A speech kept at the 11th of August 2007, on the 10th European Deafblind Holiday in Søgne, Norway.
By: Bjorn Davidsen, Editor, FNDB.
I have been given the honour to tell you about the Deafblind work in Norway during the last 50 years. On the 13th of October 2007 it is 50 years since the Norwegian Association of the Deafblind was founded. In the beginning the name of the organisation was "Deafblind's Welfare Club".
But before I start, I have to mention that the work for Deafblind people in Norway started early in the 1870s, with a woman named Ragnhild Kåta who was the first student given lecture in speech methods at Hamar School for Deaf by the headmaster Elias Hofgaard. This cooperation became widely known and people came all the way from USA to learn more about it, and then went back to teach Miss Helen Keller.
50 years in a summery:
1957-1970: An organisation develops
1970-1980: Years of struggling
1981-1990: From struggling to victory
1990-2007: Consolidation and adjustment
And now I start from the beginning:
In 1956 a priest for the Deaf named Ragnvald Hammer organised a group of Deafblind people and formed the first summer gathering. These gatherings have been a yearly event ever since. From 1958 the gatherings have been arranged by Deafblind's Welfare Club/FNDB.
In January 1957 the first edition of Deafblind Weekly Magazine was published in Braille. The magazine mainly contained news from all over the world and some discussions between Deafblind.
Helen Keller visited the summer gathering in 1957, and encouraged Deafblind to start their own organisation of and for Deafblind. They followed her advice, and on the 13th of October 1957 Deafblind established their own organisation as a part of the Norwegian Association of the Blind.
Until 1970 the Deafblind work was mainly focused on the weekly magazine, the summer gatherings and how find and register new deafblind people. The organisation had its yearly General Assembly during the summer gathering, then as now. At the yearly summer gathering they also educated new Deafblind in the Braille system. The number of participants increased from about 20 to 50 during these years.
At the General Assembly in 1970 the organization changed the name to Foreningen Norges døvblinde (The Norwegian Association of the Deafblind), FNDB.
In 1970 two local contact clubs were established, one in Trondheim and one in Oslo. These clubs and those who came later are social meeting places for the Deafblind.
On the 23rd of May 1977 the "daily newspaper" Punktnytt was published with two pages in Braille four days a week. Later on the number of pages increased to four.
In the end of the 1970s Deafblind became more and more discontented that FNDB was a sub division under the Norwegian Association of the Blind. At the General Assembly in 1978 they voted that FNDB were to be an independent association. Gradually FNDB took over the responsibility for publishing the weekly magazine and the daily newspaper, and for the social consultant service, courses and social gatherings.
In 1980 the Media department was able to expand thanks to governmental financial support. The production of Døvblindes ukeblad and Punktnytt was gradually digitalized, and then we were able to publish both magazines in multi-media (Braille, large print and as slow voice on audiotape) from the same digital manuscript. From then on Punktnytt was published five days a week with the number of pages severely increased.
The social consultant service expanded as well. Thanks to governmental financial support we could triple the number of social consultants.
Five new local contact clubs were established, to the total number of seven.
FNDB achieved a breakthrough, and from now on the government was set to pay for a personal assistant service for Deafblind people.
After a test period the Deafblind lobbied for a guide/interpreter service paid by the government. The guide/interpreters were educated at special courses and the guide/interpreter service for deafblind people was separated from the interpreter service for deaf people.
FNDB expanded its culture work both by arranging Nordic culture weeks and a youth festival.
For many years Norway had an arrangement with a 50 % reduction for the travelling cost for Deafblind people's spouse - and likewise for disabled people. Unmarried Deafblind, who needed a guide, felt it was not fair because their guide had to pay full price. In the middle of 1980s FNDB therefore claimed "free passage for Deafblind's guides". Several years of struggling the bureaucracy and politicians a new arrangement was established in 1989. This arrangement offers free passage for Deafblind's guides in public transports, financial supported by the government.
In this period FNDB's media department expanded to include the Internet.
Now we publish both the daily newspaper Punktnytt (5 days a week) and the weekly magazine Døvblinde Ukeblad in Braille, large print and as slow voice on Daisy-CD. Normally Punktnytt has 32 pages in Braille / 8 pages in large print. Every other week the weekly magazine changes between 60 and 40 pages in Braille / 24 and 16 in large prints.
Our Internet homepage was established in 1997, but the current page is now to be adjusted. Some of the content is in English.
At the end of the 1990s the social consultant service was transferred to the government.
In the early 1990s FNDB lobbied for a better guide/interpreter education. The result was at first a common education of interpreters for Deaf and guide/interpreters for Deafblind. Later on there were established public offices for interpreter and guide/interpreter service paid by the government covering the whole country.
When the social consultant service was transferred to the government, FNDB has focused their work on information, summer gatherings, the local social clubs and courses of integration and organisation. In the last years FNDB has also twice a year published a special publication in multi-media for the members.
FNDB has always participated in the Nordic, European and International work for the Deafblind. FNDB's chairman for 20 years, Reinholdt Robertsen, advocated for many years that Deafblind had to establish independent associations both in Europe and in rest of the world. But unfortunately he died before WFDB and EDBU became a reality.
During the last year FNDB has been involved in a Deafblind aid project in Malawi. Our president during the last 10 years, Geir Jensen, lobbies also for European and international cooperation between Deafblind. His international achievement is considerable. In many ways he is realising what Reinholdt dreamed about, but couldn't realise. This proves that FNDB not only fights for the best for the Deafblind in Norway, but also wants to do something with the problems for the Deafblind all over the world.
I want to finish this speech with a little reminder:
When Reinholdt Robertsen went back from the Helen Keller conference 1983 in Bahrain, he said:
"The Americans spoke for many hours about the problems Deafblind have with the new computers. The Deafblind from the third world wondered how to get white canes."
Thank you for your attention. I have enjoined being together with you this week.
(2007-11-22)