Links to Useful Websites
Here are some links to other sites which might be of interest. If you discover any which you think we should know about, please let us know. Also, if any of these links fail to work, please be kind enough to let us know and we can correct them.
Adobe
Reader Free Adobe PDF Reader.
Health Dept States Health Dept
Audiology Department States Audiology Department
Workwise The States Department at Social Security to help people who have a special employment need to find work.
Jersey Deaf Children's Society Jersey Society for Deaf Children and Young Adults
Association of Jersey Charities The Association of Jersey Charities, full of information.
RNID The Royal National Institute for Deaf People.
RAD The Royal Association for Deaf People.
Hearing Dogs for Deaf People The National Centre for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. There is a local contact in Jersey but no web page. Her name is Collette Quinn and she can be contacted on 852997.
NDCS The National Deaf Children's Society.
Signed Language Signed Language: A site with plenty of links and information.
JEP Charity section List of Charities in Jersey
wurzel.co.uk The company who created this website.
Newsgroups
Newsgroups are like Bulletin Boards but on the internet. People from all over the world "post" messages and anyone is free to reply. There are all sorts of topics and of course, Deafness and Hard of Hearing have their own "chat rooms".
There are 2 ways to join in: You use a "News Reader", such as Microsoft Outlook or other dedicated program, or you can use your web browser (which is effective, but slower). You can find a list of newsreaders here. Of course, there are many more and you can just search for "newsreaders" to obtain a current list.
To get a taste of what newsgroups are about, just click on this link: uk.groups.yahoo.com and enter a keyword such as "deaf". You will be surprised at the number of Newsgroups there are (over 70) that have the word "deaf" in their title. Just search for one which takes your fancy and join in!
IRC
Newsgroups are fine, but what if you want something more immediate? You can use MSN or Windows Messenger to talk to your friends, but mainly on a one to one basis. What do you do if a group of you want to chat online at the same time?
This is where IRC comes in! Those of you who have computers, may have heard of ICQ, or IRC, but not know what it is. You're most likely to have heard of MSN Messenger, as this comes with Windows. However, all three are very similar, because they allow you to "talk" to another computer user, by typing into a screen.
How they differ is this: MSN Messenger only allows you to talk to one (or a couple) of people at once. IRC however, allows you to talk to many people at the same time. It's called International Relay Chat (IRC) and it is similar to walking into a room where many people are talking. You can go up to people and join in with what they are saying, join in someone else's and so on. Once tried, it becomes very addictive!
ICQ was the first major program to allow people to go on IRC. However, there are other programs available, all free, which enables you to talk to people all around the world. Some of them are: MIRC, IceChat, ChinWag, pIRCh, X-Chat and many more. Search for free irc programs and you will get a list of where to download them.
There is a "Channel" set up (a room) for local Deaf & Hard of Hearing people which is available 24 hours a day. However, to be useful, it is best that everyone "logs on" (goes to the room) at the same time, and so it is probably best to log on between 6-11pm each night. However, you can arrange to meet someone at any time for those who can't sleep! Once you have installed your IRC program, add the server us.chatnet.org or nyc.ny.us.chatnet.org to the list already there. Log on to the channel (go to the building) and then go to channel (room) #JerseyDeafChat.
It sounds difficult but it isn't and once set up, you don't have to do it again. Once you log on, you will be greeted by Teabot and K9. Don't worry, it's only the computer and it keeps the channel open for us. It can also ban people we don't want coming in, limiting the number of people coming in and other "housekeeping" tasks.
Once in, you can talk to anyone who is already there about anything, send them files (pictures, sounds, documents) and receive them too. You can also join different channels (rooms) and there is generally a room available for most hobbies. Go on, give it a whirl!
IRC links