Kerry Deaf Resource Centre Update 16.03.15

MONTHLY  MASS  IN  SIGN LANGUAGE
The next monthly Mass in sign language will be celebrated on Sunday 22nd
March at 3 pm in St. John’s Pastoral Centre, Tralee.

St. Patrick’s Day, Easter Sunday and a Month’s Mind Mass for Richard Tolan
will be celebrated at this Mass. Confessions will also be held on the day.
Tea & coffee will be served afterwards.

MEMBERS  OF  THE  IRISH  DEAF  COMMUNITY  RIP
It has been a sad & reflective time for the Deaf community over the past few
weeks. Five members of the Deaf community from different parts of Ireland
have passed away.

We would like to express our thoughts and sympathies to the families,
friends and carers of Richard Tolan, Linda McLoughlin, Joe Maguire, Bridget
Flynn and Kathleen Murray.  They will be all sadly missed by all of us that
knew them.

SUBTITLED  FILMS  IN  TRALEE  OMNIPLEX
Tralee Omniplex has advised us that they will be showing subtitled films
EVERY Wednesday night.  The next subtitled film will be “Focus” and will be
screened on Wednesday 18th March at 8.50 pm.  We would like to thank Monica
from the Tralee Omniplex for all her great effort in bringing subtitled
films to Tralee on a regular basis.  We know that the Deaf and hard of
hearing community here appreciate it enormously.

To check which movie is subtitled each week, go to www.omniplex.ie/cinemas
Click on “Choose a Cinema” and select Tralee Omniplex.
Click on Wednesday’s date, then “Filter by screening type” & select
subtitled.
You will then be shown the subtitled film for Wednesday’s screening.

THANK  YOU  TO  SIGN  LANGUAGE  INTERPRETER  STUDENTS
We would like to thank Dawn Kelly, Aine Nally and Robert Ball, 4th year Sign
Language Interpreting students from the Centre for Deaf Studies in Trinity
College, Dublin, for coming to Kerry for their supervised placement last
week.

Both Robert and Dawn come from families with Deaf members and Aine worked in
Roslyn Park College, a well-known college for Deaf students in Dublin.

We would also like to thank Willie White for supervising & mentoring the
students for the week. Our thanks to our staff and members of the Deaf
community for interacting with the students and exposing them to a wide
variety of sign language.

COMREG  CONSULTATION  ON  TEXT  RELAY  SERVICE
ComReg, the Irish telecommunications regulator, has just announced a
consultation on the Text Relay Service.  The consultation has been extended
to May 2015.

ComReg are proposing that a modernised Text Relay Service would be
‘technology neutral’, and could be accessed using a minicom (textphone) but
also from mobile phones, PCs, tablets, laptops etc.

The Text Relay Service was originally introduced in 1988. Initially it
received over a thousand calls per month but with the introduction of text
messaging and email & internet access, call dropped to less than 30 calls
per week.

ComReg are proposing certain quality standards for the new service.  For
example, 80% of calls to the service should be answered within 20 seconds,
with less than 5% of calls ‘abandoned’.

Also, the user will have the option of speaking or texting: this means that
a person who has lost their hearing in adulthood can speak when contacting
the service, and receive responses in text via the operator.  ComReg are
also proposing that all operators in the telecommunications market must
provide access to the proposed text relay service to all their customers.

Detailed information on the Text Relay Services consultation can be found
at:
http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1521a.pdf

GREAT  NEWS  FOR  FINNISH  SIGN  LANGUAGE  USERS
The Finnish Parliament has approved a Sign Language Act giving greater
rights to Finnish Sign Language users. This is great news for the Finnish
Deaf community but also for the international Deaf community who have been
lobbying for legal rights for all Deaf communities worldwide.

For more information, go to
http://limpingchicken.com/2015/03/13/maartje-de-meulder-finlands-new-sign-la
nguage-act-was-approved-yesterday-heres-what-it-means/

OUR CONTACT DETAILS:
Kerry Deaf Resource Centre.
4 Gas Tce, Tralee, Co. Kerry, IRELAND

KDRC provides services to Deaf and hard of hearing people at county level
and contributes to national issues of equality, access and rights.

Charity Number CHY20854

Text     (+353) 87 633 4687
Fax      (+353) 66 712 0386
Tel       (+353) 66 712 0399

E-mail:       [email protected]
Website:    www.kerrydeaf.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/kerrydeaf

Can also be contacted via Facetime, Skype & Glide Video Messaging.