This is Deafblind week and former Dynasty actress Stephanie Beacham has been interviewed on Breakfast TV about her own partial hearing loss and the role she fills as spokeswoman for SENSE, the organisation for people who are both deaf and blind.
Comparatively few people suffer complete loss of sight and hearing, but Stephanie pointed out that even a small loss of both senses can have a devastating effect on the quality of life, and things are bound to get worse as people live longer.Her own father was both deaf and blind when he died at the age of 91.
Stephanie said older folk suffer acute embarrassment when one or both senses decline, and hate having to make repeated requests such as: “What was that dear?” “Don’t leave them out”, Stephanie warned. “Practise block writing by capital letters on their palms and make your presence known by touch and clear, direct speech. Many deafblind people have enough sight to make out big writing on white paper … so be patient and make the effort.”
LOST SIGHT AT THE AGE OF NINE
l Last Saturday Evelyn and I had lunch at Hillmount Garden Centre in Belfast with Thamara Menrovich and her helper, a deaf woman from Israel. Thamara was born deaf in Alta Gracia, Argentina, and lost her sight from a condition called ‘usher’ when she was a girl of nine. Usher causes a gradual narrowing of the field of sight and often leads to near or total blindness.
She now lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is married to a deaf man with two normal children of her own.
Even with my years of experience I was at a loss trying to talk with Thamara and had to depend on her guide and helper for communication.
I know how to finger-spell to the deaf blind in this country, but Thamara’s native language is Hebrew and I could only watch in admiration as my questions were passed on by Touch Signs, a specialised form of sign language in which the interpreter communicates entirely by holding the hands of the deafblind person and guiding them in various directions. A deaf group from Belfast put them in touch with us as Thamara is involved in training guide dogs for the deafblind in Tel Aviv and we have a hearing dog for deaf people.
Buddy is trained to alert us to sounds such as the phone, doorbell and fire-alarm and is a much loved member of the family … but Tamara has a dog for deafblind people and is the only person out of 1,100 with such a dog to help her be independent. Also, she is the only one in Israel who trains dogs for deaf people. Wow!
Thamara showed us the certificates she has gained to qualify as a trainer and we saw a DVD of the work she is doing in her home town. Like most deafblind people her life had been severely curtailed and it was wonderful to see her up and about with her own dog and even making trips alone by bus to the shops.
The dog guides her onto the bus and the driver follows the written directions she shows him.
Her two girls came over as cheerful and well-adjusted teenagers of 17 and 14 who said on the DVD that their mother was their best friend.
I asked Thamara if there had not been moments of tension when the girls rebelled against the responsibility of caring for their doubly handicapped mother during their formative years. She told me that she and their father were aware of this danger and tried to make sure the girls had as happy and carefree a childhood as possible. You can contact Thamara at the Hope Project, PO Box 32196, Jerusalem 91000, Israel. Her email is t_t_hope@yahoo.com. The fax is 0972 353 45658.
Hidden Hearing 
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