Watch: Deaf father forced to use hearing son as interpreter for insurance phone call

Posted on November 27, 2020 by



Deaf people have voiced their frustration after a video surfaced on social media showing a hearing son having to interpret a phone call on his Deaf father’s behalf.

The clip, posted to Twitter and TikTok by Emma Kostick, saw brother Daniel sign a conversation with insurance company Aviva for father, Neil.

Emma told The Limping Chicken that the call was due to a leak in their upstairs bathroom, with the water damaging the ceiling of their kitchen downstairs.

“Prior to this phone call, Daniel called requesting to speak on behalf of my Dad, but this request was refused initially.

“They said it would only be possible if my Dad verbally confirmed, which we wanted to avoid, or if my Dad sent them an email approving this,” she said.

Upon sending the email, the family received a response from home insurance provider Quote Me Happy (a trade name for Aviva) to say Daniel had “full permission” to discuss the issue on the phone.

However, upon calling them back, he was refused the opportunity to do so, with Quote Me Happy telling them over email that their claims department does not have access to notes held by customer services.

The family were later forced to have a conversation with Aviva over the phone, in a call which took 40 minutes.

https://twitter.com/emmasditto/status/1330208383312547840?s=20

Emma continued: “My Dad is independent and perfectly capable of handling this himself. He has travelled the world alone, he has worked his entire life, et cetera, yet his in situations such as this he is degraded and humiliated.

“Furthermore, my brother usually lives at University and I am hoping to move out soon. It’s something he shouldn’t have to worry about.”

Since posting, the clip has gone on to receive over 19,000 views on Twitter, with a further 81,000 on TikTok.

When asked about what the response to the video has been like, Emma said it is “disappointing”.

“Although a vast majority of people have been understanding, there has been a number of unnecessary and frankly ableist comments.

“The most frustrating responses have been ‘there’s nothing wrong with this’ and ‘it’s not safe to use an interpreter service”.

“Ultimately, if the Equality Commission advises that refusing to take calls involving a third party from disabled people would be likely to be a breach of the Equality Act, then it is not for uneducated hearing people to make comments on,” she said.

In online guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the watchdog warns that policies which mean they reject calls from disabled people through a third party “could amount to indirect discrimination”, as its use is “likely to be a reasonable adjustment”.

Emma went on to add that the interaction made her feel angry.

She said: “The ignorance infuriates me and I don’t have any patience for it. I hate watching my Dad speak down the phone.

“It’s unjust and unnecessary as I know there are other, better ways to do this, such as a live chat or a text relay service.”

The family went on to express that they were unhappy with the service they had received from the company, and were told that Aviva would have accepted a conversation over text relay as an alternative.

“We are still unsure of their policies as this contradicts their last email, that they would need verbal permission.

“It is clear to us the person did not know what the procedure was for a Deaf person and more training is needed,” Emma said.

The Limping Chicken has contacted Aviva for comment.


Update: In a statement to The Limping Chicken, a spokesperson Aviva said the company is “committed” to supporting customers “in the best and most appropriate way that we can”, and aim to be “flexible and sensitive” when responding to their needs.

“We are sorry that in this particular case we did not manage the communications and the call with our customer as well as we should have done.

“Where we have got it wrong we will always put it right as quickly as we can and we will be in touch with this customer and their family to apologise for the frustration this matter has caused,” they said.

The spokesperson went on to add that employees receive regular training to help provide additional support to customers who need it, with further training put in place where required.

They also said that customers are provided with “a number of communication options” when contacting the company “to suit their preferences”.

They continued: “Our training also enables employees to make adjustments to our usual processes to allow them to have a good conversation in what can sometimes be difficult circumstances.

“There are a number of other ways in which we work to ensure our employees are well equipped to deal with situations such as this one and once again we are sorry that the service provided was not what it should have been in this case.”


By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.


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