Ms Wendy Murray:

Let me again mention the fact that a person did not know about the family medical history because of the poor communication in the family. I am in a different situation because my parents are deaf and we all communicate through sign language. That is great because I have access to my family but as a deaf person, I still experience oppression in terms of access to communicating. I have access to my parents because they are deaf too. I have siblings who are hearing but we all sign. I went into an education system that tried to force me to speak. I would often try to figure out what was being said or we would spend time trying to advise each other what the teacher was saying because we could not necessarily make it out. At the age of six, seven and eight years, I was not allowed to utter a word in sign language while I was in school. When I left school, I went on to third level education which was such a difference from my experience at primary and secondary schools. At third level, I was provided with sign language interpretation, I could ask questions and have them answered through sign language and it always made me wonder why I spent my time in primary and secondary schools guessing what was being said. I was able to access the world when I was so much older. Why would it make sense to wait until I was 22 or 23 years before I could access the world? Even saying that I had access in university, there is still not 100% access in the world in general.

I wish to give members an idea of how things are and of the differences. We would often struggle in relation to interpretations. In terms of meetings, we would worry about the availability of an interpreter. Will the interpreter turn up and how will we be able to express ourselves if the interpreter fails to turn up? That is our primary focus instead of focusing on coming to a meeting and worrying about the content of our contribution, we are often worried about the access arrangements and the barriers we will face. We are looking at Irish Sign Language as a means to bridge the barriers to communication and as a way to be able to connect with each other.

I will hand over to my colleague, Mr. Brian Crean.