BBC attacked over lack of sign language interpreter

A BODY representing deaf people in Wales has criticised BBC Wales for running an item about the lack of sign-language interpretation – without any sign-language interpretation.

Action on Hearing Loss Cymru director Bec Woolley was interviewed on BBC Wales about public services’ failure to provide sign-language interpreters for deaf people.

During the interview, she highlighted the inability of health boards to ensure that deaf patients receive crucial health information through sign-language interpreters.

A Wales Deaf Broadcasting Council spokesman said: “In spite of BSL (British Sign Language) being recognised by the Welsh Government in 2004 as a language in its own right for deaf people living in Wales, signlanguage equality in Wales is not foremost in the minds of the hearing bureaucrats.

“It is ironic that a news item about sign-language interpreter failings did not itself have interpreter provision for the deaf community.

“However, BBC Wales has a history of such failures dating back to 1988, when a deaf woman was murdered in Newport.

“It is disappointing that after 30 years, BBC Wales is still failing to take account of its deaf sign-language viewers’ need for specific news items of profound interest to the deaf community here.

“We have lodged a formal complaint to the BBC about its failure to feature a sign-language interpreter for this particular news item.”

A BBC Wales spokeswoman said: “BBC Wales wants to make our content as accessible as possible for audiences.

“Our subtitling service is always available to viewers and we also provide a weekly news roundup featuring a sign-language interpreter.”