BRITAIN'S DEAF & DUMB

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 50, 8 May 1942, Page 3

BRITAIN'S DEAF & DUMB

ARE PROMOTED TO EXPERT JOBS IN THE WAR INDUSTRIES Deaf and dumlb people in Britain, mid the adults among them number •30,000 today, are now being taken into Avar work for which their infirmity makes them more suitable than men and women who can hear and speak. One group of them is, working steadily in the shot-blasting sector of a Midlands' factory producing shells. Here the din is so terrific that few of the ordinary workers can stand it. The deaf and dumb, unaware of the inferno of noise around them, placidly concentrate upon the finishing and polishing of the insides of shell cases. In another factory the shot-blast-ing process is carried out in soundproof cabinets which to some extent deaden the din but the deaf and dumb, in a kind of protective armour, continue to be employed on the job. They are excellent workers: in a third factory young deaf andi dumb women are painting shell cases as quickly by hand as would others using mechanical spraj^ers. The deaf and dumb are also found tc> be specially useful for war work demanding a keen sense of touch or sight, and in most cases their sight is exceptional. A group of them' girls—arc being trained, for example, as examiners of lactrom thread at Fort Dunlop. "The very keen pride," the National Institute for the Deaf points out, "of such workers as these girls in finding that their help is needed by their country in its hour of danger can wel l be imagined."