Isabella Signs issues apology following criticism over Olly Murs Makaton video

Isabella Signs has apologised for her role in a video which saw Olly Murs signing his new single in Makaton for his “fans in the deaf community”.

The Instagram clip was criticised by Deaf viewers on Friday, who pointed out that British Sign Language (BSL) is the legally recognised language used by the majority of those in the UK Deaf community.

Meanwhile, the British Deaf Association said on Tuesday it will be making contact with Isabella Signs following the video, which they described as “another example of the misrepresentation, cultural appropriation and commodification of sign language by hearing people for personal gain”.

“We will also be making contact with Isabella Signs to ask her to clarify in all future social media content and in interaction with celebrities that a) she does not represent the Deaf community, and b) the signs she uses are not British Sign Language,” they said.

In a statement posted on her Instagram Story, Isabella – full name Isabella Evans – admitted she “got this wrong” and the resources she had used to learn to teach BSL were “clearly unreliable”.

She wrote: “I learnt how to sign in order to be able to communicate with my little brother, Lucus, who has Down Syndrome, and struggles to communicate verbally. I mainly use a form of signing called Makaton to do so.

“Unlike BSL, Makaton signs are used in conjunction with speech at all times and in English grammatical word order. With Makaton, children and adults can communicate using signs and symbols.

“I thought I had done enough research to confidentially [sic] teach Olly how to sign using BSL, but I got this wrong and I’m really sorry. I myself am still learning constantly, but my resources were clearly unreliable and what I taught Olly was mistakenly in Makaton instead.

“I am so keen to keep learning and better myself, and I have reached out to reliable BSL organisations who I hope can help educate me on signing so I can continue to raise awareness for the community I love, as it means so much to me personally.”

Murs responded to one Twitter user on Saturday to say he was “sorry if it wasn’t clear” and that “I did try my best”, while the video remains on his profile at the time of writing.

He is yet to publicly address the criticism over the Makaton clip, and The Limping Chicken has contacted his representatives for comment.

Photo: @ollymurs/Instagram.

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.