Only 12% of English councils offer a comprehensive advice service in British Sign Language (BSL) – a report by the Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) has revealed.
The charity’s Access Denied report found that 41% of local authorities offered a medium level of BSL advice, while more than a third (38%) had a low quality or no BSL advice service at all.
RAD said that most councils offered little BSL access (through an interpretation or Video Relay Service), but a “significant number” offered more ad hoc support such as members of staff trained in BSL.
“Our research investigation tells an all too familiar story of councils failing to meet the needs of local deaf people.
“It is absolutely critical that deaf British Sign Language users are able to access information and advice on par with hearing people, and are not disadvantaged in any way.
“Whilst it is encouraging to see some examples of good practice, it is clear from our findings that deaf awareness remains very poor across much of local government.
“It is unacceptable that many deaf people are forced to depend on family or friends for access to critical or even life-saving information and advice,” RAD’s joint chief executive, Sue Evans, said in a statement.
The data comes from almost 300 lower and single tier local authorities in England who were sent a Freedom of Information request by the charity. Responses from county councils are not included in the report.
33 deaf people were also surveyed as part of the study, with 56% of respondents saying they had access to a local BSL advice service.
The remaining 44% said they did not have such a service at all, and of these, more than two-thirds (68%) said they would go to family or friends for advice instead.
Elsewhere, 12% said they were unhappy with the service provided to them in their local area.
In its recommendations, RAD calls for all local authorities “with a known deaf population” to provide or commission a “deaf hub” where deaf people can access information or advice, and to “review and refresh their deaf awareness training offer”.
It also calls for “more and better data” to be collected by deaf people nationally – from local councils and bodies such as the Office for National Statistics.
The full report is available to read on RAD’s website, with BSL translations provided.
Photo: Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD)/YouTube.
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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Cathy
July 14, 2021
What on earth is going on with Local Councils? When a deaf person requires an interpreter, they make their request to the Council and this request has to be abided by under: The Equality Act 2010. So, why are Councils not adhering to this lawful point? I have had meetings in my home with Council staff and they have booked an interpreter for me each time. This is not difficult and if we need Deaf Awareness training it should be given, if only to offer deaf people an interpreter for equal access to their services. All this is not rocket science at all and it simply exposes lack of awareness surrounding deaf people’s needs communicatively.
Fred Trull
July 15, 2021
This report is nonsense. It assumes that there is an equal need for BSL interpreters everywhere.
This is not the case because BSL users are not evenly distributed about the country.
We know that about 20% or one fifth of all BSL users are in London. Therefore all London boroughs should have interpreters. On the other hand you could get all the BSL users in Cornwall on one bus and that is why they only have two or three interpreters on file.
In the same way there is a heavy concentration of sign users in parts of the Midlands, in the large cities and so local councils should be filling the need. On the other hand you can find areas of the country where there are few BSL users and it would be pointless to employ permanent interpreters.
I think some people need to stop spreading fake news about BSL users. It isn’t helping anybody.
Lyn
July 21, 2021
I believe the report deals with this point and acknowledges there may be no need for provision in some areas: “Rural local authorities, in particular, were likely to fall under this category (we do however recognise that some local authorities will have very small, or no, deaf
populations at all)” – pg 14.
This is an extremely useful report highlighting what most of us already know and experience but cannot piece together. The experience is similar or worse for those requiring access to social care, such as care home or nursing home provision.