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Jeff McWhinney was born in 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is a leader in the UK deaf community.
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Jeff McWhinney was born in 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is a leader in the UK deaf community.
McWhinney was born into a deaf family in Belfast, both his brother and sister are deaf.
During the Troubles in Northern Ireland loyalists killed his cousin because she married a Roman Catholic.
McWhinney was raised in a bilingual environment, his family who used both British Sign Language (BSL) and as some may say, Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL) and English. He came to pick up Irish Sign Language (ISL) from the community. He later learned to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL), and French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB).
He was educated at the Jordanstown Schools in Belfast, where there was a teacher who also taught his father. He then went to Mary Hare Grammar School for the deaf in the 1970s.
In Belfast, McWhinney was frustrated by the Deaf clubs and organisations that were not managed by deaf people. He started the Northern Ireland Workshop with the Deaf which invited speakers such as Paddy Ladd and George Montgomery to speak about Deaf liberation.
He became the first Secretary of the Euro Youth Deaf Council.
His big break in his career within charities for deaf people, came about in 1984 when he worked for Breakthrough (now DeafPlus), a charity working towards integration between deaf and hearing people.
In 1995 he became the first ever Deaf person, in its 100 plus years history, to be appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British Deaf Association (BDA), one of the largest societies for deaf people in the UK. From this position, he was involved in gaining UK Government recognition of British Sign Language as an official language.
He also became the Director of the Greenwich Association of Disabled People. Whilst working for the Greater London Council and subsequently the London Borough Disability Resource Team, Jeff has established eleven Deaf Image campaign groups in London and a number of sign language centred services including the UK 's first sign language interpreting booking agency in 1987.
In 1999 McWhinney "challenged a decision made by staff at Woolwich Crown Court that he could not sit as a juror because of his disability, [he however] failed to have the decision overturned". [1] [2]
He left his BDA management post in September 2004 to start up a new video technology enterprise, as managing director of Significan't (UK) Ltd. [3] This company was considered to the fastest growing social enterprise staffed entirely by sign language users. He introduced the videophone to the deaf community and established the SignVideo Contact Centre, a centre which provides instant access to sign language interpreting through video conferencing. With the Greater London Authority and London Connects he succeeded in securing a grant of £500,000 from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's e-innovations programme. The SignVideo partners are CISCO, Tandberg, Prime Business Solutions and Tiger Communications. With this quartlet from the leading technology companies the platform developed by the SignVideo Contact Centre enabled full access by videoconferencing through many different avenues from the legacy ISDN videophones to the latest in 3G video mobiles. The SignVideo Contact Centre, was the runner up of the prestigious national e-Government Awards for 2005 the first deaf or disabled enterprise to receive this recognition.
In 2007, Jeff McWhinney presented the concept of applying the latest in technology to demolish the barriers to social inclusion for deaf and disabled people, using SignVideo as an example, to the School of Government attended by senior civil servants and as a result of his paper was one of the five enterprises selected by Trevor Reed and Lindsey Spancer the then Prime Ministers to share a stage with him at a conference attended by the top two tiers of senior civil servants. That year SignVideo was selected as one of the three preferred suppliers in video interpreting to the Department of Work and Pensions and was the sole provider for the period 2008–2010 with the other two preferred suppliers ceasing their operations.
In 2010, SignVideo went national establishing partnerships with Deaf Action in Edinburgh, Scotland. That year SignVideo brought the video interpreter to smartphones and tablets by launching its Android app and subsequently the iOS app for iPhones and iPads.
In 2011, SignVideo launched BSL LIVE, a world first live video interpreting service that enabled deaf BSL users to communicate immediately with the service providers through their own websites. After this service was taken up by public authorities, British Telecom became the first commercial company to launch SignVideo BSL LIVE on its website. This has expanded to three banks – Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland and the Halifax.[ citation needed ]
Jeff McWhinney has pushed the transition of the British Deaf Association from a Deaf organisation (with the 'Wheelchair Mentality') into a BSL organisation. In his September 2004 interview with SIGN MATTERS, he commented: "The word 'Deaf' has several different perceptions out there ranging from those deaf through old age to Deaf BSL users. Also there are hidden groups within the sign language community such as Children Of Deaf Adults (CODAs). Working for the sign language community means we can include all these people in our campaigns for language rights. A good quote I have used often express how I feel about this subject. Hearing people love English and its richness however it is seen by the Deaf as a tool to achieve equality. But no-one realise that Deaf people love sign language and its richness in the same manner above! While the new vision is great, the real challenge for the new concept of Sign Language community is whether Deaf people are ready to accept that hearing sign language users belongs to this community. I led a group of Deaf youths in Finland back in 1987 and someone in the group asked our guide how many staff in the Finnish Association of the Deaf were Deaf. The guy started counting, then asked 'why do you want to know?' I thought this was fantastic, that it didn't matter to him. British Deaf people have yet to arrive at this stage and I look forward to that!"
British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom and is the first or preferred language among the deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on the 2011 Scottish Census, the British Deaf Association estimates there are 151,000 BSL users in the UK, of whom 87,000 are Deaf. By contrast, in the 2011 England and Wales Census 15,000 people living in England and Wales reported themselves using BSL as their main language. People who are not deaf may also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British Deaf community. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head.
