The team at Cambridgeshire Deaf Association are reminded almost every single day how deaf people are refused interpreters for medical appointments.
It’s a frustrating situation for us but potentially life threatening for the deaf people who are the victims of not being given the service that they are legally entitled to.
Find out more in this video, and read on below for the rest of the article (click here to see the video on Facebook)
The irony is that the law exists that requires the NHS to provide interpreters. Not just one law, but now two!
So we decided to do something about it!
The DeafCard is an idea from our Advocate Ruth Godden. She designed it and ordered a couple of hundred cards after yet another tense conversation with a GP receptionist who steadfastly refused to book an interpreter for one of our deaf clients. The plan was to simply give a few out to the Community in Cambridgeshire.
Here at CDA we like to move fast. Once the cards were delivered we made a quick video and put it online, only really aimed at the Deaf community in Cambridgeshire.
It became obvious pretty soon after I clicked ‘post’ that the demand for the card reached way beyond our county borders and soon four-hundred request for cards had been received. We’ve had to do another print-run and apply a small charge to cover the costs.
This shows that Deaf people just want a simple way to let the GP or hospital know that they have legal rights to an interpreter and that fact is incontrovertible. Our DeafCard is a simple way to achieve that aim and directs the person reading the card some useful tips and routes to more information online.
Hopefully, these cards will mean those deaf people carrying them don’t have their rights violated when accessing healthcare.
You can get yours at www.deafcard.org
Andy is the hearing father of a Deaf son, and is also a child of Deaf parents. He is Managing Director of Cambridgeshire Deaf Association, runs Peterborough United’s deaf football teams and is Chairman of the Peterborough and District Deaf Children’s Society and teaches sign language in primary schools. Contact him on twitter @LC_AndyP
Sylvia webb
May 6, 2016
I need one saying I need a speech to text reporter at my GP surgery. I have tried the nice way, working with them, and I know they have got a texting programme of some sort as they have just started sending text reminders to patients but I just get fo bed off. I’ve tried taking my iPad with questions ready typed up for me to type in answers so the GP can say if it’s right. Trouble is when I get home I remember what I should have asked as a result of the answer and didn’t, then get confused about the answer. It just needs someone doing the interprwting and allowing the individual’s mind to concentrate on the detail. Even doing this I missed an instruction and had problems further down the line. And not everyone else can type/text as I do.
Debbie Lee
May 20, 2016
Hello I’m Debbie Lee I’m deaf I like yellow card 4 me I’m hard 4 deaf I would like one pls thx u