The Deaf actor and performer David Bower, best known for his starring role in smash hit film Four Weddings and a Funeral, has called the organisers of London 2012 “cowardly” and”immature” after complaining about his treatment during a visit to the Paralympic Games.
Disability News Service website has reported that after visiting the equestrian dressage event in Greenwich Park, Bower alleged that he was chased and shouted at by a volunteer: “Running after a deaf person in public and being shouted at in front of hundreds of spectators by agitated stewards is outrageous and demonstrates beyond a shadow of doubt the lack of deaf awareness.”
The reason? An apparent lack of accessible information about when to keep quiet during events. According to Bower, there was an absence of subtitles or BSL interpretation on the screens in the Park, which meant that deaf visitors were oblivious to instructions to the crowd.
stuart crewes
September 7, 2012
classic! another chapter in the catalogue of errors and shortsightedness (no offence meant to fellow myopics) around ‘actual disabled people’ at the paralympics.
keep noisy!