Deaf Instagram users have pointed out a major error in an Instagram video Olly Murs has released for his ‘deaf fans’ of him signing along to his new song.
While it’s labelled as being ‘BSL SSE,’ (referring to British Sign Language or Sign Supported English) and Olly states that he wants to make his ‘fans in the deaf community proud,’ the video features very few signs which can actually be understood by deaf people.
That’s because it’s almost all performed in Makaton, a ‘language programme’ which uses sign with speech and symbols, and is most commonly used by non-deaf people with other disabilities.
Olly’s video can be seen here, while two screen grabs below show Olly’s post, and that of isabellasigns, who taught him.
There is no suggestion that Olly was aware of the difference between BSL and Makaton when he made his video.
Rose Ayling-Ellis has now commented:
Here are some earlier reactions from deaf people on Instagram:
“This is NOT sign language. I am deaf and I don’t understand.”
“Please do make sure to reach out to deaf person who [can] teach you correct BSL signs.”
“Did a hearing person teach you that? Use BSL as Makaton is just a tool and taken from BSL. BSL is a language in its own right.”
Scroll down for more comments from deaf people at the bottom of the page.
The screen grabs:
More comments from deaf people on Instagram:
One comment directed at isabellasigns says: “shame you’ve told him this is BSL instead of being honest and saying it’s makaton.”
“Isabella has actually taught him makaton as opposed to BSL both very different and need to be recognised differently, otherwise issue is others who are none the wiser will then believe this is BSL especially as its a very public account with a lot of fans and followers.”
“I don’t know what’s the worst thing about this. A) It’s Makaton, not BSL. B) I think Olly really thinks it’s BSL. C) The HEARING parents of DEAF kids heaping praise on him because they don’t know the difference themselves. D) his teacher lying to him about teaching him BSL. PLEASE only learn BSL from a deaf person.”
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Glenn faeroy
October 8, 2022
For me it’s beyond belief. Such mistakes as they shouldn’t be made. You know from the start he should know whether it’s BSL or if it’s makaton I can’t fathom how he didn’t know which it was. I find that hard to believe. That’s not to say that he didn’t know because he may not have known, but that itself is still worrying. A native signer should always be used. There are plenty of talented BSL influencers. If you want to be completely accessible, you think you would use native deaf people to help you get the best musical video that you could.
So I’m very disappointed.
I do think Isabel should perhaps have been more clear with him?. And how the video would be structured?.
And I certainly would urge him to seek out deaf nferences And we do the video as it should have been done in the first place.
This kind of thing is very damaging to the deaf community because parents will look at this and they were saying oh that’s the right signs to use for our children when it’s not. People then also use hearing influences like this and more mistakes and errors like this will happen in future. This kind of thing really needs to stop.
As I’ve said before, hearing artists and famous artists need to go directly to native signers. Is that simple? It’s not rocket science stop using hearing influences who clearly don’t know what they’re doing
Like I say I’m very disappointed