Liam O’Dell: The first ‘lessons learned’ report on Covid dismisses the concerns of Deaf people

It was supposed to be promising. The first proper review into the UK Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, carried out by the Commons’ Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees, looked to establish “lessons learned” from the Conservatives’ response to a global health crisis.

If done right, it would have condemned Boris Johnson and his cabinet for its shameful refusal to provide an in-person British Sign Language interpreter – despite other countries such as Scotland and Wales managing just fine.

We only got one paragraph.

I’ve split it up for readability, but the full thing – in one large chunk – reads:

“Although the communications strategy in the initial phase of the pandemic was broadly successful, it is worth noting that there was some confusion over who the stay at home order applied to, and there was criticism of the Government’s decision not to provide a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter onset at the televised briefings. Similar briefings in Scotland and Wales did include an interpreter, socially distanced from Ministers. 

“In the UK, there are more than 80,000 Deaf people whose first language is BSL. The decision not to include an interpreter at these briefings, where important public health announcements were often made, may have reduced their ability to understand the messages provided and in turn potentially decreased trust and compliance among this group.”

The number of conditional phrases in this section of the report is ridiculous. How on earth was communications at the start of the pandemic “broadly successful”, when the Government received a joint letter from eight disability organisations about its inaccessible communications in April 2020?

How can it be seen as “broadly successful” when we all know that the Government refused to provide an on-platform interpreter for its daily briefings on the coronavirus, and continues to do so whenever a No 9 press conference takes place? Hell, they were later found to have broken the Equality Act over their scientific information being inaccessible to the Deaf community.

👉Disappointed with the report. (See below)

👉No consultations with Sign Language minority groups, deaf and hard of hearing organisations.

👉The 150-page document, Coronavirus: Lessons learned to date, is from the Health and Social Care Committee

— Lynn Stewart-Taylor (@jerseysnail) October 12, 2021

This is acknowledged in the quote above, of course, but I don’t think you could consider the UK Government’s communications strategy at the start of the pandemic “broadly successful” when it’s inaccessible to thousands of people.

This only goes to show how little consideration the concerns of Deaf people are given in mainstream politics. Unforgiving in their decision not to provide an in-person interpreter, the Government dismissed our pleas for accessible information. Now, a group of MPs with the power to hold them to account over their failings during the pandemic have underplayed the serious impact the discrimination has had on the Deaf community.

They go on to say that the UK Government refusing to provide an in-person interpreter “may have reduced their ability to understand the messages provided”. Again, another conditional.

One mention of Deaf people! One!

“The decision not to to include an interpreter at these briefings… may have reduced their ability to understand the messages provided & in turn potentially decreased trust & compliance among this group.”

“may have”?!!!! https://t.co/Oqritixwgl

— James Watson-O'Neill (@JWatsonONeill) October 12, 2021

If a Deaf person who uses British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate can’t access information in BSL, then they’re not going to understand it in any other language – whether that be spoken English or bloody Klingon from Star Trek.

It gets worse in the second half of the same sentence: the lack of an interpreter may have “potentially decreased trust and compliance among this group”.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if the UK Government essentially implies that it doesn’t really care about me or my community by refusing to make public health information accessible to us, I’m not going to be inviting Boris Johnson around for tea and crumpets any time soon.

In fact, I remember the incredulous reaction from the disability community when the National Disability Strategy was unveiled earlier this year. We knew how disabled people had been treated during the pandemic, we knew that the Government’s track record on disability rights and issues are appalling, so is it any wonder that we were unconvinced that the strategy will lead to any meaningful change to Deaf and disabled people?

The trust is long gone, and it will require a lot of work from the UK Government in order to win it back. A good place to start would be throwing its support behind Labour MP Rosie Cooper’s bill for a British Sign Language (BSL) Act.

Then there’s the recommendation relating to accessible information going forward:

“The NHS, local authorities and the Government, should ensure that health advice during the remainder of the pandemic and in any future emergencies should be available in a full range of languages, and that outreach programmes should reflect what is most effective in the cultural context of different communities.”

Why is it should, and not must? The former implies that it’s best that they do make information accessible to minority communities, but there’s no real repercussion if they don’t. It’s okay, folks, the Government are very busy people.

If public health information in future crises aren’t accessible to certain communities, then their lives are put at risk – it’s as simple as that.

As for future inquiries into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic – including the one due to take place in the spring – those in charge cannot afford to sugarcoat the failings from our politicians.

If we truly want to learn lessons from this devastating public health crisis, then the investigations must be wide-ranging and unflinching, addressing the issues faced by every community in our society.

A failure to do that will only doom our leaders to make the same mistakes again.

Photo: Ollie Cole.

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