Sonos (Association)
Sonos is a Swiss umbrella association of deaf and hearing impaired organizations in the field of professional and self-help.
It was founded in 1911 as the Swiss Welfare Association for the Deaf and Mute . Until the end of 2001 the Association of the Deaf was called the Swiss Association for the Deaf ( SVG) (old place of business: Sonneggstrasse 31 & Feldeggstrasse 69, Zurich). The head office has been in Winterthur at Oberen Graben 48 since 2018.Sonos is a non-profit organization (NPO).
history
The Swiss Association of the Hearing Impaired, now known as Sonos, was founded in 1911 by the deaf Eugen Sutermeister (1862–1931) in Olten as the Swiss Welfare Association for the deaf and dumb . Various organizations for self-help and specialist help for the hearing impaired came together under his roof until the 1970s. In 1912, the association became the sponsor of the Swiss deaf-and-dumb newspaper founded in 1907 by Eugen Sutermeister . In 1920 he joined the newly founded Association for Anomalies (today the Swiss Pro Infirmis Association). In 1925 the Swiss Association for the Education of Deaf, Mute and Hard of Hearing Children was founded. In 1933, the Swiss Welfare Association for the Deaf-Mute and the Swiss Association for Education for Deaf- Mute and Hard-of-Hearing Children merged to form the Swiss Association for Aid for the Deaf-Mute . In 1954 the association became the sponsor of the vocational school for the hearing impaired (BSFH) in Zurich-Oerlikon. In 1960, the association was renamed the Swiss Association for the Deaf, Mute and Deaf , and in 1977 it became the Swiss Association for the Deaf , SVG for short. In 1999, the Swiss Association of the Deaf, SGB-FSS, left the association after disagreements over the direction, and the SGB-FSS has since positioned itself as the umbrella organization for self-help organizations. In 2002 it was renamed Sonos. Swiss umbrella organization for deaf and hearing impaired organizations . The name is derived from the Latin word Sonus (sound, tone, sound). Since 2018 the umbrella organization has been called Sonos, the Swiss Association of the Hearing Impaired .
Today's direction of Sonos
Sonos primarily performs tasks in the areas of work, accessibility, education and living for the hearing impaired, as well as networking and social policy. Around 600,000 people in Switzerland have a hearing problem. Around 200,000 people in Switzerland wear hearing aids or are extremely hard of hearing, and 10,000 people are completely deaf and urgently rely on sign language.
As the umbrella organization, Sonos receives state contributions from the Federal Social Insurance Office in accordance with Art. 74 of the Invalidity Insurance Act and forwards them to organizations for the hearing impaired, such as advice centers for hearing impaired people, etc., who have concluded a service contract with Sonos in this regard and provide important services in the area of private disabled assistance. The federal government provides subsidies to organizations that provide private assistance to the disabled, currently totaling 130 million francs per year. As an umbrella organization, Sonos itself currently receives around 2.5 million francs from the federal government, which it distributes to the 8 sub-service contractors. Sonos is responsible for ensuring that these government funds are being used for their intended purpose.
In addition, Sonos wants to optimally support its 44 members today in their diverse and diverse areas of activity. The members of Sonos include the former deaf - today speech therapy schools, stationary facilities such as homes for the deaf, the deaf churches, the deaf counseling centers and numerous important individual organizations with very different orientations - such as B. the Fondation a Cappella, which is mainly dedicated to teaching the so-called supplemented spoken language.
Today, Sonos maintains close and constructive cooperation with partner associations in the hearing impaired sector. Sonos is represented in commissions and specialist bodies. Sonos, for example, chairs the socio-political commission of the hearing impaired associations, which meets annually and works out joint statements on socio-politically relevant documents. Sonos, together with the Swiss Association of the Deaf (SGB-FSS), forms the advisory board of the Procom Foundation, which arranges sign language interpreters throughout Switzerland and offers telephone switching and SMS services for the deaf. In addition, Sonos is in the support group in connection with the Bachelor's degree in sign language interpreting offered at the University of Curative Education and in the Teletext Commission, which works to ensure that as many programs as possible are broadcast with subtitles on television. Sonos supports research work such as the study at the University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur regarding the readability of subtitled programs for the hearing impaired.
