Emily Howlett: One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to deaf consultants (BSL)

I live in a really old house. It’s definitely older than your grandparents’, and maybe older than theirs. It’s a great house in many ways, but it’s also annoying because whenever something goes wrong, it needs specialist attention.

For example, when the roof leaks, I can’t just slap on some new, modern tiles. When the bricks start to crumble, I can’t just replace them or glue the bits back on because they’re so old they have to be treated in a certain way, or my house can’t breathe. Or something (who knew a house needs to breathe anyway?).

So, I have to get an expert in to help me figure out what’s going on, what needs to be done, and whether I can do it myself or if it’s better to let them get on with it themselves. Again, I can’t just ask any old roofer; I need someone who knows about the specific structure and age of this particular roof.

And that involves hunting around for the right person, and sometimes paying a bit more when I find them, because I’m paying for a skill that I don’t have; one they have gained through training and experience.

Most people can understand this; a specialist job requires someone with a specialist knowledge to do it. And yet… some people (and companies) have real difficulty accepting the same is true of access consultancy. I’m not just talking about the employers, either…

BSL is absolutely having another (hopefully long-lived) moment in the mainstream, thanks to some high-profile opportunities being given to deaf artists and creatives.

A record number of people have been signing up to learn BSL (hopefully from deaf tutors, not random barely BSL-literate Insta-ready hearing hobbyists). Provision of BSL and captions for television shows, films, theatre productions and general events is increasing all the time. Deaf stories are starting to hit the mainstream media, and I will always lead the cheers for this because it’s about time.

However, the rising profile of BSL and the deaf community among the mainstream does come with a small issue; people don’t know enough about us yet. If you haven’t ever encountered deaf politics, you might easily sign up to one of those dreaded ‘BSL courses’ for only £25 which will leave you able to have a lovely signed conversation with, well, nobody.

If you aren’t aware that there are differences in the quality of courses on offer, you can’t make informed choices. (See also hearing-led baby sign, by hearing people, for hearing people. While families with deaf kids get sent to speech therapy. Ugh.)

It’s the same with access consultancy. Just because someone is a deaf BSL user doesn’t mean they are automatically a great BSL consultant. Someone who uses subtitles to access media isn’t necessarily a fantastic captions consultant simply because their lifestyle involves reading them.

If you’re creating a film with a deaf storyline, will any random deaf person be a good consultant? Well, to an extent, yes, because any lived experience will be informative. But is it the *best* way to work? I’m not sure.

If you’re asking someone into your workplace to provide access training, or Deaf Awareness classes, does it matter if they aren’t very experienced in structuring a workshop, or providing learning outcomes, as long as what they say seems reasonable?

The difficulty with employers not really knowing what they need is that it puts the responsibility on deaf people to have the self awareness and ability to judge for themselves whether they should take on a role.

It can be difficult to be honest about your own skills, especially when opportunities are so scarce, and the cost of living crisis means everybody needs to be earning more and more just to live with less.

But, for example, if you’re creating a Shakespeare play in BSL, there’s no point hiring a BSL consultant who is just really, really good at conversational BSL. You need someone who understand Shakespeare, and someone who knows how to make stage BSL beautiful and poetic – and they may or may not be the same person! And, equally, employers can be so vague about what they need – simply because they don’t really know themselves – that you don’t know what a job is going to entail, or who you’ll be working with, until you’re in the room, and then you’ve just got to muddle along as best you can.

Ultimately, I think there is so much out there now, it’s unfair for the pressure always to be on a deaf person to check in with an employer about the details of a job that is advertised.

The time when employers could say, “I can’t find any information about this!” has passed. A long time ago. BSL consultants and accessibility trainers are not a new concept.

The remit of the job roles is changing and becoming better understood, and the way to find someone who has the skills to best fit the role is simple; the same as any other job. Research what you need and then talk to people to find out what they can do. Don’t just grab the first deaf person you see in Tesco and say, “Hey, come do this job for me?”

Because we will. And then your roof will fall off.