About

Welcome to The Limping Chicken, the UK’s independent deaf news and deaf blogs website, giving you all the up to date news and views on deaf life and culture in the UK!

This site is deaf-produced and editorially independent.

How can I contact you?

To contact us, just email thelimpingchicken@gmail.com. We’re very friendly!

Why the name?

In February, BBC3 broadcast a documentary about five deaf teenagers. In one scene, a university notetaker told a deaf student that she couldn’t take notes for the whole lecture because “my chicken is ill.”

The notetaker’s only fault was being too honest (read this blog in her defence) but nevertheless, those words sparked an online craze in the deaf world, with social networking sites being overrun by jokes, spoof images and tribute videos about her chicken within just a few hours of the programme going out.

Those words hit a nerve because they reminded deaf people everywhere of both how random and frustrating deaf life can be. ‘Chickengate’ not only revealed the common ground deafies share, but also just how connected we are online. So this site was named in honour of how a limping chicken briefly united the deaf world!

Who produces this site?

The Limping Chicken is edited by partially-deaf journalist and scriptwriter Charlie Swinbourne, who has written for The Guardian and BBC Online about deaf culture, as well as contributing to programmes on television and radio. He has also written award-winning dramas featuring deaf characters. Here’s his personal website.

We also have four Contributing Editors who write regularly for the site, Ni Gallant , William Mager, Emily Howlett and Donna Williams.

Thank you to James Norris, superstar deaf graphic designer, for designing the chicken logo!

Publicity

The deaf dad column and our review of BBC1′s Rita Simons documentary were mentioned in the Guardian’s Society Daily in March 2012, while Maria Zedda’s interview for this site in February led to her being interviewed for the Italian version of Cosmopolitan magazine! Editor Charlie Swinbourne was interviewed about Limping Chicken for The Hub, a news-based magazine programme for the signing community in January 2013.

Can I contribute to the site?

The aim of the site is to bring different views together, and we’re aiming to feature a variety of deaf writers with different experiences! So if you have something to say, or a story you’d like to tell, click here for information about how you can write for The Limping Chicken.

Who are you sponsored by?

The Limping Chicken is supported by a range of charities and organisations linked to deafness, all of whom offer services that enhance deaf lives.

Click on the links on the right-hand side of this page or go to our Supporter’s page to find out more about them: http://limpingchicken.com/our-supporters/

The founding sponsor of The Limping Chicken is deaf training and consultancy company Deafworks. This site owes Deafworks its very existence for supporting us from the very start!