North of the Stupid Line

22 September 2008

The Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) and the Legal Services Commission (LSC) are proud to announce the launch of a pilot specialist casework service in British Sign Language (BSL) via the Internet to eligible clients. RAD Legal Services has been working in partnership with the LSC and online interpreting service provider Significan’t Ltd to develop the service, which will go live on 22 September 2008.

Deaf BSL users living in England and Wales with a low income or receiving benefits will be able to obtain free and confidential legal advice through a webcam with a broadband connection. Caseworkers are fluent in BSL, and will provide specialist advice at Community Legal Service Specialist Quality Mark level.

Advice topics will be phased in stages, starting with Welfare Benefits from September 2008. Employment will follow from November 2008, Housing from January 2009 and Debt from March 2009.

William Hayden, Development Manager, Direct Services, at the LSC, said, “The Community Legal Advice (CLA) helpline is currently inaccessible to Deaf BSL users and therefore the CLA is not meeting its obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. They are acutely aware that they have a gap in their services. Nevertheless, with the development of new types of technology such as video communications and the Internet, there are now fresh opportunities to dramatically improve access to the CLA for Deaf people.”

Jeff McWhinney, Chief Executive of Significan’t, said, “RAD is the first organisation in the UK to utilise TokBox technology – developed and used in the United States – to deliver legal advice online. Significan’t are proud to work with the RAD to turn this technology into a reality and benefit Deaf people seeking legal advice and support in the UK.”

Tom Fenton, Chief Executive of RAD said “This is a unique opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness specialist advice in BSL via the Internet. It will provide evidence of the need for access to legal services for Deaf people.”

For further information visit www.radlegalservices.org.uk.

Media enquiries – contact:

Lorna Bareham
Marketing & PR Administrator
Royal Association for Deaf people
18 Westside Centre
London Road
Stanway, Colchester
CO3 8PH
Email: lorna.bareham@royaldeaf.org.uk

It seems that at the root of everything is the absence of an Act of Parliament which enforces the right of Deaf people to use BSL. If a BSL Act was enacted, this would be the sure fire way of:

• Ensuring that service providers provide access to BSL users;
• Bringing BSL back into education as the predominant way to educate Deaf kids;
• Re-training audiologists to stop negative attitudes and forcing parents to conform to oralist methods;
• Improving Deaf and BSL awareness among the general populace; and
• Increasing the number of BSL users in the UK.

So, what do we need to do to get a BSL Act enacted?

1. Draft a BSL Bill, enter into a consultative process;
2. Decide whether to introduce it to Parliament via:
• A Private Members’ Bill by way of a Member of Parliament championing our cause; or
• A Public Bill (go here for more information on Public Bills).
3. The following stages then take place in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords:
• First reading (formal introduction of the Bill without debate);
• Second reading (general debate);
• Committee stage (detailed examination, debate and amendments. In the House of Commons this stage takes place in a Public Bill Committee;
• Report stage (opportunity for further amendments); and
• Third reading (final chance for debate and amendments are possible in the Lords).
4. When a Bill has passed through both Houses it is returned to the first House (where it started) for the second House’s amendments to be considered.
5. Both Houses must agree on the final text. There may be several rounds of exchanges between the two Houses until agreement is reached on every word of the Bill. Once this happens the Bill proceeds to the next stage: Royal Assent.
• Royal Assent (granted by the monarch); and
• Act of Parliament (the proposals of the Bill have now become law).
6. Commencement of the BSL Act, and equality for the Deaf community at last?

Any volunteers to kick off the process and draft a BSL Bill?

A few years ago, I “came out” to my family as a BSL user, and informed my parents that I wished they’d brought me up bilingually from an early age, rather than forcing me to struggle with oralist methods.

While I just about managed to cope with oralism, and get a good education using oral methods, it was always a struggle. I guess I sort of became acclimatised to it, because I don’t remember school being exceptionally difficult even though I didn’t have any communication support. It must have been difficult, but as highlighted on Grumpy Old Deafies, there’s an useful analogy whereby “if you’re given or created a certain character at the start of the video game, you go with it. Deaf included”. Not knowing anything different, you just get on with it, don’t you?

It wasn’t until I joined RAD that I started to become accepting of my Deaf identity, as I was exposed to BSL on a daily basis, and learnt to love and use the language. While insistent on using Typetalk and lipspeakers, I was eventually weaned off these methods of communication and instead prefer to use BSL to English Interpreters. When you have a shit-hot interpreter either translating English into BSL or vice versa, it’s so effortless for the Deaf person to take in and comprehend the information. Believe me, I know, because I used lipspeakers during the PG Diploma in Law and Legal Practice, and it was hard work – you’d sit there lipreading (70% guesswork) and trying to understand what’s being said around you, which doesn’t leave you enough time to actually digest the information.

Also, it’s so much more fun hanging out with Deaf people than hearing people! You never that old issue cropping up: communication, hearing vs. Deaf etc.

I digress. My family were rather taken aback by my outburst, as they hadn’t realised just how strongly I felt about BSL, and when I asked them all, “why don’t you learn BSL?”, they were all, “Ohh, no time; what’s the point, would never get to practise enough etc.”

Nonetheless, my parents, sister and Sam have now all booked a place to do “Introduction to BSL” at St Julian’s Community College, Newport from September. Hopefully, they will then go on to do Level 1 and Level 2. I’ll be practising with them, don’t you worry!

After delivering a DDA presentation in BSL at RAD’s Welcome Hear workshop today, I was approached by one of the delegates who himself has some degree of hearing loss. The conversation went something like this:

Man: Can you speak?
Me (speaking): Yes I can.
Man: Did you not think that it would be better to speak rather than use BSL (although your interpreter was excellent)?
Me: Well, I do have a right to decide which method of communication I want to use when presenting.
Man: Yes, don’t you think by speaking your presentation would have been more accessible?
Me: Possibly, but I do prefer to present in BSL. Also, my speech isn’t perfect.
Man: I think your speech is very good.
Me: Ok, but I do find it more natural to present in BSL than to speak, particularly as if I’m nervous, my speech patterns aren’t as clear. Besides, what if I couldn’t speak at all?
Man: Well, obviously you wouldn’t be able to speak then.

Discuss.

University of College London’s Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre is currently carrying out some valuable research into BSL and Deaf people. They need volunteers to participate in their research projects.

If you’re interested, go here.

I am a Participant, because I am passionate about BSL and this research will help the Deaf community to press the Government for official recognition as a whole.