Member

It is for those reasons that I put forward this amendment. It is important that deaf people should have an amanuensis—somebody to write. One-third of our total population has now been defined as deaf. I believe this has probably always been the case, but we only know it now because infinitely more sophisticated instruments are available to analyse deafness that were not there before. My instinct is that it has probably always been the case, but we now know about it. Therefore, the foolish phrase “hard of hearing” can be discarded, because we know exactly what levels of hearing are lost. My own hearing loss came because, sadly, there were no vaccinations at that time. German measles nearly killed my mother and certainly dismissed any potential of my having any hearing when I was still in the womb. That does not really matter, but I do know, therefore, that an amanuensis is key.