf children.
I can remember the first day going in there.
I entered a classroom.
There was a group of girls sitting in a circle.
Those girls are still my friends today after all these years.
One of them
remembers clearly waving at me
and gesturing towards me to come join them.
They were doing colouring.
I went over.
They made space for me, pushed two other little pals away.
I sat in.
And my friend gestured and signed to me what they were doing.
So they were colouring.
And from that moment on,
I don't remember ever actually learning Irish Sign Language.
I don't remember how I learned.
I don't know how I picked it up,
how I was influenced.
I don't remember the actual pragmatics of that,
but I know it was my language,
and I know the first five years and nine months of my life,
I was deprived of that language.
Irish Sign Language,
what is it?
It's a language.
It's the same like your language that you use,
It's similar to spoken languages -
French, Spanish, German, English, all the languages that there are.
And each country has its own sign language.
Irish Sign Language has its own structure, grammar, syntax
just like spoken languages do.
Irish Sign Language
is their first or preferred language of the Deaf community.
ISL is 80% based on body language and visual expression.
It's a visual language.
I'm not sure if you know
that ISL is already a recognised language of this country,
the third language of this country, since December 2017.
Irish Sign Language is for everyone.
It's the key to inclusion.
I want you to imagine this here.
Imagine if here in Ireland,
everywhere you went, any part of life,
everyone could sign.
Imagine going into the street and bumping into people and signing;
going into the bank, being able to sign;
going into shops, being able to sign;
hearing and Deaf, people all alike being able to sign.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine the world if it was like that -
in all the other countries where there are sign languages,
we use sign language everywhere -
if everybody could communicate through sign language?
Imagine that.
Let me tell you another story.
This just happened to me about three weeks ago.
I was at a tram stop, waiting.
I noticed a woman coming towards me,
and I could see by her body language that she was a bit confused.
She approached me and spoke to me,
and I tried to communicate with her,
but as you know,
Deaf people can work extremely hard at trying to lip read,
but 90% of that skill is guesswork.
So I tried to lip read what she was saying to me,
and she said something like this:
"Is this something, something or other stop?
So, clearly she was asking me if she was at the right stop.
So i took out my phone.
I thought, "Okay, I'm going to try and help this lady."
So I typed out on my phone a message:
"How can I help you?"
and I gave her my phone.
She typed.
I got excited.
I thought, "Great! She's going to finally communicate with me."
So she gave me back my phone,
but she walked away to speak to someone else,
and when I looked at my phone -
do you know what she said?
"It's okay."
It's not okay,
No.
I felt so humiliated, degraded.
I felt like a second-class citizen to be treated like that.
The only time I can remember being treated equal
happened when I went to Maynooth University.
I was there studying for a degree for three years.
Interpreters were provided throughout.
I was fully included with my class, with the students and lecturers.
They recognised me. They saw me.
I also went on three professional work placements,
and all the colleagues who met me valued me.
One particular placement, I went as youth worker on a project.
I had interpreters provided to me for the duration.
And during that placement,
It meant that I had to act as a professional
and carry out my role,
and I could do that through ISL because I had interpreters with me,
and I was able to link and build relationships with people through ISL.
So when I was asked
to participate in the programme "London's Calling" last may,
it really opened my eyes
because in the UK, especially in London,
they have the Access to Work scheme, that is funded by the Government,
where they provide funds
so that Deaf people there can carry out their professions and their jobs,
can look for job progression, promotion.
They are Deaf professionals.
It's not fair that here, Irish Deaf people
end up forced to move to the UK to achieve their dreams
because of that Access to Work scheme
when they could actually do that here if we had the Access to Work scheme here -
a proper one.
Can you imagine
Ireland,
if we had the Access to Work scheme here,
it would mean we would be visible,
we would be your colleagues through Irish Sign Language?
Just like can you imagine a world, in every country,
and if they copied that model for the Access to Work scheme,
it would mean that so many Deaf professionals
would be seen everywhere
and able to progress in their work life?
And that would mean what?
That young Deaf people
who already have the motivation and the dreams of things they'd like to do
ahead in the future,
that would be there for them, they could achieve that,
just like I couldn't.
Inclusion -
that's everyone's responsibility.
Inclusion
is everyone's responsibility.
Now I'd like to invite you to learn about the Deaf community.
I have a long list of tips of what you can do,
but I've just picked three.
One of them is linked to how to communicate with a Deaf person.
There's many different ways.
You could write something down on a piece of paper,
write back and forth.
You could use your phone, just like I did at the tram stop,
and type something out on your phone.
The technology is there. It's amazing.
Use it.
You could try and speak with a Deaf person,
but please speak normal and clearly.
Just use normal mouth patterns.
The Deaf community,
one of their pet peeves, and my particular one,
is when hearing people talk like this:
"Hello ...
How ... are ... you ...?"
Really?
Like, just talk normal and clearly.
That's all we want.
Also you could try and make sure,
as you'ar progressing in the conversation,
that you are being understood.
Have that flexibility,
and problem is solved.
The second thing is:
Why don't you go and learn Irish Sign Language?
There's classes.
And if you learn and become fluent,
well hey, you've got a second or third or maybe even fourth language.
That would be cool, right?
Then you'll be able to talk to me.
You could be my friend.
You could be their friend.
Thirdly,
the way you describe Deaf people,
what's the right terminology to use?
The most acceptable terms
are "Deaf" or "Hard of Hearing."
Don't say "hearing-Impaired"
or "a hearing difficulty"
or "hearing disability"
or "deaf and dumb."
They are not acceptable.
It's "Deaf" or "Hard of Hearing."
I'm going to remind you again.
Inclusion is everyone's responsibility.
I am Joanne Chester,
and I am not just Deaf.
Thank you.
(Applause)