ASLI, the Association of Sign Language Interpreters, has released a statement denying that the organisation was consulted about recent changes to Access to Work – which mean many deaf people have to employ a salaried, full-time interpreter, with a cap of 30 hours of support.
The full statement is below.
It has come to our attention that Access to Work advisors are claiming that ASLI have been consulted with regard to the newly imposed ‘salaried interpreter/30 hour capped rate’ policy shift.
ASLI wish to state that they were not consulted on this matter. ASLI will be contacting the DWP to make it clear that Access to Work representatives should not be making this claim, and will request that they cease to do so.
Should DWP representatives wish to consult with ASLI they can contact the Access to Work Working Group. The Working Group is a valuable resource which has not, to date, been properly utilised by the DWP.
In the past six months the Working Group has undertaken the following actions: surveyed members for their views on Access to Work and the salaried interpreter role (a report from this survey will be issued shortly), created templates for members to use when contacting their MPs on this issue, and issued a letter regarding the salaried interpreter policy to Mike Penning MP – Minister of State for Disabled People.
They have also been collating members’ experiences of the problems caused by the salaried interpreter policy, attending UKCoD meetings about Access to Work, and have been liaising with the British Deaf Association (BDA).
This statement is being widely circulated in order to refute the claim that ASLI had any involvement in the AtW salaried interpreter guidance. ASLI continues to support and represent its members.
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pennybsl
February 5, 2014
My first thought upon reading the above (been rather out of the loop lately) was:
“ASLI is supposed to be the UK’s premier professional BSL interpreting organisation”???
…why didn’t DWP look at this aspect of Deaf workers’ access?
Did the DWP people, with zero Deaf Awareness, instantly contacted a ‘Organisation for Deaf & HoH people’ who may have apparently, or chose to, ignored the professional courtesy to say, ‘oh, not us, you ought to be contacting ASLI and the BDA?’????
Within ASLI, I know great people who have loads of integrity, definitely outflanking many politicians and Civil Servants on governance and fairness.
ASLI members and associate members, as well as other Deaf Access communication organisations in the UK, pay significant amounts for their affiliated membership fees. Therefore ASLI, with its extensive policies and quality assurance, is equivalent to a quality trade union, though it is not regarded as one. In my eyes, ASLI is on the same level as the medical professions’ unions.
Therefore, DWP, in its constantly blinkered approach to ‘people on the edges of society’, breached the Equality Act by overlooking – as long as the statement is fully factual – not only ASLI, but also the BDA and a number of contacts representing Deaf people at work and training.
We have wasted soooo much time, effort and money challenging the DWP’s proposals in the past 6 months.
It is MADDENING, our Deaf (and hearing, even our employers’) taxpayers’ money are being abused by this unprofessional, un-human rights approach by the DWP whose eyes are glued to the money tills, instead of working in transparency to respect the efficient quality of our (Deaf) careers in society.