London poet Raymond Antrobus was thought to be dyslexic with severe learning disabilities, until his deafness was discovered at the age of six. (for a transcript, scroll down this page and find it in Related Links)

At school, the hearing kids taunted him because he had to sit at the front to hear the teacher, and deaf kids called him a "baby signer" because he came to British Sign Language late and wasn't as proficient as the rest of them.

Later, Raymond became a teacher himself and now also writes poetry about speech therapy and other experiences deaf people have.

Here, he talks eloquently about his life and reads two new poems for us.

With Emma Tracey, Beth Rose and Damon Rose.

Please share this programme on social media, plus rate it and leave comments on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts from.

If you want to get in touch, email [email protected], tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook.

WHAT IS OUCH ALL ABOUT?

We think it's an intelligent and funny insight into being disabled, made by people who know. The Radio Festival think it's an "authentic" disability voice. Social workers call it a "resource". And The Telegraph said it's the best thing about the BBC's website and it's "not too patronising" - which was nice of them really.

At the beginning of each month you'll find a new hour-long roundtable talk show from Ouch. And every Friday for the rest of the month we do shorter 15 minute interviews or team chats usually about topical stuff, but sometimes we do random chats if something has caught our attention or made us laugh.