2017 DCAL Xmas Newsletter - Robert Adam - Impact

DCAL’s research is continuing to change people lives. Over the last decade we have developed many tests of language and cognition for deaf people, both adults and children. In spring 2016, we launched our DCAL Assessment Portal – which makes our tests available to clinicians, educators and researchers all over the UK. We have also had substantial international interest and hope that some of our tests will be adapted into other sign languages in future.
Our work developing cognitive tests for dementia, directly led to a new Cognitive Disorders Clinic for Deaf patients at UCLH National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. Deaf people who are concerned about their memory or thinking can be referred by their GP from all over the UK. In the clinic, we use several cognitive tests developed through our research. In 2017 we received the exciting news that NHS England are going to fund this clinic on an on going basis. This is a huge achievement in the current economic climate,