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Jeff McWhinney (born 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland), is a leader in the UK deaf community.
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Jeff McWhinney (born 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland), is a leader in the UK deaf community.
Jeff McWhinney was born into a Deaf family in Belfast. His parents, brother, and sister are all Deaf.
He was, like many others living in Belfast, impacted by the Troubles in Northern Ireland, as loyalists mistakenly killed his cousin. She was married to Masserati Meli, a Roman Catholic, and was shot through a frosted window at the back of their East Belfast home. It is believed that her husband was the intended target.
Jeff McWhinney was raised in a bilingual environment, with his family using both British Sign Language (BSL) and what some consider Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL), as well as English. He also learned Irish Sign Language (ISL) from the community. Living between London and the south of France, he later acquired American Sign Language (ASL), French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB), and French Sign Language (LSF).
He was educated at the Jordanstown Schools in Belfast, where one of his teachers, Mr. Press, had also taught his father. In the 1970s, he attended Mary Hare Grammar School for the deaf.
McWhinney was born into a deaf family in Belfast, His parents, his brother and sister are all deaf.
During the Troubles in Northern Ireland loyalists killed his cousin as a mistake as she was married Masserati Meli, a Roman Catholic, and she was shot through a frosted window at the back of her house in East Belfast and it was believed that it was a mistake as the target was her husband.
Jeff 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) and French Sign Language (LSF) as he is living between London and the south of France.
He was educated at the Jordanstown Schools in Belfast, where there was a teacher, Mr Press, who also taught his father. He then went to Mary Hare Grammar School for the deaf in the 1970s.
In Belfast, McWhinney grew frustrated with Deaf clubs and organizations that weren't managed by Deaf people. He founded the Northern Ireland Workshop with the Deaf, inviting prominent speakers like Paddy Ladd, a leading Deaf academic and activist, and George Montgomery, a renowned educational psychologist, to discuss Deaf liberation.
In 1986, he became the first Secretary of the Euro Youth Deaf Council (now the European Union of Deaf Youths), organizing Leadership Camps in Holland (1986) and Belgium (1987). Many participants from these camps have gone on to become influential figures in the Deaf community, such as politician Helga Stevens, who came in third in the EU Presidential elections, and Dr. John Bosco Conmara, an Irish academic at Trinity College Dublin.
McWhinney's career as an activist took off in 1984 when he moved to England to join the Breakthrough Trust (now DeafPlus), a charity promoting integration between Deaf and hearing people from a bilingual British Sign Language and English perspective using BSL as the common ground for integration and inclusion.
From there he was appointed as the Head of Sign Language community at the Greater London Council and later the London Borough Disability Resource Team (LBDRT), where Jeff McWhinney established eleven Deaf Image campaign groups in London and sign language-centered services, including the UK's first sign language interpreting booking agency in 1987. McWhinney worked with a visionary team at LBDRT with disabled luminaries such as Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston, Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton and Katherine Gillespie Sells.
Jeff McWhinney transitioned to Wandsworth Borough Council, joining their Economic Development Office. Through their fast-track management scheme, he pursued an MBA at Kingston Business School on a day-release basis. He received two promotions within the Economic Development Office, ultimately becoming a Senior Economic Development Officer working on projects like the town planning and development of a village-style independent shops area on Old York Road using Council funds.
His first top management role came in 1993 when he was appointed the first disabled Director of the Greenwich Association of Disabled People and Centre for Independent Living (GADCIL), working alongside leading disabled activists like Rachel Hurst.
In 1995, he made history as the first Deaf person to become the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British Deaf Association (BDA), one of the UK's largest Deaf societies. During his tenure, he united 34 national and local Deaf organisations, successfully lobbying for UK Government recognition of British Sign Language as an official language by Andrew Smith (British politician).
In 1999, McWhinney challenged a decision by Woolwich Crown Court staff that prevented him from serving on a jury due to his deafness. Although unsuccessful in overturning the decision because of the existing law restricting the judge's options, he secured a commitment from then Home Secretary Jack Straw to review the law preventing Deaf people from serving on juries. This initiated a process that led to a change in legislation, allowing BSL interpreters in jury deliberations today.
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. [1] 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 ]
In his September 2004 interview with SIGN MATTERS, he commented: "The word 'Deaf' has several different perceptions out there ranging from those deaf because of 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 vein as that of hearing people above! While this new vision is promising, the real challenge for this new concept of a Sign Language community is whether Deaf people are ready to accept that hearing sign language users belong to this community. Deaf individuals have faced oppression from hearing people throughout much of their lives, including the suppression of our sign language which was banned in deaf schools and education for over one hundred years. This ban has formulated Deaf people's attitudes and inherent anger towards hearing people, even those who want to work with us.
