Rumours are spreading that, nine years after changing its name, the deaf charity Action on Hearing Loss may be about to change its name back to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID).
A Twitter account for the charity’s PR team, which previously had the username @HearingLossPR, has been changed to @RNID_PR and the account is now protected, suggesting that the rumours may be true.
The original move from RNID to Action on Hearing Loss took place in 2011, with then-Chief Executive Jackie Ballard saying the move would help the organisation “engage with our stakeholders in a more impactful way”.
“The charity’s thought-provoking new underline-strikethrough brand will reflect this ethos by underlining the positive and striking out the negative to emphasise the negative effects of hearing loss,” Action on Hearing loss said in a statement at the time.
No official announcement has yet been made on whether a name change is to take place, or when such a move would occur, if so.
So, is it just rumour, or is there more to it? We’re awaiting an official response from the charity.
By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.
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Tim
October 10, 2020
That was £600,000 well spent then. Maybe try hiring a few deaf people while you’re at it?
Hartmut
October 11, 2020
The obsession on Hearing is killing the RNID or whatever the new name is. RNID needs to learn that it is perfectly OK and also good to be deaf. RNID needs to appreciate that deafness adds to humanity, is a gain to it, is not a pitiful hearing loss to mourn about.
Vera
October 12, 2020
The problem, Hartmut, is that many, many of us don’t agree with you. We lost our hearing in adulthood and think that hearing loss is the perfect description for our situation. We had hearing, then we lost it. We mourn that loss. I don’t envy AoHL/RNID trying to reconcile our two tribes. Our ears are often the same (I’m profoundly deaf for all frequencies in one ear and profoundly deaf for all but the lower frequency sounds in the other, for example). But our experiences of the world are very different. What can we do about it? I think our two tribes need to listen to each other more, and understand that there are two perfectly valid points of view. Neither one should be belittled. Both terminologies (deaf and hearing loss) should be used.
Let’s hope the new RNID name is accepted by everyone, though. There are more important battles than want the organisation is called.