Rebecca A Withey: Tips for making your school production deaf-friendly (BSL)

It is also around this time that I end up turning down jobs or recommending others as there is such a high demand for BSL consultants and not enough of us to go around.

Whilst high end theatres usually have a budget to finance the costs of bringing in professionals who can make their productions accessible, schools often rely on volunteers or information they find on the internet.

However, after hearing about a deaf parents disappointment when their child’s school learnt Makaton instead of BSL for a signed song in the Christmas play (the school had unknowingly copied Makaton from a YouTube video) I decided to put a few tips together that you can share.

If your school has a deaf child, deaf children or even just deaf parents, there are many simple ways that you can include deaf audience members in this years production. Here are my recommendations:

Find a way to make the script easy to follow

Some schools are lucky enough to have equipment that projects the children’s lines for everyone to read. This benefits not only deaf parents and children but also means that hearing parents can understand what a nervous, mumbling child may be reading out.

If this is not possible one alternative would be to offer the deaf parents or relatives a copy of the paper script to either read beforehand or have as a guide whilst the play is running.

Reserve front row seats for any deaf relatives and check acoustics 

The closer deaf relatives are to the action, the clearer they’re able to see what’s going on and follow the storyline. It also makes it easier to lipread and to hear any sound, if they are hearing aid users.

If you have a hearing loop in your building, make sure it’s turned on and that it works.

Make sure the deaf relatives are seated in a place where any dialogue is visible and nobody has their backs turned away.

Throw in a signed song or infuse some BSL into the script 

Children’s plays are usually interjected with songs and this is a perfect opportunity for school children to learn BSL and sign a song.

It also makes any deaf audience members (that use BSL) feel involved and “seen.”

If a local deaf volunteer isn’t available to teach the school some signed song, look for videos on YouTube by deaf creators with a BSL following and positive feedback from the deaf community.

The best carols to sign are those with simple or repetitive phrases. My personal recommendations include Silent Night and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Attempting to teach non-signers a carol with lots of lyrics and new phrases will be hard work without a professional and will likely result in sloppy, messy signing.

A couple of songs to steer clear of for this reason include Oh Little Town of Bethlehem and We Three Kings.

If your script has recurring names, phrases or sayings you could learn the BSL for these and sign them simultaneously. You could even create visual signs with the words on to hold up too. This works well if it’s a humorous or memorable phrase for the story.

If you do decide to use some BSL signs, be sure to use a trusted BSL site such as UCL’s  sign bank or similar.

Ask the deaf relatives / children what they need. 

My final tip is perhaps the most important one. If you want to know how you can make a play deaf-friendly and you have a specific audience member in mind – make sure you ask them what they require. They may even suggest something that isn’t mentioned above.

In an ideal world all schools would have funding to pay for interpreters or captioning equipment but unfortunately this isn’t always possible.

So for those busy planning their Christmas shows, I truly hope the above helps. Let us know how your school gets on at being inclusive!

You can view Rebecca’s BSL Christmas song medley here. 

Rebecca Anne Withey is a freelance writer with a background in Performing Arts & Holistic health. She is also profoundly deaf, a sign language user and pretty great lipreader. She writes on varied topics close to her heart in the hope that they may serve to inspire others.