Deaf Walk 2020

Deaf campaigner walks from Gloucester to London to call for interpreters for Government briefings.

Lynn Stewart-Taylor and fellow campaigner Mark Hodgson set off from Gloucester Deaf Association on Saturday 3 October and travelled to London via Bristol and Bath. They arrived at Downing Street on Friday 16 October with more than one thousand letters for the Prime Minister, demanding that a BSL interpreter be “live and on platform” at such broadcasts.

Lynn Stewart-Taylor says the daily coronavirus briefings held by Boris Johnson during the lockdown had no sign language interpreter provision. She says “I knew something bad was going on but I couldn’t understand what and how bad it was, I felt sick with panic and worry.”

She says that a live interpreter would have given her the information she needed to keep herself and her friends and family safe. It inspired her to take action and she founded the “Where is the Interpreter?” campaign.

Lynn says “Deaf people have been telling me that the Government’s refusal sends a message to them to say ‘We don’t care if you deaf people live or die.’ This is really impacting their mental health and wellbeing.”

The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments have been providing British Sign Language interpreters to make their information accessible to their Deaf communities. Many countries around the world are doing the same.

The walk leaves the Gloucester Deaf Association on Colin Road in Gloucester at 9am on Saturday, October 2020. It reaches City Hall on College Green in Bristol at 11am on Tuesday, October 6, and aims to get to Downing Street on Friday, October 16.