Upset as course to help deaf is closed

From the Wiltshire Times, first published Friday 27th Jan 2006.

CHARITY workers who help the deaf and hard of hearing are devastated a Wiltshire College lip-reading course has been cancelled.

The 10-week course at the Chippenham campus was axed this week due to low numbers.

Libbie Sheppard, from the south west branch of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, said lip-reading courses were invaluable to people who are hard of hearing.

She said: "When you start losing your hearing you can feel very isolated.

"One of the best things those people can do is attend lip-reading classes.

"Around one in seven people suffer from hearing loss and the classes can make such a difference.

"Hearing loss can lead to a loss in confidence but classes can help.

"They can encourage people to go back to work and can make a huge difference to their lives.

"I don't know why the course in Chippenham has been cancelled, whether people were put off by the cost or if they don't know about it, or even that there isn't the demand."

The course ran for 10 weeks on Wednesday afternoons and cost £15.

Shirley Thompson-Evans, 47, of Hitherspring, Corsham, was one of the students on the Wiltshire College course.

She took it up after suffering problems with her hearing.

She said: "It has been cancelled because there was only five people on the course.

"There is nothing else we can do. It just seems that not enough people knew about it.

"It is a really useful skill because you don't know how many people suffer from hearing difficulties."

George Bright, principal of Wiltshire College, said: "We run a vast range of courses to support people with disabilities.

"For many years we have run the lip-reading courses.

"In this case we have not had enough people coming forward to run it on a viable basis.

"We would need approximately 12-14 people to make it viable and there were only six.

"We ran it last term with eight students because it is a good cause, but we couldn't keep going."

Mr Bright said the courses were listed in the prospectus. 50,000 copies of this are circulated in west and north Wiltshire.

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