Following on from the back of hard work done by ASLI‘s Professional & Consumers Working Group, more organisations have joined in to create a campaign: BSMHD, BDA, Action on Hearing Loss, Sign Health and Signature.
There is a survey for BSL users on their access to health care (deadline 20th April): http://www.surveymonkey.com/BSLHealthcareSurvey
Please do let any Deaf people in the UK know about the survey. Deaf people have felt the effects of the government’s mission to outsource interpreting services over the last few years. Many Deaf people have never had adequate access to health care for years which outsourcing has certainly not helped.
This survey aims to collate the experiences of Deaf people on the ground, those who are really effected by the drive for profit, the deterioration of standards, the loss of work for registered interpreters and ultimately the reduction in access for Deaf people.
Whilst this blog reports on issues generally from an interpreter’s perspective of the effects of outsourcing, what the organisations involved need is hard evidence of what the reality is for Deaf people in the UK trying to access health care. If you have good feedback about your local service please fill out the survey too. In the post code lottery of outsourcing and who your local interpreting contract ends up with, it is more likely you have experienced less than adequate services.
Please fill out the survey today. Have your say and pass it on.
I don’t understand the first sentence in the third paragraph: “Please do let any Deaf people in the UK know about the survey.” It seems to be the opposite of what you are saying. Right?
No. It just means share the link around.
The more deaf people that fill in the survey the better. Interpreters and the deaf community know what access to health care can be like, in some cases non-existent. The survey will provide proof of that reality and therefore provide material with which to lobby government.
Oh, sorry. My eyes saw “please do _not_ let any Deaf people in the UK know about the survey.” I guess the British English of “please do let” threw me. My mistake. More power to you!
Ah! That explains it. I’d looked at sentence a few times and thought it made sense. I hadn’t realised it was so British! That’s made me laugh!