This evening the House of Lords have had a debate about SignHealth's Sick of It report which is specifically about British Sign Language (BSL) using deaf people's lack of access to appropriate healthcare and healthcare information. This report specifically talks about the need for BSL information.
Several deaf people emailed about this and got a stock reply saying there would be no verbatim subtitling - they didn't respond about real-time BSL interpretation or access to BSL interpretation of the post-debate transcript.
The hearing ally called the House of Lords phoneline and escalated this issue to a named manager who agreed it was ironic, inaccessible, insulting etc and recommended complaints were made.
So lets do that then. Complaints ahoy! Make our voices and signs heard and seen!
The content of your complaint will differ depending on your circumstances so jump to the appropriate complaint wording with the links below.
1) You are deaf and use sign language so rely on or prefer BSL interpretation.
2) You are deaf or hard of hearing and don't sign so rely on subtitling.
3) You are a hearing ally who wishes to support your D/deaf/HOH friends.
( cut for different complaint templates and original stock HoL reply )
Several deaf people emailed about this and got a stock reply saying there would be no verbatim subtitling - they didn't respond about real-time BSL interpretation or access to BSL interpretation of the post-debate transcript.
The hearing ally called the House of Lords phoneline and escalated this issue to a named manager who agreed it was ironic, inaccessible, insulting etc and recommended complaints were made.
So lets do that then. Complaints ahoy! Make our voices and signs heard and seen!
The content of your complaint will differ depending on your circumstances so jump to the appropriate complaint wording with the links below.
1) You are deaf and use sign language so rely on or prefer BSL interpretation.
2) You are deaf or hard of hearing and don't sign so rely on subtitling.
3) You are a hearing ally who wishes to support your D/deaf/HOH friends.
( cut for different complaint templates and original stock HoL reply )