The Ballard Interview – the Mother of all Disappointments.

I had hoped to be pleasantly surprised by the Ballard Interview, but instead we got the same old predictable mish-mash of evasions and excuses. Ms Ballard certainly did not come across as the champion of deaf people who fights tooth and nail for our voice and empowerment. She came across as somebody who has jettisoned the high principles she held when she campaigned for better representation for women in politics. She came across as somebody determined to keep us out, to keep us quiet and to keep us dependent. I will need access to a full transcript before I can comment in detail, but here are a few initial thoughts.

Her excuses for not reinstating the general forum were dismal. Predictably, we got the ‘abuse of the forum’ get-out-of-jail-free card. Anybody with a basic knowledge of the internet knows that there are going to be flare ups on every forum from time to time. The trick is to simply have a decent system of moderation. This has worked perfectly on Ouch! where we have been discussing RNID for years. Next we were told that there are many different types of feedback, not just the internet. This is exactly the same ‘divide and rule' tactic as the claim ‘we represent many different types of deaf people’ – it is designed purely to suppress our voice. Ms Ballard failed to give any real reason why she could not maximise the potential of the internet so that deaf people could have effective dialogue with RNID. Deaf people have communication difficulties – RNID is supposed to help them get better, not compound them.

We were also treated to a raft of flimsy excuses as to why RNID have still not after all these years managed to bring a single deaf or hoh person into their senior management team. Ms Ballard chose to plead ignorance, saying that she has no idea why no deaf or hoh people are getting into the senior management team. A couple of tips that I could give Ms Ballard is that RNID are neither training them up effectively nor appointing them. RNID have had research in their possession for years, their own research, which tells them that deaf people are discriminated against and face glass ceilings. Even if this plea of ignorance was true – it is for them to care and find out why we are not being represented very well at our own organisation.

In my eyes, Ms Ballard has gone from being a potential heroine for deaf people to just another monotonous oppressor.