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What's going on at See Hear?

Ruth Shurman | 10:07 UK time, Tuesday, 14 July 2009

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We're on our annual summer transmission break and will be back on air in September. In the meanwhile, the See Hear team are covering some exciting stories...we're experiencing some Hollywood glamour with Marlee Matlin, who's given See Hear an exclusive interview where she she discusses her life and her work as world's best-known Deaf actor. She brought her interpreter Jack (who's been working with her for 24 years) along to voice her answers, which of course are in ASL. Marlee has four kids and a very busy career so we were delighted to have this opportunity to talk to her in depth, especially about the revelations she made in her recent autobiography.

And some other members of our team managed to get a good helping of mud and sunshine at Glastonbury, where they were filming with a crowd of young Deaf festival-goers and brushing shoulders with Tom Jones and Lily Allen. In case you think they're having too much fun in the line of duty, they would like to point out that they managed to lose the stoppers for their inflatable sleeping mats and were forced to sleep on very bumpy ground...

We're also working on an education special, looking at the difficulties of a family who are trying to work out how to educate their son who is Deaf and autistic, and following the NDCS campaign to improve acoustics in school classrooms. Acoustic design is also at the heart of a story we're filming about restaurants, where we've been finding out that some pared-down canteen-style chain restaurants are too uncomfortably loud for hearing-impaired diners.

Memnos has been working on his Stories Behind the Signs and we have discovered that Radha has definite potential as a biker chick...

Are there other Deaf or Hard of Hearing stories you'd like to see us covering? Please let us know and we'll do our best.

SEE HEAR - Wednesday 17th June, 1pm BBC2

Ruth Shurman | 14:38 UK time, Friday, 12 June 2009

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On this week's show we meet renowned children's author Julia Donaldson - who has written over 70 books and sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide. Her works have been translated into 40 languages, including BSL. Her most famous creations include The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Stick Man and Monkey Puzzle. Julia has suffered mild hearing loss since her twenties, and has now drawn on her experiences to create a new book about a Deaf Fairy. See Hear visited Julia at her home in Glasgow to talk about her stories, her sources of inspiration, and her collaborations with artist Axel Scheffler.

 

Also this week, we meet Kate Pepper, a deaf woman who works with police horses at the West Hampstead branch of the Metropolitan Mounted Police. She has learned to use the body language of her horses to feel more secure when accompanying officers on their patrols.

 

We also have the latest instalment of Memnos' Stories Behind the Signs, which highlights some of the BSL signs that have caused the most confusion.

 

To watch this programme on the iPlayer, click here. If you want to have subtitles, just press the 's' on the right-hand side of the bottom bar that appears after you have pressed play.

UPDATE: NORMA ARMSTRONG STORY

Ruth Shurman | 11:28 UK time, Wednesday, 10 June 2009

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Following on from our report on Norma Armstrong and the Reading Deaf Centre, we can report that two of the members of the parent group with Deaf children who had felt let down with their BSL lessons were able to attend a course in May run by the organisation CHIIC at the Sign Language Centre in Newport, South Wales. The course was provided free of charge, and the two members only had to pay travel and accommodation costs. They successfully completed the first module of their BSL Level 1 exam. CHIIC have also arranged to run courses in Reading during September to get the candidates through the rest of their Level 1 course.

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