News Archives
"News, if unreported, has no impact. It might as well have not happened at all" Gay Talese
This page is the news archives section of our site, where you can find information that has previously been featured in the ‘latest news’ section of the site.
Apple cap iPod volume levels
New software is available from Apple for the iPod nano and video–capable iPods that allows users to set their own upper volume limit, "Don't Lose The Music" (www.dontlosethemusic.com.) report. The RNID, part of the "Don't Lose the Music" partnership, welcomes the move. Brian Lamb, Director of Communications at RNID said, "We would urge other manufacturers of personal music players to follow suit. Although we are encouraged by this move, there is still much more work to be done to educate both manufacturers as well as music lovers of the potential dangers of listening to personal music players too loudly."
National Tinnitus Week
The 20–26 February 2006 will be National Tinnitus Week, organised by the British Tinnitus Association (BTA). The aim of the week is to raise awareness and promote the help which is available through organisations, local support groups, hospitals etc. The BTA has linked with the RNID for the week are hoping to raise lots of awareness. You can help by requesting a poster from the BTA to display in your place of work or in your local shop, supermarket, library, GP surgery or at your local chemist etc. You more information, visit the BTA's website, www.tinnitus.org.uk ↗
Update: 18.11.05
Derbyshire Library Service: Our guest speaker for our November meeting on 30th November is from Derbyshire Library Service. Go to our meetings page for more information.
Ddeaf people and the internet – online survey: How do Ddeaf people use the internet? Does the internet change Ddeaf people's lives? The University of Leeds are conducting a survey on how and why Ddeaf people use the internet, and how and if the internet can change Ddeaf people's lives. The views of all Ddeaf people are important to the project – click here to go to the survey. There is also a prize draw for £100.
Update: 15.10.05
Training Courses: We still have places on the training courses on ‘Access to Work’ and ‘Increasing your confidence’ in Derby – and we'll be doing it all again next year in Nottingham. See our ‘Events’ page for more details.
Autumn Tombola: Our Autumn Tombola and ‘Name the Doggie’ competition held at the Royal Hospital on 8th October raised a total of £74!
Website update: Nearly there! We're in the final phase of getting the new–look site ready, and hopefully it should be ready to launch in November!
Update: 18.8.05
Success with our training courses: We recently heard that following attendance at one of our confidence courses a Ddeaf person took a local entertainment venue to the Disability Rights Commission over the lack of access for Ddeaf people, winning the case. The venue will now be ensuring that its services are accessible to Ddeaf people and are looking more generally at the issue of access with other local entertainment venues.
Update: 14.8.05
Website update: Work is well under way on our new website which will be fully accessible. We hope to have the new site ready for launch in October.
DdEF campaigns on Ddeafness and mental health: Following our lobbying of local PCTs regarding services for Ddeaf people with mental health problems, we have received information from the Derbyshire Lead Commissioning Team for mental health on the allocation of central government finances to provide services for Ddeaf people - you can read further information here.
Police update: Following his slot as our guest speaker at the April meeting, we have received an update from Inspector Jagdev Atwell, Equalities Officer with Derbyshire Constabulary on accessibility for Ddeaf people.
DdEF Summer Raffle: We made £41 at our Summer Raffle held at the Royal Hospital on 30th July – next stop our tombola on 8th October during ‘Learn to Sign’ week!. – List of prize winners from the Summer Raffle.
Pilot for the use of videophone technology in North Derbyshire (Social Services): We have recently received information on a pilot for the use of videophone technology in Derbyshire which will initially run for three months — further information here.
Update: 28.7.05
DdEF Summer Raffle: Saturday, 30th July 11am – 3pm in the Main Concourse at Chesterfield Royal Hospital. Come along and meet us and have a go in our Summer Raffle. Prizes: 1st– Summer Hamper, 2nd – Food Steamer, 3rd – Hand and feet pamper gift set, 4th – Travel bag, 5th – Puppy soft toy, 6th – Silver and glass photo frame, 7th – ‘Friendship’ photo frame, 8th – Royal Jelly gift set. Members of DdEF will be there with our course and information leaflets, and ‘Sign Your Name’ bookmarks.
Asserting our Power to Change: Derby Courses: The second run of our popular training courses begins in September in Derby. Booking forms are now available to book places on the second run of courses, to be held in Derby from September to December. Contact us at DdEF, or email for a course leaflet and booking form, go to our events page and complete the online application form.
Website Update: We've added a ‘Quick Start User Guide’ for our online discussion forum to the information pages of our site. Progress is also well under way on our new look website and we hope to have it ready to launch in October. Check back for further updates.
Comic Relief project: Asserting our Power to Change – Chesterfield Courses: It's still not too late to book your place on the Access to Work and Confidence Building courses in Chesterfield as part of our Comic Relief project, ‘Asserting our Power to Change’. Go to our training page and complete the online application form to book your place. All courses are free and refreshments are provided. We can pay reasonable travel and care expenses, please contact us if you would like more information about this.
Derby Courses: Booking forms are now available to book places on the second run of courses, to be held in Derby from September to December. Contact us at DdEF, or email for a course leaflet and booking form.
Meetings: Please note that the date of the May meeting has been moved to Wednesday 18th May. The June meeting will be on the 3rd Wednesday of the month as usual.
Our guest speaker, confirmed for the May meeting, and back by popular demand, is Rob Frear from the Saltergate Audiology clinic. Our guest speaker for June's meeting is Steve Blezard, from Derbyshire Social Services.
Sign Your Name: As part of Deaf Awareness Week 2005, 2 – 8 May 2005, DdEF launched its ‘Sign your Name’ campaign, and has produced bookmarks featuring the manual finger spelling alphabet. For more details of our campaign and information on how to get one of our bookmarks, see our projects and campaigns page.
DdEF Raffle: Unfortunately, due to illness we had cancel our planned Deaf Awareness Week tombola, but will be holding a summer raffle in the main concourse at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital on Saturday, 30 July from 10am to 3pm. Come along and meet us and you may be lucky and win a prize too! Watch out here for details of the raffle prizes nearer the time.
Web developments: Recently we've had problems with our previous web hosts and for long spells the site was unavailable. We've now switched to a new hosting company, and (fingers crossed!) there have been no more problems so far. During the process of moving to the new hosting company we lost the discussion forum, but it's back up and running again now. You can find it at www.ddeaf.org.uk/forum/. We'e also added a chat room. This can be found at www.ddeaf.org.uk/chat. There is a tutorial on how to use the chat room on the login screen.
This is only the first version of our website, and we know it's not perfect. There are some technical problems we need to iron out, and we also have plans to extend the site. At the moment we're working on redesigning the site to make it easier for everyone, including people with visual problems, to us our site. We're doing this as quickly as we can, but DdEF is a voluntary organisation and all our Officers work for DdEF voluntarily. Watch out here though for further information.
If you would like to be kept up to date of developments of the site, please email us at .
