‘The only thing we can't do is hear': the deaf pupil who beat Fife council in court
The slogan on Niamdh Braid's powder-blue sweatshirt puts it plainly enough: 'I define my own deaf identity.'
'We're in a world that's built for hearing people,' says the 16-year-old from Glenrothes in Fife, 'and we have to navigate through it to find what works best for us.'
Earlier this year, the teenager won a legal battle with her local council to have a British Sign Language interpreter in lessons, after she realised how much of what was said in class she was missing out on.
Niamdh, who has been deaf since birth, wears hearing aids, but can struggle to follow in noisy environments and her preferred language is BSL.
As a younger child, she didn't have any deaf people she could look up to on TV or on the news. Now she hopes that through her advocacy 'younger deaf kids can look up to me and see that they can achieve anything'.
'A lot of people think that because we can't hear we can't achieve high-earning jobs and go into good professions,' says Niamdh, whose favourite subject is modern studies and who hopes to get into teaching then politics when she grows older. 'But the only thing we can't do is hear – there's nothing actually wrong with us. We can do anything that we put our mind to.'
Yet deaf children are eight times more likely to leave school with no qualifications, according to the National Deaf Children's Society, which financially supported Niamdh's legal action.
Niamdh was talking in advance of a report by MSPs that will reveal a significant fall in the number of specialist teachers of deaf people in Scotland. It is prompting the NDCS to warn of a 'growing crisis in deaf education' and lack of guidance from local authorities about what kind of support they should be providing deaf children in schools.
At high school, she explains, there was an assumption that she did not need support because she was still achieving decent grades.
But at Niamdh's tribunal, an independent assessment by a deaf education specialist found she was only accessing 70% of what was being said in class, even when her teacher wore a microphone transmitting to her hearing aids.
Her dad, Steve, chips in: 'If she was accessing 100% at the teaching, imagine what she could be achieving. Why should she settle for average just because she's deaf?'
Constantly struggling to hear came at a heavy price, and Niamdh was increasingly exhausted. 'I was always tired, asking to go to my bed at four o'clock before I'd had anything to eat.' At weekend she was too tired to go out with her friends.
After her request for a BSL interpreter was turned down, first by her school and then by Fife council, Niamdh felt she had no choice: 'At this point it was getting close to my exams and I'd missed so much class already. I wanted to launch the action under my own name because it was for me, and I can voice my needs without the help of my parents.'
Giving evidence, she explained that 'it's always a hearing person that makes decisions for the deaf person, and it shouldn't be the case. Because hearing people don't know what it's like to go through life in a world that's not built for them.'
Early last year the tribunal ruled that Niamdh was being placed at 'substantial disadvantage', but the appeals process was only concluded this spring.
'When the last appeal got thrown out, it was the biggest relief I've ever felt,' says Niamdh. She went out for a Chinese buffet meal with her parents and younger brother to celebrate.
The teenager, who takes part in taekwondo competitions and is a devoted fan of the hospital drama series Grey's Anatomy, says she's very lucky to have a close group of friends she's known since nursery school. 'It's all they've known with their friendship with me: if we're talking they need to face me, make sure there's not too much noise in the background.'
She feels strongly that young deaf people should be allowed to make their own choices about what support they access, and that they are not a homogenous group: 'Everyone has their own way of communicating. It's not up to anyone else to decide that.
'It's the kid's choice of what they want to be as a deaf person. If they want to go without aids, if they want to have the hearing technology, if they want to be involved in the deaf community, let them decide.'
