Emily Howlett: Putting creativity before accuracy is damaging BSL accessible videos

Before we start, I just want to say; I’ve been there. There’s no need to do a Google search and send me a list of all the times I’ve been there, because I know. I am part of the problem, and hopefully that means I can be part of the solution too. Glad we cleared that up.

Quite often, working in the arts is hard. Hell, working ANYWHERE is hard, it’s just my personal experience is pretty hardcore arts-based. But there are plenty of careers, especially when you are self-employed, in which you have to occasionally just grit your teeth and accept things.

You might be forced to agree to employ a trainee instead of a qualified interpreter, or you lose the job.

You might have to portray a stereotype that you hate and find humiliating, or you lose the job.

You might have to accept situations, real or scripted, that you know are bunkum, or you lose the job.

There are a million types of nonsense you might have to put up with, or you lose the job, and the job is, of course, everything. You wouldn’t be in this career otherwise. And we all need to eat and pay the bills…

So, we know that sometimes people take on work they don’t necessarily agree with 100%. Personally, I don’t think we should ever attack people simply for taking a job; if they do nothing to try and rectify problems once they are employed, that’s a different issue.

We won’t change things from the outside, by simply rejecting work that smells fishy, but we also won’t change things by quietly backing down every time and just ‘playing the role’, rather than challenging opinions and attitudes. Or even, sometimes, publicly questioning whether we are the right person for the task.

And sometimes that task is the making of BSL accessible information videos or vlogs.

Now, I am a great supporter of accessible material being unique. I love it when a theatre company use some of their non-signing actors in a BSL video, maybe introducing themselves using basic signs. This is inclusive and encourages signing and connections between Deaf audience and the artists in the project.

I love it when a large corporation have their full staff signing the company name at the end of their communications video, for the same reasons. It is SO MUCH BETTER than simply watching one interpreter, who is often nameless and far removed from the project or company, telling us everything.

But I will tell you what I hate. Quite passionately. And I am seeing more and more of it recently.

‘BSL information’ videos from companies, productions and individuals that MAKE NO SENSE.

Videos which are called ‘beautiful’ and ‘mesmerising access’ by people who DO NOT USE BSL and do not realise that the ‘information’ in these videos is non-existent.

The ‘BSL’ in the videos is some weird mix of several sign languages (some which must come from other planets), or the handshapes/positions make it impossible to understand, or there are any number of other issues with the actual quality of what is signed, and HOW it is signed.

It IS BRILLAINT to include people who maybe aren’t fluent in BSL, but are having a go, and forging a bond and BEING INTERESTING. Just don’t have them sign anything crucial, unless it is double and triple checked for accuracy, otherwise your access is imaginary.

There is a HUGE difference between videos and vlogs that are for fun, or for art, which can be ANYTHING, and official accessible material which should be clear, accurate and informative.

If you don’t include people who can actually sign the necessary informative parts correctly, then these videos are blatant box-ticking, however creative they are. Let me say it again; I APPLAUD CREATIVITY WITHIN ACCESS MATERIALS. I really, really, bloody do.

But, for the sake of your d/Deaf audiences, don’t give us gibberish and call it BSL. Even if your signer is a native BSL user, or a qualified interpreter, GET IN A BSL ADVISOR. BSL is so beautiful and fluid; a second opinion will never, ever be a bad idea. Employers; I beg you – don’t put your signer (Deaf or hearing) in a position where they simply don’t have the support of their peers.

In other words, don’t make us look ****, in ‘accessible’ videos, just because you think it looks pretty.

Because it might look pretty to you, but I guarantee it is turning your d/Deaf audiences and customers away in their hundreds.

Read more of Emily’s articles for us here.

Emily Howlett is a regular writer for this site. She is a profoundly Deaf actress, writer and teacher. Emily is co-director of PAD Productions and makes an awful lot of tea. And mess. She now has not one, but four grey eyebrow hairs. C’est la vie. She tweets as @ehowlett