Kate Boddy: My campaign for Specsavers to provide BSL interpretation – in my late Father’s legacy – has been successful (BSL)

I’ll never forget the day I started to see my Dad in a different light. It was July 2000, and I was sixteen years old. My Dad took me with him to London to campaign for the recognition of British Sign Language.

He had always been deeply connected to the Deaf community, serving as chairman of Mold Deaf Club for years and working tirelessly on projects and charities to benefit Deaf people.

As a child, it felt like we were always at some meeting or event and I thought it was normal. It wasn’t until much later that I realised how these experiences shaped me, exposing me to the challenges Deaf people face and instilling a sense of purpose in me.

But that trip to London felt different. I saw us as part of something larger, and for the first time, I understood why Dad poured so much effort into fighting for Deaf people’s right to communicate in their own language.

We travelled with a large group of students and British Sign Language tutors, and that’s when I saw Dad not just as my father but as a passionate activist, fighting for justice.

He shared stories with me, like how, as a young man, he dreamed of working with aircraft. When he told his teachers, they dismissed his ambition, saying he was “deaf and dumb” and wouldn’t get a job like that.

Determined to prove them wrong, he later secured an apprenticeship at British Aerospace. He took his awards and newspaper clippings back to his school to show them how wrong they’d been. He continued to have a successful career as an aircraft engineer spanning over 45 years.

Later on, when Dad wanted to become a sign language tutor, a local college refused to pay for interpreters he needed to access the course. When Prince Charles was scheduled to visit the college, my dad organised a peaceful protest and was photographed with Charles, explaining Deaf people’s struggles to access education.

Prince Charles then mandated that the college provide interpreters for Deaf students in the future. Dad went on to spend many happy years as a sign language tutor.

Dad always told my sister and me never to take “no” for an answer and not to let anyone else dictate what we could or couldn’t achieve. He inspired us to do what’s right in life, and I now feel a strong bond with the Deaf community with a career in advocacy and interpreting spanning over 25 years.

For years, Dad and I campaigned and lobbied NHS and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) about the lack of accessibility and support for Deaf people in healthcare.

Many times, he faced barriers trying to access healthcare, and as an interpreter, I dealt with constant battles around inadequate contracting with spoken-language agencies. It felt like something had to change and it seemed like it would take a tragedy before action would be taken. Little did we know that tragedy would be Dad’s.

In 2022, he began seeing floaters in his vision and went to Vision Express several times, but they refused to provide interpreters. They sold him a new pair of glasses based on his old prescription without checking his eyes, missing a chance to diagnose a detached retina. A few weeks later, Dad lost sight in that eye and was diagnosed with cancer and his eye had to be removed.

Dad and I visited two opticians, a GP, and two hospitals before he was provided with an interpreter. Every service expected me to interpret , despite being heavily pregnant at the time. It was only after I gave birth one day before Dad’s surgery that an interpreter was booked, as I couldn’t be there.

After the operation, there were repeated battles for interpreters. Dad had to navigate follow-up care and appointments, often feeling stripped of his autonomy and unable to make independent healthcare decisions.

A few months later, we received devastating news from the biopsy: the cancer was aggressive, and if it wasn’t caught in time, it would likely spread to his liver, becoming terminal. All we could think of was the number of delays and missed opportunities in his diagnosis, wondering how that would impact his prognosis.

In the year that followed, Dad attended numerous appointments for his prosthetic eye, clinics, and further scans, with an ongoing expectation that family would interpret. Spoken-language agencies showed no willingness to coordinate with us, leading to even more frustration.

Eventually, a year later, Dad’s cancer returned, and he received a terminal diagnosis. Again, family were expected to interpret during critical appointments, and by the end, Dad had simply lost the will to engage with his care.

At one point, Specsavers twice refused to provide interpreters for his sight tests, including one mandated by the DVLA for his medical driving licence.

Sadly Dad passed away on 14/11/23 and after a period of reflection I felt a deep determination to hold these companies accountable not only for delaying my dad’s cancer diagnosis and for the lack of access that ensued but for all the Deaf people struggling to access healthcare.

It felt like somehow all my experiences and guidance from my dad had led me to this point. I became determined to influence change and wrote to HRH King Charles, members of parliament and media outlets, copying the companies and hospitals who let him down into the correspondence.

Vision Express, the company who missed the opportunity to diagnose the cancer, were quick to apologise and commit to providing access for deaf customers. In comparison Specsavers were not as forthcoming.

It’s been a tiring journey but I just had to remember his mantra – don’t let anyone tell you no. With persistent campaigning, I’m pleased to say that, as of January 2025, Vision Express and Specsavers have both committed to providing communication support for Deaf people across the UK.

My Dad’s legacy is one of resilience and change, and I hope his sad story paves the way for others to receive the access and respect they deserve.

We still have a long way to go and there is a lot more that can be achieved in terms of equity to healthcare but this is a battle that I’m willing to take on in Dad’s name. If you’d like to know more about the campaign work that is being completed please follow my YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/@that.deaf.health.injustice?si=54Zs5OphwAbmFGV-

By Kate Boddy