Controversy over new deaf charity head

From: The Guardian
Oct. 22, 2002

Raekha Prasad
The Guardian

Britain's biggest deaf charity, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), is being accused by campaigners of lacking confidence in deaf people's abilities after this week appointing a new chief executive who has no aural impairment.

The charity has announced that John Low will next month take over from the present chief executive, James Strachan, who is deaf. Low already works for the organisation as executive director for research, technology and health.

Criticism of his appointment to the £90,000 a year post reflects the growing pressure from "users" of disability charities to demand a greater say. As Strachan's predecessor was also deaf, some see the choice of Low as a backward step.

"It was an opportunity to advance the public perception of disabled people as leaders rather than recipients," says Andy Rickell, chief executive of the British Council of Disabled People, an organisation wholly staffed by people with disabilities. "But it's in danger of saying disabled people are not up to it."

Doug Alker, whose sudden replacement by Strachan as chief executive of the RNID in 1997, caused controversy, describes Low's appointment as "a sad indictment of the failure of such organisations to show confidence in the ability of deaf people to lead their own organisations".

Low, 49, has led the RNID's groundbreaking partnership with the Department of Health to modernise NHS hearing aid services, including introduction of digital hearing aids. He has also been responsible for the charity's relay service, Typetalk.

"The RNID represents a very broad church, including people who don't identify as having a hearing loss. If you were to use some kind of discrimination in favour of someone with a disability, that would be tokenism," says Low.

Strachan is to become the chairman of the charity's board of trustees - the first deaf person to hold the post - in a move that has raised some eyebrows in the voluntary sector. But Low insists that he is "very happy" with the arrangement and that it will be invaluable.

Ann Stead, chair of disability charity Radar, says she wishes Low well in his new role but is "a little disappointed" that the RNID did not opt to "underpin the foundations" laid by the disability movement to set an example by improving employment levels of disabled people at a senior level.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002