The focus today on deaf awareness week is related to youth and families. My own family is one that has had an extensive exposure to deafness. My sister was diagnosed with deafness when she was relatively young, before she left home and both of my parents were deaf as they reached their middle age. To be honest my own hearing is not perfect so I am one of the 8-10m people in the UK who suffer from hearing loss but have not got as far as to get a check up. The three other members of my parental family are or in my dads case was part of the 2-3m people who rely on hearing aids. My dads sister in law was profoundly deaf and sadly as she reaches the end of her life she has dementia and is blind also. The challenge is what can each of us do to improve matters. I confess my interest in deafness extends to the business I am part of which fits hearing loops as part of an audio visual system and next week I am having a meeting with a local police force to discuss how we can improve matters for them in terms of both the employees as well as the members of the public. This is a major step forward for them in both my understanding and theirs. We also work for nearby County Council and a local unitary City Council to maintain and improve their hearing loops and associated equipment. This is a developing theme as less than a decade ago our company was not as well informed as we are now. We have supplied hearing loop technology for a number of domestic clients. The image above is of a device that is almost worthless and yet is still sold by many manufacturers which is an appalling matter. The problem with these devices is that in most cases the loop and the microphone are both fixed to the same device and so the person with the hearing aid and the person speaking need to both stand so close to one another that the hearing aid is sufficient. Only in settings where the microphone is located in one area where the person speaking is located and the hearing loop is located in the area where the person with the hearing aid is located, will this solution assist the deaf person.