Two new Facebook groups offer advice and support in BSL for the Deaf community during the coronavirus crisis

Two new Facebook groups have been set up to support Deaf people who use BSL during the coronavirus crisis.

The two groups are the Deaf Translators/BSL Interpreter Volunteer – Access for Deaf Community group and the Deaf Stay At Home group.

Both groups have been set up by Deaf actor and activist Lynn Stewart-Taylor, after she became concerned that Deaf people who use BSL had suddenly been left without BSL support, and also had a lack of access to key information in their own language.

Remarkably, the Deaf Translators/BSL Interpreter Volunteer group has led to hundreds of BSL interpreters offering their time and services for free to support the Deaf Community.

Both groups now have thousands of members.

Deaf Translators/BSL Interpreter Volunteer – Access for Deaf Community group

This group aims to give Deaf people BSL support, with BSL interpreters voluntarily offering their time for free to help Deaf people communicate with organisations they may need to phone.

Lynn and Lisa Groves are the admins monitoring to check all of the interpreters and translators’ credentials, making sure they are registered.

So far the group has helped Deaf people contact their GPs and also contact their children’s schools. In one case, the group helped a Deaf man who was stuck at home to order shopping and medication.

Here’s the BSL video for information about the group:

Deaf Stay At Home group

This group aims to share reliable information in BSL so that Deaf people know what to do to keep themselves and other people safe.

Lynn also says it aims to be “like a virtual Deaf club, filling in the gaps.”

You can watch the BSL video explaining what the group is all about here:

Lynn says that she set up the groups “after being shocked and disappointed about the lack of interpreter during Boris Johnson’s televised media briefings and concerns for Deaf people’s wellbeing being stuck at home with no information. It’s not good for our mental health.”

As well as setting up the Facebook groups, Lynn then launched a #whereistheinterpreter campaign, that led to a BSL interpreter being added to the BBC News coverage of the briefings.

Finally, Lynn says:

We need you – please help us at 4pm today we will send the British Government a call to action to provide BSL interpreters on television announcements about the
#coronavirus
#whereistheinterpreter
#covid19
#stayathome

we will need you to retweet/Facebook using the hashtags above.