The Deaf Health Charity, and online interpreting company InterpreterNow, have together launched BSLHealthAccess which enables the provision of immediate, on-demand access to British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters for communication with Deaf people in health settings free of charge during the current coronavirus situation.
More than 70,000 Deaf people across the UK use British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate as our first and preferred language, but we know from research that Deaf people’s health is already much poorer than hearing people’s. Deaf people often rely on asking family and friends to interpret for them but they can’t do that with the current social distancing and stay at home policies.
When people wear PPE it makes communication and lip-reading impossible and Deaf people are being left frustrated and isolated. We need to be able to communicate with doctors and nurses now. As a result, Sign Health has teamed up with Interpreter Now to provide a solution, to fill the gaps in BSL interpreter provision in health settings and provide on-demand BSL interpreting when it’s really needed.
“Deaf people must be able to access healthcare, whether to visit their GP, have a scan during pregnancy or be treated in intensive care for coronavirus. We should all be able to talk to our doctors and nurses, and for them to talk to us.” Said James Watson-O’Neill, Sign Health Chief Executive
