It’s officially one year since we started asking the Government: What has changed?

09.03.2021

#WhereIsTheInterpreter. What has changed?

The first video message on Twitter exactly one year ago on the 9th March 2020.

#WTI Tweeted everyday …

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5 months since walking to Downing Street (October 2020), what’s changed?

When we started this campaign, there was no Interpreter AT ALL. Nothing. On BBC 1.

The outrage from this has brough the Deaf Community together in the largest class action on behalf of Deaf Rights that there’s ever been in the UK. Nearly 300 people brought claims against the Prime Minister.

The Government then provided BSL Interpreting on only one channel in-vision only, which isn’t good enough

Finally in December 2020 in the face of our Judicial Review, the Government said it would provide BSL Interpreters on all its social media feed…

….but so far ‘technical issues’ have meant that hasn’t happened.

We’ve also won over social media, and the Chair of the Women & Equality Select Committee (Conservative MP, Caroline Nokes) recently said that the Government’s failure to provide Interpreters was ‘Shameful’.

So, the Government is taking better and better steps to make its information accessible to Deaf people, but we’re committed to a total solution.

In terms of What’s Next for #WhereIsTheInterpreter?:

We, Sign Language community, want to see the Government provide BSL versions of all information on-line, not just with BSL Interpreters for television broadcasters.

In January 2021, the Government asked the High Court to reject a judicial review over #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign, claiming that it is “unarguable” under the Equality Act and “serves no practical purpose”.

Despite not conducting an Equality Impact Assessment for its daily coronavirus briefings, the Government still insists

‘the briefings are fair and accessible to everyone’.

Their bid to stop the court case failed however, when earlier this month February 2020, a High Court judge granted permission for the judicial review to go ahead.

No date has been set yet for the review, but we will be sure to follow up in a future blog post! Watch this space!