Revealed: 17 BSL-interpreted COVID-19 press briefings disappear from BBC iPlayer

Seventeen coronavirus press briefings delivered by the UK Government have disappeared from BBC iPlayer, The Limping Chicken can reveal.

Upon searching for coronavirus updates on the catch-up service, this website found that those held between 18 July and 25 November 2020 are no longer available.

This includes 14 coronavirus press conferences, three ‘data’ briefings from scientific advisors, and one televised address to the nation in September.

Although all of these sessions can be found on the 10 Downing Street YouTube channel, the finding undermines repeated comments made by the Government around the availability of press briefings in British Sign Language (BSL).

In a letter to the Commons’ Liaison Committee in February, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote: “We have worked with the BBC to establish BSL interpretation at all No10 press conferences via the BBC News Channel and iPlayer, available via its News channel, YouTube channel and iPlayer, as well as on our social media channels.”

BBC News have been approached for comment.

Meanwhile, The Limping Chicken has received comments from seven out of the 11 charities on the Government’s communications working group, expressing their support for BSL interpretation or accessible COVID-19 information.

Commenting on concerns around social distancing, a spokesperson for the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) said the charity “has not accepted” that this is an “acceptable reason” for not providing an interpreter in the room in Downing Street.

“Our position is, as it has always been, that as part of a comprehensive and systematic approach to accessible communications across Government, BSL interpretation should be provided as standard for all live public broadcasts.

“This has been outlined in the ‘shopping list’ which we produced with a number of other leading disability charities and which has been endorsed by the Women and Equalities Select Committee,” they wrote in an email.

Fazilet Hadi, from Disability Rights UK (DR UK), said: “DR UK backs calls for BSL interpreting at government broadcasts. This is a reasonable adjustment required by the Equality Act. The government’s failure to provide BSL is totally unacceptable.”

Sense’s Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Research, Sarah White, added: “It’s not enough that British Sign Language interpretation is only available on certain channels and social media feeds.”

Meanwhile James Taylor, executive director of strategy, impact and social change at the disability charity Scope, said: “[We have] attended many meetings with government throughout the pandemic to raise concerns about the wide range of issues affecting disabled people, including the inaccessibility of communications.

“Inaccessible communications, and lack of clarity over guidance, have left many disabled people feeling frustrated, anxious, and that their needs don’t matter to government.

The National Autistic Society confirmed that they did not raise any concerns about this in the meetings, nor did the MS Society or Mencap.

A spokesperson for Mind replied to say that the charity is not a part of the group as far as they are aware, and will provide confirmation on 12 April.

Muscular Dystrophy UK were unable to comment, while RNIB and Leonard Cheshire did not respond to The Limping Chicken’s requests for a statement.

The remarks come ahead of the judicial review hearing – the date of which is expected to be announced later this week.

Photo: Number 10/Flickr.

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.