Fife council's head of education and children's services, Angela Logue, said: 'We are continuing to work very closely with Niamdh and her family to meet her needs as identified by the outcomes of the tribunal.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Jailed for five years, profoundly deaf thug who drove car at two police officers
A profoundly deaf criminal who tried to mow down two police officers has been jailed for five years. George Drinnan, 39, repeatedly tried to strike PCs Matthew Rhind and Younis Yaqub with his BMW in Dundee in February 2023. The High Court in Edinburgh heard the repeat offender was driving without insurance and had been banned from driving at the time. Drinnan, originally from Dundee, was originally charged with attempted murder - but it was reduced to a charge of assault to danger of life following a trial. He was found guilty of endangering the lives of the two officers at the High Court in Stirling in February. Yesterday, he returned to the dock in the Scottish capital for sentencing before judge Lady Tait. She heard submissions from defence advocate George Gebbie who told her Drinnan's deafness would affect his ability to communicate with others whilst in custody. However, Lady Tait told Drinnan - who had the help of a British Sign Language interpreter to understand proceedings - that he needed to go to prison for his crimes. She said: 'The circumstances of these offences mean that the only appropriate sentence is a custodial one. 'The court must seek to deter such offending behaviour.' At the start of the trial Drinnan's co-accused Paul Coombs pled guilty to a dangerous driving offence committed during the same incident. He also admitted driving without insurance and while disqualified. The 53-year-old, who was also aided by a BSL interpreter, admitted reversing and striking a parked car, causing it to hit another vehicle then driving at speed towards a parked police car. His advocate David Adams said his client's hearing disability had led to difficulties in life. He said: 'He's led a rather isolated life in England. 'When he's not remanded he doesn't really have any accommodation. 'He's had a long-term drug abuse issue. 'Since being remanded he's been provided with medication which has assisted him greatly in managing it.' Mr Adams said if Coombs were to be freed, arrangements had been put in place for homeless accommodation. He added: 'The period of driving by Mr Coombs was limited - he wasn't driving around Dundee, he was in the passenger seat of the co-accused. 'He drove for a short period. 'He accepts fully he should never have got behind the wheel and he shouldn't have driven in that manner. He apologises.' Lady Tait banned Coombs from driving for a total of six years and imprisoned him for 18 months. Yesterday, the court heard Drinnan had previous convictions for dishonesty, driving without insurance and driving whilst disqualified. Mr Gebbie told Lady Tait that his client was 'profoundly deaf' who had difficulties communicating with people adding the disability would impact on how he would deal with life in prison. He added: 'He is unable to communicate with people who aren't skilled in sigh language. This will affect his ability to communicate with others. 'This will affect his ability to interact with others prisoners.'
BBC News
5 days ago
- BBC News
MSPs back tobacco ban plan for 'smoke free generation'
MSPs have given their consent to UK legislation which aims to create a "smoke-free generation".The Scottish Parliament passed a legislative consent motion, which means MSPs agree to Westminster passing a law which affects a devolved Tobacco and Vapes Bill is UK-wide legislation that would ban tobacco products for anyone born after January 1, would also bring in restrictions on the advertising and sale of vapes, as well as reviewing the packaging of e-cigarettes. Public health minister Jenni Minto welcomed the "landmark legislation", with MSPs approving her motion said: "We have worked closely across the four nations to ensure a consistent approach and I am determined to ensure a tobacco-free Scotland, where people live longer and healthier lives, by 2034."The Bill, once passed, will also ban vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately promoted and advertised to children, stopping the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine." The legislation has passed votes in the House of Commons and is currently going through the House of includes a ban on vape advertising and sponsorship, as well as powers to restrict the flavours and packaging of vapes in an attempt to reduce their appeal to is part of a series of measures aimed at tackling the health effects of smoking, one of the UK's leading causes of preventable death, disability and ill rates have fallen in recent years but vaping rates have risen sharply, especially among under-35s and those who have never used cigarettes.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Daily Mail
GRAHAM GRANT: Welcome to Scotland's biggest growth industry... the inquiries that cost taxpayers millions of pounds
