Around 62,000 people across Tayside who have hearing difficulties will now get support from a national organisation that is looking to expand local services.
After almost 120 years serving the local community, Tayside Deaf Association has decided to join forces with larger national charity Deaf Action.
The local branch, to be known as Deaf Action Tayside, was launched at an event in Discovery Point, Dundee, on Wednesday.
Gillian Smith from Dundee spoke about her experiences as the mother of a deaf child. Her daughter Caitlin (11) attends St Luke’s and St Matthew’s Primary School where she learns alongside her hearing friends.
Mrs Smith said she hoped the larger organisation would help raise awareness of the services available for deaf people. She told how she gained access to services for her daughter as a result of a chance meeting.
“Caitlin was diagnosed when she was two and a half and I was told she would have to wear hearing aids,” said Mrs Smith.
“We were then left to get on with it. When she was four I was walking through the Wellgate Centre when I came across a stall promoting National Deaf Awareness Week.
“I didn’t know I was entitled to any help but the girl there took my details and said someone from Tayside Deaf Association would help.
“But for that chance encounter, I don’t know what position we would be in now.”
Ian Johnston, a social worker and chairman of Tayside Deaf Association, said that as a small, local charity his organisation faced “challenges” and decided the best way forward was through merger with the bigger charity.
TDA provided specialist social work services to deaf people on behalf of the three local authorities in Tayside. The merged organisation would continue to deliver these services and planned to develop them.
“There is always anxiety around changes but I firmly believe it is a sensible move for the local organisation,” he said.
“It will make it stronger and better able to develop services in Tayside.”
He said one in seven people were “part of the deaf community.” That included people with a range of problems, from those born profoundly deaf to those who suffered hearing loss in later life.
Liz Scott Gibson, director of Deaf Action, said that the merged organisation would be creating a new post based at the organisation’s Roseangle premises. The post-holder would introduce deaf people to specialist equipment available to help them live and work.
She said there were also plans to establish an online interpreting service to combat the lack of sign language interpreters throughout Scotland. Deaf people would be able to access the service on line through a web camera.
“We see the merger as a great opportunity to consolidate and develop services for people in Tayside,” said Mrs Scott Gibson.