Appeal on behalf of the Television Fund of the National Institute for the Deaf by Jeanne Heal
Contributions will be gratefully acknowledged and should be addressed to [address removed]
Deafness affects the lives of two and a half million people in Britain. A little more than one and a half million are hard-of-hearing, but to many theic hearing defect does not necessarily constitute a major handicap. Nearly another million need help of some kind: 790,000 have difficulty in hearing wiuhou.t -the use of a hearing aid; 70,000 are severely deaf and cannot use hearing aids; 30,000 have become totally deaf to any sound; and 15,000 were born without hearing and will never hear a sound in their lives.
To nearly all these people radio programmes mean little or nothing. But television is one medium that all the deaf can follow to some extent, particularly those programmes that are almost entirely visual. Television sets have already been installed in a few of the special schools for deaf children and in a few of the many homes, institutes, and clubs throughout the country, but one of the great ambitions of the National Institute for 'the Deaf is to see all such places equipped with a television receiver, and all contributions will be used for this purpose.