Liam O’Dell: Jokes about interpreting Boris’ nonsense are poor political put-downs – stop

My accessibility is not your punchline. While I am no British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter myself, I stand in solidarity with professionals who are often ridiculed on social media when making TV appearances, and whose job description still – somehow – remains considerably alien to most of the UK public.

This brings me to a Twitter exchange with Labour MP Jess Phillips on Wednesday, when the women’s rights campaigner gave her two cents on the keynote speech delivered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

“I feel I should be in the corner like a BSL interpreter,” wrote the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, quote tweeting an earlier post about the Tory leader voting against a minimum seven-year sentence for rape.

I feel I should be in the corner like a BSL interpreter https://t.co/FvqccXvtd3

— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) October 6, 2021

But my issue is not with the Labour amendment to the UK Government’s controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (I published my thoughts on the proposed legislation back in March); I’m in support of their calls for a minimum sentence. The problem was what Ms Phillips may have implied in her two tweets. Ending her first with “#facts”, I was led to question whether she thought it was the job of an interpreter to offer clarification or ‘fact-check’ the individual for whom they are interpreting.

“Not too sure what Jess is implying here,” I commented. “If it’s that you want to be ‘in the corner’ adding additional clarifications for viewers, that’s not what an interpreter does. If it’s that you want to make mocking remarks about a person speaking, that’s not what an interpreter does.”

Not too sure what Jess is implying here.

If it’s that you want to be ‘in the corner’ adding additional clarifications for viewers, that’s not what an interpreter does.

If it’s that you want to make mocking remarks about a person speaking, that’s not what an interpreter does. https://t.co/jsFWbCCIZ3

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) October 6, 2021

I wasn’t expecting a response from the Birmingham Yardley MP, but I received one: “Just that they appear in the corner,” said Phillips, “that’s all”.

Except a question was left – and remains – unanswered: if she felt like she should “be in the corner like a BSL interpreter”, what would she be doing in said corner in a hypothetical scenario? Losing her religion?

One may wonder why I’m so frustrated by a single sentence put out by one British politician, but it should hopefully go without saying that the words spoken or written by our lawmakers have an impact. If these words have the potential to cement a misconception in the minds of the general public – intended or otherwise – then this needs to be pointed out.

Though unfortunately, the impact has already been seen in the replies to Phillips’ tweet. “BS interpreter,” two people comment. Another suggests to the MP that “this is the only sign you’ll need”, with an accompanying GIF which I’ll leave you to figure out. Nevertheless, we’ve seen comments like these before in response to Deaf people’s requests for accessibility…

We only need to go as far back as the start of the year up to July, when many of us were asking the UK Government: where is the interpreter? In addition to the unhelpful remarks about ‘just using the subtitles’, there were those who questioned or joked about why we would want access to an interpreter if all they’re doing is interpreting the babble that emanates from the mouth of our Prime Minister.

Whether you agree with that characterisation is up to you, but suggesting that something doesn’t need interpreting, captioning and so on, because one individual considers the content to be far from flattering, is a very serious assertion to make. At its most dangerous, it’s a form of censorship by discrimination. Offering a different viewing experience to different people is, by definition, not accessibility.

Comments like Phillips, and the discourse over #WhereIsTheInterpreter, have demonstrated just how misunderstood the role of interpreters has been in recent years – not least during the pandemic.

It’s time we move past the point where lipreading – and the guesswork involved with it – is not relied upon by journalists to proclaim what a politician said away from the microphones. It’s time we worked to educate politicians and the public on the vital job interpreters have in making environments accessible to Deaf people. Our political discourse, and the country’s Deaf awareness, will be all the better for it.

Photo: Ollie Cole.

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