'' In all my work, I've made an effort to improve the life of deafened people and to alleviate the frustration and isolation that comes with hearing loss.'
Glenda Bateman, founder and first Chair of ALS died on Friday, 4 January 2008 after a long illness.
Most people will know Glenda as the creator and first Chair of the Association of Lipspeakers (ALS). For many deafened people she was their access to the spoken word and the person who let them know what was happening around them at important events, in times of crisis or special moments in their lives.
For over three hundred and fifty people in the UK she was their lipspeaking tutor. For even more people she was the lifeline that brought them back in touch with family and friends and the everyday world around them through teaching them lipreading skills and communication tactics in small group classes as their hearing failed.
Glenda was born in 1938 at Canterbury and lived on her parents' farm with her two older brothers. She went to teacher training college and taught at two schools in London, where she met Doug. Already her lip speaking skills were well developed as she had to learn to speak clearly from an early age as her mother was deafened before Glenda was born. After qualifying as a teacher, Glenda accompanied her mother to the inaugural meeting of Hearing Concern where she was asked to become a lipspeaker.
Glenda lipspoke at many Association functions including cathedral services, rallies and weekend seminars. She married Doug in 1965. They moved to Crowthorne and Susan was born in 1967, followed by Wendy in 1969. She continued to lipspeak when family commitments permitted.
Glenda became a qualified part-time tutor of lipreading and ran many lipreading classes in Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey.
In 1983, she became Hearing Concern's Chief Lipspeaker and Chief Lipspeaker Training Tutor. In 1985, Glenda was awarded her CACDP Level 3 Certificate of Lipspeaking and was the only lipspeaker in the UK to hold this qualification.
Between 1983 and 1995 Glenda travelled the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, in college holidays, training lipspeakers. She took her team to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast; Durham, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield; Birmingham, Coventry and Derby; South Wales, Bristol and Cornwall; Oxford, London, Wokingham and Redbridge. More than 250 students obtained their qualifications during those years.
Glenda was always calm and well prepared, confident and utterly professional while at the same time approachable and friendly, able to manage a crisis and prepared to make changes to a tight schedule at a moments notice. She put students at their ease and no lipspeaker trained by her will ever forget their first attempts to lipspeak the antics of Paddington Bear!
What was the secret of her success?
Glenda had a self confidence and commitment to her family, friends and work that came from a deep and unwavering Christian faith and love of country. She had a moral integrity that guided her and a modesty and sense of service that enabled her to mentor students and colleagues, while meeting personal and family health problems with courage and a practical approach to finding solutions.
She worked with others to develop lipspeaker training that would meet the access needs of lipreaders wherever it was needed. Through her determination and leadership she established the Association of Lipspeakers, promoting our services at every opportunity and encouraging others to do the same.
She imbued us all with her sense of service to our lipreaders, which is a constant reminder to us all that we are the means, the vessel through which the lipreader is connected to the society in which they live. We who have known her, worked with her and shared her friendship have been truly fortunate. We will miss her.