McWhinney passionately recounted, "I led a group of Deaf youths in Finland back in 1987, and one of them asked our guide how many staff members at the Finnish Association of the Deaf were Deaf. The guide began counting, then paused and asked, 'Why do you want to know?' This struck me as incredible—it simply didn't seem to matter to him. This was true inclusion in action. British Deaf people have yet to experience this level of acceptance, but I have high hopes that we will one day!"
Today, Jeff McWhinney continues to make a difference as a management consultant with Vortex Consulting, working with business agencies, mentoring, consulting, and coaching new startups, microbusinesses, and managers in community organizations. A proud father of four Deaf children and grandfather to three Deaf grandchildren, he takes great joy in knowing they are connected to a rich tapestry of Deaf ancestry, with six known Deaf generations dating back to the early 1800s in Ireland, Finland, Belgium, and Russia. McWhinney divides his time between London and Carcassonne in the south of France, remaining actively involved in community activities on both sides of the Channel.
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. While private correspondence from William Stokoe hinted at a formal name for the language in 1960, the first usage of the term "British Sign Language" in an academic publication was likely by Aaron Cicourel. 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).
French Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to Ethnologue, it has 100,000 native signers.
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 all over Ireland.
Newtownabbey is a large settlement north of Belfast city centre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course, but it still forms part of the Belfast metropolitan area. It surrounds Carnmoney Hill, and was formed from the merging of several small villages including Whiteabbey, Glengormley and Carnmoney. At the 2021 census, Metropolitan Newtownabbey Settlement had a population of 67,599, making it the third largest settlement in Northern Ireland and seventh on the Island of Ireland. It is part of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.
The British Deaf Association (BDA) is a deaf-led British charity that campaigns and advocates for deaf people who use British Sign Language.
Northern Ireland Sign language is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Northern Ireland.
Videotelephony is the use of audio and video for real-time communication between people.
The legal recognition of signed languages differs widely. In some jurisdictions, a signed language is recognised as an official language; in others, it has a protected status in certain areas. Although a government may stipulate in its constitution that a "signed language" is recognised, it may fail to specify which signed language; several different signed languages may be commonly used.
Manually coded languages (MCLs) are a family of gestural communication methods which include gestural spelling as well as constructed languages which directly interpolate the grammar and syntax of oral languages in a gestural-visual form—that is, signed versions of oral languages. Unlike the sign languages that have evolved naturally in deaf communities, these manual codes are the conscious invention of deaf and hearing educators, and as such lack the distinct spatial structures present in native deaf sign languages. MCLs mostly follow the grammar of the oral language—or, more precisely, of the written form of the oral language that they interpolate. They have been mainly used in deaf education in an effort to "represent English on the hands" and by sign language interpreters in K-12 schools, although they have had some influence on deaf sign languages where their implementation was widespread.
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.
Jordanstown Schools is a school for deaf children and children with visual impairments, including blindness. It is based in Jordanstown, north of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Despite Presbyterian and Anglican roots, it is now non-denominational.
Jordanstown is a townland and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the urban area of Newtownabbey and the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is also situated in the civil parish of Carnmoney and the historic barony of Belfast Lower. It had a population of 6,225 in the 2011 census, with an average age of 40.
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.
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.
English is by far the most spoken, and the "de facto" national language of Northern Ireland,; it occurs in various forms, including Ulster English and Hiberno-English. Irish is an official language of Northern Ireland since 2022, and the local variety of Scots, known as Ulster Scots, has official minority status, with services in the language provided by public authorities. Northern Ireland Sign Language and Irish Sign Language have also been recognised with minority status since 29 March 2004.
Estimates of the deaf population in Tunisia range from 40,000 to 60,000 people. These estimates indicate that deaf people make up between 0.3% to 0.5% of the population. The percent of deaf Tunisians can be much higher in isolated communities, ranging from 2% to 8%. The increase in prevalence is attributed to higher rates of intermarriage, geographic isolation, and social traditions. Tunisian Sign Language, abbreviated as TSL or LST, is the most commonly used sign language in Tunisia. As of 2008, TSL's user population is 21,000 signers.
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 who are in their early seventies and onwards, though there may be younger CODAs.
https://www.disabilitysheffield.org.uk/admin/resources/power-list-2017web.pdf