Deaf Mum Sues Little Mix Concert Promoter

Deaf mum sues Little Mix promoter for not providing sign language interpreters at gig.

SUSSEX, United Kingdom -- How one mother's frustration turned into an unprecedented legal action. Eight-year-old Cate Merry and her friend Megan are big fans of Little Mix.

They've got the T-shirts, the photo albums, the CDs, can sing the songs and rock the dance routines.

So how did their love of the band lead to unprecedented legal action?

Last year, Cate's mum Sally Reynolds bought six tickets to see the band in concert on 1 September at the South of England Event Centre in Sussex.

Sally is Deaf and booked for herself and two Deaf friends to go with their daughters who are all able to hear.

In order that she and her two friends could fully access the performance, Sally asked the organisers, LHG Live, to provide a British Sign Language interpreter.

She was initially offered carer tickets and told that she could bring her own interpreter, but she didn't consider that met her needs or amounted to full access.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Sally explained: "We asked two or three times, please can you provide the interpreter for us, and the explanation we got back was just a 'no'.

"It didn't have any reason behind it and eventually we became so frustrated.

"I wanted to share the same experience my daughter had - essentially I just wanted access to the songs."

Legal Action - Under the Equality Act 2010, any organisation supplying a service to the public is under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a disabled person's experience is as close as possible to that of someone without a disability.

With just days to go before the concert, and no interpreter in place, Sally took an unprecedented legal step... Read More on BBC News.

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Illinois Teen Shot Deaf Mom, Burned House

Teen allegedly shoots her Deaf mom in the head and later posts to her Facebook: ‘You were my best friend’, Police say.

MORRISON, Illinois -- Authorities investigating the homicide of a 53-year-old woman whose body was found Saturday inside her burning house in Morrison, Illinois, have arrested her 15-year-old daughter, whom they suspect is the killer, PEOPLE confirms.

A spokesman for the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois confirms that law enforcement has arrested the teenage daughter of Peggy Schroeder, who was Deaf.

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The girl is charged as a juvenile with two counts of first-degree murder, concealment of homicidal death and arson. Though authorities reportedly said Schroeder was shot in the head, her cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

PEOPLE does not identify juveniles accused of crimes unless they are tried as adults.

The girl did not enter a plea during a court hearing Tuesday in juvenile court. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether they plan to try her as an adult. If she is tried and convicted as a minor, she would be imprisoned until she turns 21.

Her lawyer, Jim Mertes, declined to discuss the allegations against his client.

The sheriff’s spokesman would only discuss the girl’s arrest and not the allegations against her, which were reportedly outlined by investigators during Tuesday’s hearing.

According to SaukValley.com, citing that testimony, authorities believe the teen was waiting for her mother to return from work last Thursday.

When Schroeder walked into the house around 5:30 p.m., the girl allegedly met her in the living room and had her place a towel over her face and then fired a single shot from a .38-caliber revolver into her forehead, authorities said, SaukValley.com reports.

According to court testimony, authorities claim the teen then texted a photo of Schroeder’s body to a friend to prove she had been killed. The other girl, also 15, then allegedly came over to help try to clean blood from the carpeting.

The next morning, the juveniles awoke and moved Peggy’s body from the living room to her bedroom, a sheriff’s detective claimed in court, the site reports.

The girls allegedly then spent the next two days trying to cover up the killing, according to local TV station KWQC.

SOURCE - PEOPLE

BONUS - More Stories:
Prayer Service For Morrison Mom Tonight at Her Church
A Night For Peggy: Friends Remember a Woman Who Was Always With a Smile
Community Healing Begins After Morrison Murder
Girls Arrested in Fatal Fire in Court Today
Anna Schroeder: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Deaf Mum Hears Son's Voice For The First Time

Deaf mum hearing her family speak for the first time goes viral on social media, will bring you tears of joy.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom -- The Channel 4 documentary has single handedly restored our faith in humanity, after the TV show introduced us to single mum Rebecca, her sister Amy and her three-year-old son.

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9 years ago Rebecca had an unexplained loos of hearing in her right ear. Then, as if that wasn't enough, 16 weeks ago she tragically went deaf in her left ear too.

"I've had to learn new ways of trying to communicate with him" explains a defiant Rebecca, as she bravely battles her condition, to give her son the best possible life.

However, with the help of audiologist Hugh Cooper, everything is about to change for the better.

When the mother of one visited Manchester Royal Infirmary with her sister Amy as part of Breaking the Silence Live, we see her hear again for the first time since she lost her hearing, thanks to the help of a cochlear implant.

The show has clearly struck a cord with viewers who have taken to Twitter to discuss the importance of communicating with Deaf people so that they don't feel alienated.

People take being able to hear for granted, have the upmost respect for my deaf family and all they've achieved #breakingthesilence.

SOURCE - Heart

Related Posts: #HearsForTheFirstTime

Deaf Mother Faces 'The Ugly Judgment of Society'

WATCH [CC] - Deaf mother exposes the paralyzing double standards that mothers face 'The Ugly Judgment of Society' goes viral on social media.

AUSTIN, TX -- When it comes to motherhood, women face double standards at every turn. Deaf vlogger Michelle Lane believes these double standards are so prevalent that they box women into a corner where every choice they make is wrong. In her Facebook video “The Ugly Judgment of Society,” Lane takes on the paralyzing attitudes women face when dealing with issues such as child-rearing age, adoption, abortion, work, and abusive partners.

