Donald "thrilled" at honour from Queen after helping people with hearing loss

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A West Lothian man says he is “thrilled” to have received a medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours for his outstanding work in helping people with hearing loss.Donald Richards was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to People with Hearing Impairments.The 71 year old is a board member on Alliance, the deaf equality and accessibility forum and convenor of the deafscotland charity and currently working as a part-time British Sign Language BSL lecturer at West Lothian College.Donald, who stays in Livingston, was born deaf to hearing parents and growing up attended a school for deaf and hearing impaired students which focused on oral learning.He said: “I am surprised and thrilled to receive the BEM and am thankful and grateful to my family and many others who have supported me throughout my British Sign Language (BSL) teaching career.”Donald was first introduced to British Sign Language (BSL) when he started playing football for a club for deafplayers in London.

This gave him the freedom to embrace life without barriers.He was inspired to develop his skills in BSL to share his knowledge with deaf and hearing people and was asked to teach BSL at evening classes, something not available at that time.He had no teaching materials or qualifications but devised his own lesson and from there the demand for classes grew, which saw him travel to remote areas of Scotland to help people learn BSL.Donald was a key contributor to the development of BSL interpreting services and deaf awareness in the Highlands.He taught sign language for almost three decades while working full-time as a draughtsman and raising his family.As BSL became more widely understood, he taught voluntarily at many groups, such as Scouts, equipping young