Dorothy "Dot" Miles (19 August 1931 – 30 January 1993, née Squire) was a Welsh poet and activist in the
deaf community
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
. Throughout her life, she composed her poems in English,
British Sign Language
British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language among the Deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on ...
, and
American Sign Language. Her work laid the foundations for modern sign language poetry in the United States and the United Kingdom. She is regarded as the pioneer of BSL poetry and her work influenced many contemporary Deaf poets.
From 1957 to 1977, Miles lived as an expatriate in the United States. In 1967, she joined the
National Theatre of the Deaf
The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967, and is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original wo ...
. She then returned to the United Kingdom, where she became a key member of the British Deaf Community. By the early 1990s, Miles was experiencing
manic depression
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
. In 1993, Miles committed suicide by falling from a second-floor window.
Biography
Miles (née Squire) was born 19 August 1931 in
Holywell, Flintshire
Holywell ( '','' cy, Treffynnon) is a market town and community in Flintshire, Wales. It lies to the west of the estuary of the River Dee. The community includes Greenfield.
Etymology
The name Holywell is literally ' + ' in reference to St W ...
,
North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
, daughter of James and Amy Squire (née Brick). She was the youngest of five surviving children. In 1939 she contracted
cerebrospinal meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or a ...
, which left her deaf. She was educated at the
Royal School for the Deaf and the
Mary Hare School. In 1957, at the age of 25, she went to the United States to take up a place at
Gallaudet College
Gallaudet University ( ) is a private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the Hearing loss, deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a gramma ...
, sponsored in part by the
British Deaf and Dumb Association. During her time at the college she became the first member of a junior class to be a member of the Gallaudet Phi Alpha Pi honour society, was in the 1961 edition of "Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities", edited the student magazines and won prizes for both her prose writing and poetry and for acting. Some of her work was published in ''The Silent Muse'', an anthology of selected writings by deaf authors of the last 100 years. She also wrote the Bison's song.
She married a fellow student, Robert Thomas Miles, in September 1958. They separated in 1959. She graduated in 1961 receiving a BA with distinction. She worked in the United States as a teacher and counsellor for deaf adults. In 1967, she joined the newly founded
National Theatre of the Deaf
The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967, and is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original wo ...
and began to create sign language poetry that deaf people – as well as hearing people – could appreciate.
In 1975, Miles left the NTD to work with the campus service for the deaf at
California State University, Northridge. She returned to live in England in the autumn of 1977, after twenty years in the United States. Miles was soon involved in the National Union of the Deaf's
Open Door (BBC TV) pioneering television programme (in which she performed her poem Language for the Eye) and was involved in discussions that led to the
See Hear television series. She took work with the British Deaf Association, working on various projects. She compiled the first teaching manual for BSL tutors and became involved in setting up the
Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People
Signature is a United Kingdom national charity and awarding body for deaf communication qualifications. Signature attempts to improve communication between deaf, deafblind and hearing people, whilst creating better communities.
Since the charity ...
(CACDP). She also worked on the BDA dictionary.
For a while she worked as a self-employed writer, lecturer and performer, becoming involved in promotion of sign language teaching and training of tutors and deaf theatre. She was involved in setting up and then teaching on the British Sign Language Tutor Training Course – the first university course for training deaf people to become BSL tutors. She also wrote the best-selling BBC book ''BSL – A beginner's guide'', which was published to complement the television series.
Suicide
By the early 1990s, Miles was a key figure in the British Deaf Community. She died on 30 January 1993 when she fell from the window of her second-floor flat. The inquest at St. Pancras Coroner's Court concluded that she killed herself while experiencing
manic depression
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
.
Legacy
Miles is regarded as a key figure in the literary heritage of sign language and the deaf community. It has been suggested that she is the source of most of the sign language poetry performed today.
She was passionate about deaf issues, culture and sign language and longed to bridge the gap between deaf and hearing people. The
Dorothy Miles Cultural Centre was established by a group of both Deaf and hearing friends in her memory. She features as one of a series of portraits of notable deaf artists painted by Nancy Rourke.
The Dorothy Miles Cultural Centre was a well-loved organisation based in
Surrey, spreading British Sign Language and raising Deaf Awareness in the community. This mantle was taken up by Dot Sign Language, which took over when the Cultural Centre closed. Dot Sign Language continues to teach qualifying British Sign Language courses in
Woking and
Guildford, as well as Deaf Awareness workplace training. They spend many hours working in the community, in Schools, Scout troops, Brownies and all other youth groups, so that all youngsters can see BSL in action, in real life and interact with Deaf people. They have such a high pass rate and such outstandingly successful teaching methods that they were shortlisted for award and recognition in January 2017 by the examining body 'Signature'.
See also
*
Deaf culture
*
Sign Language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
References
Bibliography
* British Sign Language: A Beginner's Guide Produced to accompany the BBC Television series, British Sign Language. It has a foreword by HRH The Princess of Wales.
* Bright Memory Dorothy Miles (British Deaf History Society, Doncaster, 27 July 1998)
* Gestures: Poetry in Sign Language Dorothy Miles (Paperback) (1 December 1976)
*Joyce Media
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20041108191259/http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/Intersign/Workshop2/Spence.html
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0151k17
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Dorothy
1931 births
1993 suicides
20th-century Welsh educators
20th-century Welsh poets
20th-century Welsh women writers
20th-century women educators
People from Holywell, Flintshire
Welsh women dramatists and playwrights
Anglo-Welsh poets
Anglo-Welsh women poets
Gallaudet University people
Gallaudet University alumni
Deaf poets
20th-century Welsh dramatists and playwrights
Deaf people from Wales
BSL users
Welsh expatriates in the United States
People with bipolar disorder
Female suicides
Suicides by jumping in the United Kingdom
1993 deaths
Educators of the deaf