Girl gets pregnant before 25---people say "She's too young to have a baby"
Girl gets pregnant after 30---"She's too old"
Girl considers abortion--"She's a murderer!"
Girl considers adoption--"Can't believe she's just going to give her baby away, how could she do that?"
Girl keeps baby--"How's she going to afford that baby??"
Girl gets welfare---"She's a sponger living on benefits taking our money"
Girl gets job---"How can she stand to be away from her baby all day like that?"
Girl becomes a stay at home Mum--"She probably doesn't do anything all day but watch Jeremy Kyle"
Girl stops hanging out with friends--"She totally changed when she had that baby"
Girl goes out--"She's always partying and leaving her kids at home!"
Girl wants to leave nasty partner--"Nobody knows what it means to work things out anymore"
Girl wants to stay with nasty partner--"She's dumb!"
Girl eats burger--"Fat ass"
Girl eats salad--"Must be one of those anorexic health nuts"
Girl is overprotective of her child---"You're acting like a psycho, poor kids!"
Girl lets her child play without her---"Where is this kid's Mum??"
Girl smacks her kid---"Call the police and social services!"
Girl refuses to smack---"Her kids are gonna be such brats"
No matter what you do, people will talk. So do what is best for YOU, not other people...

Lane is the single parent of two children, ages 7 and 3. Recently, she told the Today show that she often faces harsh criticism for choosing to raise children as a Deaf mother. “I get judged all the time,” she says.

“Deaf people are not supposed to have children because we are carrying the genes of deafness.” She’s also judged by people when out in public. “We are more loud and wild than hearing people because we are not aware of sound and can’t hear ourselves, so they look at us like animals,” she says. “But it’s not only that all people, not just the Deaf, get judged all the time. It doesn't matter what you do you will be judged, no question.”

SOURCE - MAGAZINEGOOD

Deaf Mother, Sabrina Blount, Victim of Crime

Deaf community raises funds to help Sabrina Blount, who is a victim of a violent crime.

RALEIGH, NC -- Two former Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf (ENCSD) students has raped, robbed & ran over another former ENCSD student and left her for dead. But Sabrina Blount survived. Right now, she is still recuperating at a local hospital in North Carolina.

The victim & the criminals are all Deaf and they all knew each other from their ENCSD days. Authorities now have two men at the North Carolina correctional facility.

Sabrina will have to recover and rehabilitate not only her physical body, but also her mental & spiritual bodies as well. She has a long way to go, please donate to help her to cover the medical costs. http://www.gofundme.com/tg85nsks.

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Any amount will be helpful for people like Sabrina. The donations will go straight into Sabrina's bank account which her mother will help Sabrina to cover the medical costs... Read The Full Story.

RELATED - Ed Bosson & Sabrina Blount Fundraising Controversy.

Why fundraising campaign? On April 7, 2015, two men, who she thought were her friends, drove her from Fayetteville to Raleigh against her will. They got her drunk and drugged her, then raped her. Not only that, they drove their vehicle over her body twice in a parking lot then left her there alone.

Four weeks later, she is still hospitalized. She will have surgeries because almost all of her organs are involved in the damage. Her mother has lost her job and house because she has to take care of her. Sabrina has an 18 month old baby who is being taken care of by her grandmother for now - Watch video in ASL.

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Related:
Ed Bosson & Sabrina Blount Fundraising Controversy
A Message From Ed & Lisa Bosson
Deaf Mother, Sabrina Blount, Victim of Crime

Dispatcher Hailed Hero For Helping Deaf Woman's Mother

Dispatcher hailed hero for helping Deaf woman's mother through by VRS.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- A Clarksville woman is grateful to a 911 dispatcher who got help to her Deaf mother Monday night. Lisa Prichard lives in Clarksville and was home when her mother texted her that something was wrong.

Prichard was able to video call her mother Joy Gournaris, 68, at Gournaris' Antioch home. "She was confused, she didn't understand what was going on and was getting ready to pass out," Prichard said.

Prichard knew if she tried to drive to her mother's home from Clarksville it would take her an hour. She was also concerned because it appeared her mother was having a stroke and every second counted.

Prichard kept her mother on video phone and called 911 from her Clarksville home. Clarksville's 911 center transferred her to Nashville where 911 Dispatcher Lori Bentley took over the phone call.

"While, I'm communicating with sign language with my mother I was talking to the dispatcher," Prichard said. "I had to really be calm and think about what I was saying. I wanted to cry and scream, but I stayed calm for my mother."

The video relay system Gournaris uses has a 911 emergency component that allows her to make emergency calls... Read The Full Story.

Deaf Mother Survivor Being Assaulted By Nazis

A Documentary Film: Deaf Mother Survivor Being Assaulted By Nazis.

Bring Your Own Doc: 'Ingelore' Revisiting a Nazi Assault. Director Frank Stiefel, of Ingelore, talks to Ondi on this BYOD REMIX about the jaw-dropping experience of his hearing impaired mother being assaulted by nazis during WWII.

In this eye-opening interview, director Frank Stiefel talks about his film, 'Ingelore.'
Telling the shattering story of his own mother's assault at the hands of Nazis during WWII, Stiefel digs deep into the despair of war and family in this episode of BYOD.

Watch the full interview: A Holocaust Survivor Finds Her Voice With Ingelore Director Frank Stiefel.

Guest Bio: Frank Stiefel, the producer, writer and director of 'Ingelore' has spent most of his career as a production executive in the television commercial production industry. First as the Executive Producer at Stiefel & Company and later at @Radical Media, he was responsible for the production of thousands of commercials. He also produced a number of short subject documentaries that appeared in festivals such as Telluride, Sundance and Berlin. 'Ingelore' is the first film he has directed.

SOURCE

Visit for more information: http://www.ingeloremovie.com/
Add'l Links: https://facebook.com/pages/INGELORE-A-Film-By-Frank-Stiefel

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Deaf Mother Survivor Being Assaulted By Nazis
The Deaf Holocaust - Deaf People and Nazi Germany
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