Brief mobile phone film clips gave us some inkling of the horror as survivors were led along the track to safety, and reports from the rescue squads speak about the difficulties of working in the searing heat; but to me, as a deaf person, the worst aspect of being trapped in such a situation would be the darkness -I would be effectively both deaf and blind - and in a mounting panic.

Last week I wrote about a deaf-blind priest and how well he has learned to overcome the disability, but to be suddenly forced unprepared into such a situation is the stuff of nightmares. Communication would be all but impossible? and one can imagine that some of the survivors from the explosion might have been in this predicament after suffering badly damaged eardrums from the effects of the blast.

Several years ago, while we were staying at a hotel in Dublin, there was a sudden power failure and all the lights went out while we were preparing for bed. I don't know how other guests were warned, but we were saved by the tiny lamp on my car key and opened the bedroom door to see staff scurrying about with lighted candles to an assembly point in the foyer. It was not long before the emergency lights came on, but since that time I have always made sure we carry a small torch in our luggage, and in my pocket when travelling.

I lost my hearing at 11, just between leaving the Life Boys and joining the Boys' Brigade, and the sudden deafness, coupled with the need to develop a new form of communication, made it hard for me to get over the happy memories of evenings round the campfire with my buddies, singing old favourites, cracking jokes and telling ghost stories in the gathering gloom. I still remember crying bitterly in my camp bed and wondering why life could be so hard.

Grief, I found, is not something you get used to and we deaf folk have to come to terms with our loss of hearing. When sign language students are asked which they think is worse, deafness or blindness, they usually say the latter. It is interesting, however, that when I ask the same question to educated blind folk the answer is always the same: in no way would they want to be deaf. They are happy with their talking books and the better public awareness of their problem.

Most of us in the deaf community have learned to get on with life and enjoy a level of happiness outsiders may find hard to comprehend. But it is undeniable that deafness is still a very much-misunderstood affliction and we still find ourselves in many situations where we might as well be blind as well as deaf for all the help we get. Hotels still hesitate to install visible alarms in bedrooms; announcements are still made verbally in airports about flight changes; hospitals still require interpreters. Blind folk have no such problems.

Helen Keller got it right: "Blindness cuts you off from things whereas deafness cuts you off from people. Therefore deafness is much the worse affliction".

By Bob McCullough