The Sonos Association publishes " Zeichen " magazine four times a year .
Tasks of the deaf church and deaf counseling centers
In 1909, with significant help from Sutermeister, the Zurich Reformed Deaf Church was founded. Gustav Weber was the first deaf pastor (1962–1934). He was followed by Jakob Stutz (1875–1970), then Eduard Kolb (1918–2000). From 2000 to 2016 Marianne Birnstiel (died 2016) worked as a pastor for the deaf in Zurich. From the very beginning, the deaf ministers also had the task of supporting the deaf in everyday life. Today, these tasks are mainly carried out by the seven deaf departments located in Zurich, Basel, Bern, Olten, Schaffhausen, Lucerne and St. Gallen. The deaf specialist agencies are usually run by regional deaf welfare associations.
Deaf people and their relatives are in the deaf specialist offices on all issues with which they are confronted in their life, be it in connection with gainful employment (change of job, difficulties in the workplace etc.), partnership, child-rearing, addiction problems, getting older according to the association expert advice. The deaf departments also maintain a wide range of courses and leisure activities. The hearing impairment is primarily a communication impairment and social isolation is often the result of severe hearing impairment and deafness. That is why it is so important that there are adequate offers for all hearing-impaired people of all ages to be with other people and to take account of the danger of loneliness and, through appropriate support, as barrier-free participation in school, work, leisure or social life as possible To make life possible as well as. Simple language courses are also helpful for social integration; the international language and the associated sign language Signuno , which is also very easy to learn by the hearing and visually impaired , appear to be useful .
The BSFH vocational school for learners with hearing and communication disabilities
The association is the sponsor of the vocational school for learners with hearing and communication disabilities BSFH in Zurich Oerlikon, which has existed since 1953. Around 240 deaf and hearing-impaired young people from all over German-speaking Switzerland who are receiving an apprenticeship are now taught annually at the BSFH. The lessons take place in a form that is suitable for the hearing impaired, i. H. in small classes or in individual lessons and with optimal light and sound conditions.
Effects of the cochlear implant on additional services
Since the late 1980s, the cochlear implant , CI, has been playing an increasingly important role for deaf and deaf people. The implantation of the latest hearing aid technology made it possible to insert a very fine wire into the cochlea, which is connected to an electrode that is implanted in the skull bone. In this way, the acoustic signals that are perceived by the speech processor worn on the outside above the ear can be passed on to the auditory nerve as electrical impulses. With the help of the Cochlea Implants, children born deaf can now grow up bilingually and learn spoken language in addition to sign language. Deaf people can also B. again perceive the chirping of birds acoustically. There are now over 2,800 cochlear implants implanted in Switzerland, and around 50,000 implants worldwide every year.
These advances in medicine and hearing aid technology have led to changes in Sonos' portfolio of tasks. Sonos is therefore placing a new focus on early childhood education, with the patronage for audio education or for the right to work, with the employability project.
Web links
- Website of the Swiss Association of the Hearing Impaired Sonos
- Website of the vocational school for the hearing impaired (BSFH) in Zurich-Oerlikon
swell
- Eugen Sutermeister: Source book on the history of the Swiss deaf and dumb being . Bern 1929.
- Michael Gebhard: Learning to Hear - Remaining Hearing Impaired: The History of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Organizations in the Last 200 Years . Hier + now, Publishing House for Culture and History, Baden 2007, ISBN 978-3-03919-054-6 .
- Sonos: 100 years of Sonos in action for the deaf and hard of hearing! , Festschrift Sonos 1911–2011, Zurich 2011. The Festschrift can be ordered from Sonos for CHF 15.-, info@hoerbehindert.ch.