Charlie Swinbourne: 10 great Limping Chicken articles you may not have read!

In the last year, we’ve published all kinds of articles, from videos online that you really should watch, to Subtitle Fail screengrabs and Deaf News stories.

Our main stock in trade has been opinion articles, by many of you. Yet because we publish articles each weekday, posts quickly roll down our homepage. If you’re busy for a few days, you could easily miss a gem (which is why you really should read this site upon opening your eyes in the morning!).

So, without further ado, here are a few articles that aren’t near the top of our Most Viewed list, but are among my favourites from the last year.

Two of my favourites are by the same chap – Andrew Hearn. Early on, Andrew wrote about being searched by the airport police because he is Deaf (and not necessarily enjoying the experience) and another article about hearing people being less tactile than Deaf people – ‘I’m a member of the Untouchables.’  Both articles are hilarious and shine a light on the Deaf experience, in public spaces and in the office. Don’t miss them!

Another favourite is Mark Nelson’s Peak Access Theory. In this article, he discusses how Deaf access may be about to get worse, rather than better, because of the rise of voice-recognition systems. Will keyboards really disappear (along with RSI)? Have a read and ponder whether Mark (who runs our supporter Remark!) might be right!

Reema Patel is a super-talented law student, and her debut article for this site was described as the best-written article on this site so far – by one of our other writers! It’s about growing up deaf in a hearing world and also has a lot to say about being British Asian and dealing with different attitudes to deafness. Unmissable.

To be frank, AJW Smith could have got away with writing anything after sending us a profile picture of himself contemplating his existence while smoking an ‘old man’ pipe. But incredibly, his article, about longing for belonging, managed to pull off the feat of being even better than the picture. Read it with a box of tissues handy, as it’s a moving experience.

There are times when our articles get more views and comments as time goes on, than they got when they were first published. That’s definitely true of this one – Tony Barlow’s article about whether Deaf people are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to employment. As the cuts continue to bite, this one seems to clock up more views by the day…

This site owes its very existence to the faith shown in it from the start by Laraine Callow, who supported us in the early days through her company, Deafworks. Laraine also made a thought-provoking contribution with this fantastic article about whether Deaf people should speak for themselves when speaking to a group – or use an interpreter. What do you think?

Back in the summer, I was lucky enough to interview author Bella Bathurst, who told me her incredible story of becoming deaf, then, following an operation, having her hearing restored. As you might expect, she had a lot of enlightening things to say about going from one world to the other, then back again. “I don’t want to lose what I learned when I was deaf” she told me. Find out why.

Georgie Barraclough’s article ‘Wearing her ears on my sleeve’ was all about wearing hearing aids again after a ten year break, and about the benefits of showing them off. Read it to find out how she compares the sound gained from wearing hearing aids to money. The comparison shouldn’t work. But it does.

My final gem is Jonathan Reid’s article about Purley, in South London. ‘Purley, where Deaf people go to die. Is Purley, near Croydon, really a Deaf mecca? And is there any good reason – transport links aside – why this should be the case? Read it to find out!

There are so many more articles to discover, so if you have the time, do click here for Kate Rowley’s article about going to the doctor with her Deaf son, here for Tim Blackwell’s article about DLA being set to disappear, here for Asher Woodman-Worrell’s article about how his friend Ben Thomson conquered university, and here for Leigh Taylor’s Ten things you should never say to the parent of a deaf child.

Thank you to all our writers – and sorry to those I missed out.

I’m already looking forward to the next year of articles on this site. If you’d like to play your part, just email thelimpingchicken@gmail.com!

Thanks!

Charlie Swinbourne

Editor

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