Auslan is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. The term Auslan is a portmanteau of "Australian Sign Language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the 1980s, although the language itself is much older. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. Auslan has also been influenced by Irish Sign Language (ISL) and more recently has borrowed signs from American Sign Language (ASL).
New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006 under the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. The purpose of the act was to create rights and obligations in the use of NZSL throughout the legal system and to ensure that the Deaf community had the same access to government information and services as everybody else. According to the 2013 Census, over 20,000 New Zealanders know NZSL.
Irish Sign Language is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. It is also used in Northern Ireland, alongside British Sign Language (BSL). Irish Sign Language is more closely related to French Sign Language (LSF) than to BSL, though it has influence from both languages. It has influenced sign languages in Australia and South Africa, and has little relation to either spoken Irish or English. ISL is unique among sign languages for having different gendered versions due to men and women being taught it at different schools.
Dorothy "Dot" Miles was a Welsh poet and activist in the deaf community. Throughout her life, she composed her poems in English, British Sign Language, and American Sign Language. Her work laid the foundations for modern sign language poetry in the United States and the United Kingdom. She is regarded as the pioneer of BSL poetry and her work influenced many contemporary Deaf poets.
The British Deaf Association (BDA) is a deaf-led British charity that campaigns and advocates for deaf people who use British Sign Language.
Manually Coded English (MCE) is a type of sign system that follows direct spoken English. The different codes of MCE vary in the levels of directness in following spoken English grammar. There may also be a combination with other visual clues, such as body language. MCE is typically used in conjunction with direct spoken English.
Videotelephony is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real-time communication. A videophone is a telephone with a video camera and video display, capable of simultaneous video and audio communication. Videoconferencing implies the use of this technology for a group or organizational meeting rather than for individuals, in a videoconference. Telepresence may refer either to a high-quality videotelephony system or to meetup technology, which can go beyond video into robotics. Videoconferencing has also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware.
A video relay service (VRS), also sometimes known as a video interpreting service (VIS), is a video telecommunication service that allows deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired (D-HOH-SI) individuals to communicate over video telephones and similar technologies with hearing people in real-time, via a sign language interpreter.
Video remote interpreting (VRI) is a videotelecommunication service that uses devices such as web cameras or videophones to provide sign language or spoken language interpreting services. This is done through a remote or offsite interpreter, in order to communicate with persons with whom there is a communication barrier. It is similar to a slightly different technology called video relay service, where the parties are each located in different places. VRI is a type of telecommunications relay service (TRS) that is not regulated by the FCC.
Telephone interpreting connects human interpreters via telephone to individuals who wish to speak to each other but do not share a common language. The telephone interpreter converts the spoken language from one language to another, enabling listeners and speakers to understand each other. Interpretation over the telephone most often takes place in consecutive mode, which means that the interpreter waits until the speaker finishes an utterance before rendering the interpretation into the other language. As the use of the telephonic modality is increasing it is allowing users to access an interpreter immediately, regardless of time and location.
Signature is a United Kingdom national charity and awarding body for deaf communication qualifications. Signature attempts to improve communication between deaf, deafblind and hearing people, whilst creating better communities.
Francis Maginn (1861–1918) was a Church of Ireland missionary who worked to improve living standards for the deaf community by promoting sign language and was one of the co-founders of the British Deaf Association.
The Centre for Deaf Studies was a department of the University of Bristol, England, in the field of deaf studies, which it defines as the study of the "language, community and culture of Deaf people". Established in 1978, the Centre claimed to be the first higher educational Institute in Europe "to concentrate solely on research and education that aims to benefit the Deaf community". The centre was at the forefront in establishing the disciplines of deaf studies and deafhood. It used British Sign Language (BSL), had a policy of bilingual communication in BSL and English, and employed a majority of deaf teaching staff.
Clark Denmark is a British activist, lecturer and interpreter. He is deaf and a British Sign Language (BSL) user, and he is widely recognised within the Deaf community for his role in advancing the recognition and wider understanding of BSL.
Lilian Keddie Lawson, OBE, is a Scottish linguist and activist. She is Deaf and a British Sign Language user.
Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq is a British Muslim artist based in London. She is deaf and a British Sign Language user.
John "Jock" Young (1926–2005) was a British deaf rights campaigner. He was deaf and a British Sign Language user.
Terence (Terry) Riley (1944-2019), PhD, OBE, was a British deaf rights activist and broadcaster. He was Deaf and a British Sign Language user.
Australian Irish Sign Language or AISL is a minority sign language in Australia. As a Francosign language, it is related to French Sign Language as opposed to Auslan which is a Banzsl language which is related to British Sign Language. AISL was brought to Australia from Ireland in 1875 by a group of Dominican nuns where three schools were established and used AISL as a language of instruction. Due to oralist policies, the use of AISL was discontinued as a language of instruction in the early 1950s. There are now around 100 signers of this language, most of whom are in their early seventies and onwards, though there may be younger CODAs.