Our Team – National Association Of Deafened People (2024)

About Lidia

Trained in fashion college, Lidia is a passionate Londoner with lived experience of having hearing loss and using cochlear implant.

A former Trustee of UK Council of Deafness she focus her work on mentoring, accessibility, including access to ICTs and quality of hearing care as she sees this as a gateway to improved wellbeing for hard of hearing people.

In 2016 she joined G3ict (the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs) as an accessibility consultant at the UN agency of the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) where she contributes her first-hand knowledge to include persons with disabilities in creating mainstream international standards in telecoms, captioning and assistive listening devices , having authored the ITU FSTP-RCSO “Overview of remote captioning services” and H.871“Safety requirements for wearable audio augmenting devices” the recommendation on personal so. und amplifiers.

Lidia was a vice President as the Vice-President of the EFHOH (European Federation of Hard of Hearing ) a position she stepped down from in 2020.While at EFHOH she was co-author of reports into situation of hard of hearing and deafened people in Europe in areas of employment, hearing care and accessibility.

Lidia continues to share her knowledge and experience to empower UK hard of hearing and deaf community in UK and worldwide.

About Simon

Simon’s hearing loss was first identified when he was 5.

He made it through school and Uni without a hearing aid but accepted his fate in his mid 20s. He has been an avid user since. Simon was co-opted to TAG for broadcasting.

He joined the Exec of DAC (UKCoD) in mid 2014 and currently represents DAC in the NGTR steering board. Simon represents NADP in the DTG Accessibility Group and Ofcom’s CFC.

He was appointed a Trustee of UKCoD in 2016. Simon is a qualified Actuary.

About Teoman

Ismail Teoman Akyuz is a finance professional lived and worked in the international environment for more than 20 years.

He was born and grown up in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, started his career in Istanbul in a bank as an Internal Auditor.

He moved to Amsterdam with to work in a Dutch Bank, first as Head of Internal Audit then assigned as Chief Financial Officer, and lived there for 5 years. He has taken jobs in other countries in between and finally moved to the UK with his family in 2018. He is currently working as a finance consultant.

Teoman has participated in voluntary work all through his career, which were mostly about taking initiatives on helping children with their schooling. He joined NADP as a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer in 2019.

Teoman is married with two children and living in London together with his family.

About Clare

Clare was born hearing and started losing her hearing as a teenager.

She became a trustee to help deaf and deafened people get the information and support they need to live in the hearing world.

About Peter

I became totally deaf aged 25 after a fall.

Investigation showed bilateral large schwannoma. NF 2 diagnosed. I had just qualified in medicine! With massive support from my wife and fellow students plus my tutors I trained as a radiologist. 8 years later I obtained a consultant post. Whilst working full time I became a member of NADP as well as supporting LINK, Nerve Tumour UK and CYHU.

On my retirement, with more time I became a trustee for NADP. My interests include patient support after sudden profound deafness, technical support for the deaf, and teaching the general public about disability, particularly deafness.

Both my children inherited my NF2 so I have first hand experience of genetic carry through and the family trauma it can produce.

About Katrina

I have been a trustee for NADP for 4 years. I wear two hearing aids.

As trustee I have attended various conferences linked to hearing loss. These have been interesting for me to follow as I had not been able to access the latest information connected to hearing loss before.

My main interest is to ensure our members receive up to date information on hearing loss and support avaiable . Often the media do not always have a clearer view of the experiences of hearing loss issues with communication and equipment available.

My previous work includes, Deaf Support Worker, supporting the local deaf and hard of hesring community with communicating and dealing with various personal issues arising.

At Renata Campbell Trust, I supported Deaf and Hard of Hearing people at the job club,. With advice and guidance to access trainingprograms and employment.

I sometimes I run workshops on art and crafts for local community and given gallery art talks. I have supported Deaf and hard of hearing to attend various gallery events aimed for deaf visitors.

I previously volunteered for Outset, Leonard Cheshire, St Mungo’s and local scouts.

About Sandy

About Nick

I’m Nick Tedd & I’m delighted to be part of the NADP as a trustee & volunteer.

I’m an Artist, Blogger & I own 3 hair salons.
I blog about my adventures living with hearing loss at work, rest & play, what I have faced, the setbacks and misunderstandings I have encountered & what I have done to overcome these and the possibilities that have opened up for me.

I see myself as am an ambassador for the hearing loss community & am more determined than ever to succeed at life & have positive experiences. I have been helped enormously by the team at NADO & have enjoyed raising awareness & supporting them whenever I can. My role as a Trustee is very important to me to leave things better for others and myself ‘next time’.

I will never stop striving, even when I can feel lonely, alienated, isolated, vulnerable and even discriminated against. I love to explore the world as an urban explorer who will not be inhibited by the opinions of others.

I have not only survived but thrived and found a new self confidence that has not only empowered me as a deaf person, but also in my everyday life. As a result of all this, I no longer see myself as ‘the problem’, I only see barriers that need to be overcome. The main barriers are people’s perceptions, opinions and attitudes.

I want to connect, share & learn with others by documenting what I know for sure about life, travel, food, hair, creativity, the arts & causes I am passionate about like hidden disabilities & LGBTQ issues.

It is my intention to bring my experience and stories to the NADP so that other people with hearing loss can see that we are not alone & that the more awareness & education we can give people the better it will be for us all.

About Sophia

Sophia is NADP’s Policy Volunteer.

She joined NADP in September 2019 and manages our campaigns and Policy work along with the Chairman.Sophia is a disability rights campaigner and has been working in Campaigning and Policy for about 4 years mostly with NGOs in the UK working in social care, disability, international development, and global health.

She currently works as Campaigns Advisor at the Chartered Insurance Institute where she manages the Aging Population campaign. She graduated from Royal Holloway University with a 2.1 (Hons) in Politics, International Relations and Philosophy.

Sophia recently founded the campaign ‘Ableism and Me’ which will raise awareness of everyday ableism that takes place around the world and lobby for disability rights.