Katie J Redstar: The lack of BSL interpretation at the recent Covid 19 press conference is not acceptable

We often see the Covid briefings and press conferences when the Prime Minister wants to address the nation at once live on television. They are used to give out important information in regards to the ongoing pandemic and relay information such as how people need to protect themselves and their loved ones, friends, work colleagues and so on.

Since the pandemic began back in March 2020, the deaf community and British Sign Language users have slammed the government as inconsiderate, discriminatory, a shameful excuse for a government.

BSL users are being excluded from these briefings quite clearly. It seems we are still an afterthought, a minority. During the briefings the Prime Minister conveniently ‘forgets’ to include BSL interpreters and employ them on stage in order to give the deaf BSL users the same information as the rest of the nation.

Earlier this year in June, I –  Katie J Redstar, a deaf blind actress, author and sign language coach – took the government to court for discrimination, and won the case. At the end of the trial the outcome was that the judge agreed that the government was guilty of clear discrimination and they stated that it was not an ongoing breach.

However, just yesterday on 27^th November 2021, there was an special announcement on BBC about the new mutated variant of Covid 19. Shockingly, no sign language interpreters were provided – not on television, nor on any social media outlets or BBC iplayer.

I am sorry to say that after the court case I truly thought that the government had learned their lesson and accepted that they needed to make better provision for the BSL community but it seems to me that their answer for everything is to sweep it under the carpet and move on. This includes our requests for BSL interpreters to be present at all briefings.

If the government were truly serious about not breaching the Equality Act of 2010 (which was revised in 2016) then surely they would do everything in their power to make sure they had BSL interpreters for this very important briefing. I mean how hard is it?

I would have assumed they would certainly have done their best to avoid any backlash from BSL users, and wanted to avoid alienating the deaf community even further. The government want us to trust them with data and information – yet how can we when they are pushing us aside as if we don’t matter and none of this information is relayed in our first language.

I believe we need to stand our ground now and if that means taking things further then so be it. We WILL NOT be PUSHED ASIDE for YOUR pride! Treat us as equal citizens of your nation please.

Boris,  I’m not asking you to learn to sign although it would take you approx 10 years to be at the standard we need and that would be the answer seeing as you ‘don’t want’ an interpreter. However you are denying me and thousands of British Sign Language users the right to access the information like anyone else in the language we choose to use.

When will this discrimination stop? When will you accept that you need to provide interpreters? And if it’s too short notice to get an interpreter then don’t do the live broadcast till you have one – it’s not that complicated. We must be a priority.

Being deaf and having BSL as a first language is not the actual disability- it’s people like you that are the disability. You disable us from fully taking part in society. You are not enforcing things we need to be put into place. You are also clearly not accommodating people who need alternative communication methods.

I cannot believe there was no interpreter at this weeks briefing. After everything that was said and done during the court case, it seems our request for equal access and BSL interpreters to always be present have fallen on the real ‘deaf’ ears.

Yours.

By Katie J Redstar