Our one month review!

The Limping Chicken’s only a month old but even though we have only been hopping along for just over four weeks, it does feel (to this editor at least) like a milestone worth mentioning!

In our first month we’ve published 58 articles, gaining over 40,000 views, and we’re gathering new followers (or should that be converts?) every day.

Over 300 comments have been submitted by our readers – that’s you – adding your own points of view to the discussion.

The seeds for the site were sown back in January when I shared the idea over a coffee with Laraine Callow from deaf training and consultancy Deafworks. They loved the idea and Deafworks soon became the founding supporter of the site. A few weeks later, on a Friday in February, The Limping Chicken was launched with a cuppa!

The initial aim was to publish one post each weekday and to work towards getting 8000 views a month. In both respects the site has gone beyond our expectations.

For that, I have to thank everyone who was written for the site so far.

They are, in alphabetical order: Laraine Callow, Adrean Clark, Andrew Hearn, Michelle Hedley, Emily Howlett, Mija Gwyn, William Mager, Martine Monksfield, Mark Nelson, Ian Noon, Michelle Quayle, Jonathan Reid, AJW Smith and Donna Williams. Thank you one and all!

Several articles in particular stand out as achieving one of our central aims – of reflecting the real variety behind deaf lives.

If you’ve not had a chance to read them yet, do read AJW Smith’s Longing for Belonging about being between the deaf and hearing worlds, the Secret Deafie article Losing Sight, Gaining Insight written by a deaf person with Ushers, and William Mager’s article about becoming a dad, Seeing my son for the first time (which is also the most viewed article on this site so far!)

In the next few weeks we’ll be publishing more articles full of fresh opinions and stories, from more deaf writers. To make it even easier for you to follow us, do ‘Like’ our Facebook page and follow us on our Twitter account, @Limping_Chicken .

As we keep developing, feedback becomes more important. I’d also love to know what you’d like more of. Which are your favourite articles? Is there anything we should be featuring that’s missing so far? Just let me know.

And don’t forget, you could contribute. If you have a story you’d like to tell or an opinion you feel strongly about, click here to find out how to go about writing for us – you could even ‘write’ your column in BSL.

You could tell your story anonymously as part of the Secret Deafie strand, or maybe you’ve Overseen a conversation, or perhaps you have a theory to share. Whatever it is, just get in touch!

Our email address is: thelimpingchicken@gmail.com or leave a comment below!

Some good news: I’m really pleased to announce we’ve just gained our second supporter – the UK’s largest deaf company Remark!

Finally I should mention my wife and children, and offer them my thanks for putting up with my long evenings tweaking the site and adding content during those first few weeks, and my red-eyed mornings after staying up way past my bedtime doing “one last thing!”

Above all, to all our readers – thank you for visiting this site!

Charlie Swinbourne, Editor