The inquiry has long been a favoured standby of blundering politicians with their backs to the wall - ordering one can buy you valuable time. It means they can refuse to comment because a probe is under way - and naturally it would be wrong to pre-judge its outcome. But in Scotland there has been an explosion in statutory inquiries, to the extent that they have become the country's only growth industry. They have been good news for lawyers - their pockets lined at taxpayers' expense - but it has been clear for years that the costs have been allowed to run out of control. Belatedly, MSPs on the finance committee have got round to looking into the issue, after the total bill soared to £230million – and there's every sign it will continue to rise. That's enough to hire nearly 9,000 nurses or 7,300 police officers, or possibly build a ferry – so the stakes are high, particularly at a time of lean public finances when we're told that every penny is a prisoner. So, we now have an inquiry into inquiries - and if it's deemed not to have been robust enough then there might well be calls for yet another inquiry to look into it. A steady stream of inquiries has come to define devolution, spawning a permanently backward-looking political culture, trapped in endless introspection – though it's rare for heads to roll. The worth of some of these fact-finding exercises isn't in doubt, including the valuable work of the £95.3million Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), launched a decade ago. It has uncovered scandal after scandal, after putting religious orders, charities and private schools under the microscope. True, it took many years for survivors to win their fight for the probe, but it has triggered multiple police investigations and created a comprehensive record of abuse and neglect, helping current and future generations to protect children in care. No one knows when it will wrap up, or if they do they won't say, and in the meantime the costs keep ratcheting up. It is now at the centre of a separate probe by Jason Beer KC, instigated by the SCAI, after abuse survivor Kevin Sutherland was believed to have taken his own life. Last week, Professor Sandy Cameron, who chaired the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, told MSPs that the country 'can't keep going like this', adding: 'We need to think about other ways of achieving justice.' The case for doing so becomes all the more pressing when you consider that long-running public inquiries have cost Scotland's beleaguered NHS more than £12million in the past four years alone. National Services Scotland (NSS), the administrative arm of NHS Scotland, admitted that it has had to fork out £9million in legal fees and £3.1million in staff costs since 2021 to respond to probes that include the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and the Covid-19 probe. Meanwhile, the probe into disgraced NHS Tayside surgeon Sam Eljamel has cost £1 million before the inquiry has even begun. Inquiries are a recurring feature of political life, so that at any given point one is either going on, being demanded, urged, threatened or occasionally refused (if a call for one is rejected, there must be something really bad lurking in the closet). Between 1990 and 2024, the UK and devolved governments spent at least £1.5billion on completed public inquiries, according to the Institute for Government. The inquiry chaired by Lord Hardie into the disastrous £1billion Edinburgh trams project uncovered evidence of myriad failings and ineptitude, laying bare a catalogue of delays and organisational chaos that formed a damning indictment of local government incompetence. Yet the inquiry itself cost more than £13million and took nine years to publish its findings, despite Alex Salmond saying it would be 'swift and thorough'. Lord Hardie has now told Holyrood's finance committee that there is a perception that public money is being wasted because the findings of public inquiries 'sit on ministers' shelves gathering dust'. He spoke out as the cost of the troubled Sheku Bayoh Inquiry rose to £24.8million – up by £1million since the end of last year - though that figure does not include the cost of the inquiry to the public bodies involved, such as Police Scotland and the Crown Office. The true cost to the taxpayer - so far - is around £50million, and yet the inquiry, which began back in 2020, is under serious threat after the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) called for chairman Lord Bracadale to be ousted on the grounds of perceived bias. Mr Bayoh died in police custody in 2015 amid allegations of racism and the use of excessive force by the officers restraining him. Lord Bracadale, a retired High Court judge, has had five meetings with Mr Bayoh's grieving relatives 'to address issues relating to the welfare of the family members'. He will chair hearings next month into his own suitability to continue leading the probe – so we now have another situation where an inquiry is holding a mini-inquiry into itself. A decade on, it seems that any chance of finding out exactly what happened is slipping away, with the SPF, representing rank-and-file officers, threatening a judicial review to remove Lord Bracadale as chairman. This toxic mess shows the gap between political rhetoric when inquiries are launched - focusing on the need for rapid answers - and the bleak reality, as they become bogged down in bureaucracy and bitter battles. The inquiry which set the tone for the ongoing obsession with official probes was the one that examined the fiasco surrounding the building of the Scottish parliament, which cost more than £400million (the original price-tag was around £10million). Its chairman, the late Lord Fraser, who reported back only three weeks before the building opened in 2004, memorably concluded that 'the ancient walls of the Canongate have echoed only to the cry of 'it wisnae me'.' More than 20 years on, that remains a familiar refrain among bungling bureaucrats and their political masters. It's probably only a matter of time before some hapless Minster announces an inquiry into the ferries fiasco (750million and counting) Let us hope the bill for that is less than the boats cost to build. But there is a radical solution – if they didn't make so many mistakes, we wouldn't need so many inquiries, conducted at our expense. In the meantime, we're paying a steep price for their incompetence - and the bill keeps rising.
