a brief account of some time with Sheila Wirz, by Ann Parker
Sheila Wirz made an immense contribution to the world of speech and language therapy in the field of deafness. I know that each and every one you has a story to tell of her huge contribution to other fields of work, and other lives – she truly was an amazingly prolific achiever, and my words will be just one example – so they may resonate with you, or you may say, ‘And I knew a different part of
Sheila - did you know she also...?’ (fill in the gap…) So it’s just as well that the evening is young, for there will be many more tales told, as well as more formal presentations of current developments that Sheila had a hand in, one way and another...
So I could call this part, ‘Sheila also did...’ But then that will be the whole theme of the evening, and we’ll be saying it again and again, so my title is ‘We’ll just...’ because that was a phrase she used a lot with me (she had to…), and the phrase seems to me to capture her huge ability to do great things and regard them as just... there to do. Not a big deal… But it was. And so for a few minutes I’d like to tell something of Sheila WIrz when I knew her, who also did... so much, and who often began with, ‘We’ll just... do it..’
Sheila and I met first in the early 1970s. Everything I remember so clearly about our first meeting turned out to be typical of Sheila – first of all, of course, her lovely voice and very precise way of speaking, so that it was extremely easy to understand her, even when talking about complex matters. Then, her generosity of spirit, which was central to her whole being, with her willingness to share her immense knowledge with such enthusiasm. She was a little older than me – a year? A year can seem a lot in your twenties – and Sheila definitely seemed much more mature and wise.
She was also very, very amusing, and eventually we were to laugh our way through a lot of hard work together.
While Sheila was based in Edinburgh and I was in London, we supported each other from a distance.
At first, Speech and Language Therapy was not generally part of the world of deaf children, and if you were around then you will know that BSL wasn’t either, unless the deaf child had the good fortune to have deaf parents. But times they were-a-changing, and we found ourselves welcomed by teachers, social workers and researchers in the deaf community, in particular the late, great pioneers Arthur Verney, and Mary Brennan, who introduced us to deaf families, and the exciting world of BSL and linguistics, while in parallel we also worked with colleagues in speech research who helped us develop our skills in phonetics, speech and spoken language assessment. Sheila and I met when we could – in Edinburgh, and London, and Rochester, New York…and talked on the phone and wrote letters (there was no email in those days!).
When Sheila came to London to live and work, we were able to work together much more closely, and with colleagues (Ted Paulett and Enid Wechsler) we started a new Speech and Hearing
Committee of the then College of Speech Therapists (CST), which met for more than a decade and formed the first Joint Committee of the CST with BATOD (the British Association of Teachers of the
Deaf). With these colleagues we produced the first jointly agreed statement between the two professional bodies, on co-operation between the two professions. Largely through Sheila’s persistence, we developed the first Advanced Clinical Specialist (ACS) course in deafness* for the
CST, based at the National Hospitals’ College of Speech Science and the RNID, and this has lasted in modified form, as a strand in the City University MSc, pretty much to this day.
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I have many lovely memories, but I thought you might be interested in a few of Sheila’s ‘We’ll just....s’, to compare with your own. So here are just three examples:
The field of deafness was rather turbulent in those years. (Some of you may say, ‘nothing’s changed’...) It often felt as if we were all working uphill. For example, for the ACS course, it seemed obvious to us that we should work with the social work model and ensure that specialist therapists learnt BSL. There was plenty of support for this, but quite a lot of opposition too. We sat in a great heated discussion one day with a particular group who shall be nameless, and I remember saying to
Sheila in my agonised way, ‘Oh it’s all too complex – it’s all about ideology and belief- we’re going to get stuck!’. She said, ‘We’ll just do it, and see what happens. We’ll just build BSL into the course.’
And we just did.
Then we were stuck for funding. The National Hospital’s College of Speech Science (Sheila’s employer at the time) and the RNID (mine) were very generous in terms of staff time for teaching and administration, and gave us massive encouragement – but we needed to pay for specialist lecturers and specialist teaching from other professions, and sign language interpreters for when the teachers themselves were deaf. This seemed insurmountable – but Sheila said, ‘We’ll just...hire the people, and apply for a grant.’ And she did apply for a grant – and she got it – and we were able to pay up after all.
And just when we thought we were making real progress, the BATOD journal published a damaging comment, effectively asking for reactions to ‘rumours’ that speech therapists were, in effect,
‘muscling in’ on the field, usurping the role of teachers. Again – much upset – and our teacher colleagues on the Joint Committee with BATOD were as embarrassed as we were, since they had helped us develop the course. Much discussion, letters back and forth were proposed and even sent, and it was all looking very complex again... Sheila said, ‘We’ll just...write an article describing the course and why we’re doing it, and ask the editor to publish that.’ And we did and he did, and another storm in a teacup came to a happy end.
So finally, before I hand over to Bencie, who will bring things along to more recent times, in the field of BSL, communication and deafness, I have some comments by past graduates of the ACS course, who wrote to me when they heard the sad news. Sheila was, as we all know, a woman of many, many parts, but one of the great parts was Sheila the teacher, and facilitator of other peoples’ learning. Here are three extracts, with kind permission from Sarah Beazley, Judy Halden and Ruth
Merrit:
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‘Sheila was such an inspiration to me, all those years ago as we started our careers working with deaf people. It was she who planted the idea in my head of going into higher education and I would never have had the confidence if she hadn't suggested it ... I can see the room now where I presented some clinical data and it was after that she came, with her smooth, deep voice and ever articulate thoughts, to talk to me. I was in awe of her of course and bowled over by her words...but they sank in and I owe her much as I've been very fortunate to have enjoyed a career in teaching pretty much ever since.’
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2.
‘I must say I reiterate [those] lovely words too - what an inspiration she was! [...] to set so many of us on the path of working with deaf people. I remember her telling me just [that word again!]… to get on with it! I also remember as if it was yesterday the gruelling ear training we did for the VPA but what incredible skills that course left us all with! [...] I know that my ear remains more attuned ever since!’
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‘Sheila was indeed one of the most wise and serene people I know. She taught me at undergraduate level as well as through the ACS/VPA and was just so completely empowering. An absolutely amazing model for us all!’
It was a great privilege and huge pleasure to know and work with Sheila. For me, ‘We’ll just…’ seems to capture something of the spirit of the wonderful woman who was able to move mountains and regard it as… just - something to do.
So that was then...What of now? We now move into the more formal part of the evening, with papers on the current research that builds on Sheila’s legacy. It gives me great pleasure to introduce
Professor Bencie Wol, who is so well known to you all, the leader of the Deafness, Cognition and
Language Research Centre (DECAL) of UCL, who is going to present her paper in honour of Sheila,
‘Communication in its broadest sense: working with deaf children and their communities.’
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