Deaf News: Daily news summaries for Northern Ireland’s Deaf community under threat

A community project which sees daily news updates interpreted into British and Irish Sign Language is at risk, after funding from the Northern Irish Government stopped at the start of April.

The Department for Communities (DfC) provided financial support for the initiative, which sees videos shared on Facebook and YouTube, from May 2020 to March 2021.

In a public video posted to Facebook, contributor Paula Clarke said: “We have sought funding from a range of different sources but so far it has been impossible to secure further funding.

“We know how vital this service is and as a team have decided to volunteer to continue uploading news but only three times a week due to time constraints.

“The work takes up a lot of time hence not being able to offer it every day on a voluntary basis. At the moment we are not even sure if this can be sustained.

“The daily service is vital so [that the] Deaf community are given full access to all the information pertaining to the pandemic eg lockdowns, resurrections and vaccines,” she said.

A Change.org petition has since been launched online, which has received more than 280 signatures at the time of writing.

The Limping Chicken has approached the DfC for comment.

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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Update: In a statement issued to The Limping Chicken, a DfC spokesperson said: “The Daily Deaf News is a Deaf community service delivered by Deaf volunteers which translates Covid related news in to British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language.

“The Department committed to a temporary funding arrangement from 28 May 2020 to 31 March 2021 to support the service.

“Officials met with organisers of the service on 22 April 2021 to help them explore options for continuing their service and this engagement will continue.

“The Department has not been informed by the group of a petition and this was not raised or discussed at the meeting.”