Deaf News: Public Health Wales removes ‘gibberish’ sign language video following public outcry

Public Health Wales has removed a video on NHS screening, after members of the Deaf community slammed the “shockingly bad” and “dangerous” sign language translation.

The video, published on 19 August, resurfaced online this week, as campaigners highlighted that the female signer used the sign for ‘cinema’ instead of the correct sign for a medical screening.

The Limping Chicken has also confirmed that the signer is not listed on the National Registers of Communication Professionals Working with Deaf and Deafblind people (NRCPD).

In a complaint letter posted to Twitter, Deaf advocate Alison Bryan wrote: “None of the content of this video is intelligible. This is on par with the nonsense from the fake interpreter at the Nelson Mandela funeral, albeilt less public.

“The only bit that is ‘intelligible’ is the word ‘screening’ is signed in the context of going to the cinema or a film. PHW is telling deaf people to go to the cinema, apparently from the credits at the end, it will save my life.”

“This is also a safeguarding issue, specifically an issue of the risk of neglect. Deaf BSL users can be classed as vulnerable adults, here you have produced ‘BSL information’ which risks neglecting the needs of BSL users and their access to information.”

So @PublicHealthW you have a formal complaint from me about this. It makes no sense, you are telling me to go to the cinema to save my life? The rest is gibberish. You actually used public funds for this too. https://t.co/obrIfPL8VN

— Alison (@Deaf) October 21, 2021

Deaf actress Nadia Nadarajah added: “Health service is the most important information, so please don’t use [signers who are] unqualified or have a little experience on sign language.”

Sally Reynolds, one of three parents who successfully sued a concert promoter for failing to provide an interpreter for support acts at a Little Mix concert, said the video was “so poorly signed”.

“[It] tells deaf people to go to the cinema instead of a health screening! Shockingly bad to watch, my brain hurts now,” she tweeted.

Actor and writer Bea Webster said they could “barely understand” 99% of the video.

“She literally signed ‘why is film important’. That is not the kind of screening we’re talking about.

“This is why it is so important to hire fluent Deaf BSL users. This person clearly isn’t. Impacting our access to healthcare,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, the Association of Sign Language Interpreters (ASLI) said that they would “always advocate using qualified and registered interpreters for this sort of work”.

They added that alongside the Deaf Interpreters Network, they would raise this with Public Health Wales.

The Limping Chicken understands that the video was removed from the Public Health Wales channel sometime on Friday morning, with the organisation made aware of the issue earlier today.

In response to a request for comment, Public Health Wales said that a preliminary investigation is currently being carried out, and that a full press statement will be released later.

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.

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Update – 13:00: In a statement to The Limping Chicken, Public Health Wales spokesperson said they are “very grateful” to the Deaf community for highlighting the issue.

“Public Health Wales takes its responsibilities for providing accessible information for the deaf community in Wales very seriously.

”We would like to apologise for the inaccurate signing used in this video, which has now been removed from our website.

“We are urgently reviewing material posted as BSL and will remove and update any materials that are not fit for purpose,” they said.

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Update – 15.01: BSL interpreter Adrian Bailey (with the caveat that he is not Welsh) created this voiceover/transcript of the video, to show how indecipherable it is:

I have tried to make this as clear an English rendition as I possibly could, and I have tried in all good faith to make this as on message as possible. This was from my first viewing so it is a recording of an interpretation. pic.twitter.com/8eSh6Ff16L

— Adrian Bailey (@adrianjbailey) October 22, 2021

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Update – 28.10.21, 12:45: Public Health Wales has since told The Limping Chicken that the individual signing in the now-deleted video is a young deaf person, who participated in the video as part of a community project.

“We accept that this video fell short of acceptable standards, and we are taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again,” a spokesperson said.