Meet the charity organiser who strives to make Peterborough a more accessible place for deaf children

A Stamford woman who has been fundraising and raising awareness for deaf children for ten years has spoken of her continuing struggle to “keep things going.”

Amy Fisher, who runs the Peterborough and District Deaf Children’s Society (PDDCS) told the Peterborough Telegraph, “Being deaf is life-changing but it shouldn’t be life-limiting.”

Sign language interpreter Amy says more than 50 families are currently registered with the charity, whose aim is “to make sure every deaf child has a deaf friend so that they don’t feel like they’re on their own.”

Amy and her “amazing” committee endeavours to achieve this aim by providing support and running activities which give deaf children (and their families) opportunities to meet up with others who live with deafness.

Amy took up the baton of running PDDCS a decade ago, shortly after the birth of her son Jack, who was born profoundly deaf.

The 48-year-old said she is committed to ensuring no deaf child feels “isolated,” something she feels is becoming an increasingly common concern in mainstream education:

“A lot of deaf children these days are in mainstream schools, but they are alone - they’re the only deaf kids in their school and that can be quite isolating for them.”

“We get together so that the kids have got deaf friends - they need their deaf peers to not feel isolated and different.”

In addition to running a range of age-appropriate activities all throughout the year, PDDCS also runs a weekly deaf swim school in Oundle which Amy helped set up nine years ago.

“When my son was small, I just found it so hard to go to a mainstream swim school with him.”

“It was all nursery rhymes and that kind of thing - he couldn’t access any of that and I couldn’t sign while holding him.”

The innovative swim school Amy has established employs deaf aware instructors and uses interpreters in the water so that all deaf children receive full communication.

‘This is not a disability’

Advising organisations on how to become more deaf aware is another vital part of the charity’s mission plan.

This is something Amy feels cinema chains could certainly benefit from getting involved with. Trying to watch a subtitled film on the big screen, she notes, is her “biggest bugbear.”

“My son wants to see the new Indiana Jones film, but trying to find a subtitled version for him is a nightmare.”

“The cinema in Peterborough – I called them last week – they had a subtitled screening for one film on Sunday morning and one for a different film on Monday night; that’s all they had.”

As a charity, PDDCS is completely reliant on donations. “It’s hard to get funding,” she said, “we rely on people being generous and clever, coming up with things to help us.”

City centre-based Flagship Tattoo demonstrated plenty of generosity and innovation recently, running a flash tattoo sale which raised a whopping £1,700 for the charity.

Amy is supremely grateful for any and all donations which will enable the charity to keep “spreading the word”:

“We teach our kids this is not a disability,” she said, “because, if the world was more accessible, you wouldn’t have a disability.”

www.pddcs.co.uk/