aCcEsS ALl AReAs FEATURE
other countries including, most recently, Ireland, the national sign language is a legally recognised language, so companies are clearer on obligations to provide sign language interpretation for Deaf people,” she added.
The US is one such place where sign language is a legally recognised language, and where you’ re likely see many more festivals and live music events supply performance interpreters as standard.
Millions of music fans across the globe have watched viral videos of US artists like Snoop Dogg being upstaged by their animated interpreters. Chance The Rapper made history by becoming the first artist to provide his own American Sign Language( ASL) interpreter on tour last year.
Here in the UK there are 10 million people affected by hearing loss, equating to one in every six of us. This amounts to a huge potential audience organisers and venues cannot afford to ignore.
“ It’ s a myth that music is something Deaf people can’ t and don’ t engage with,” says Jacob Adams, research and campaigns manager at Attitude is Everything.
BSL is an extremely important tool for connecting Deaf fans with music – around 87,000 people in the UK are BSL users – but it isn’ t the only way.
“ Access to live music for people with hearing loss can involve various adaptations according to the setting such as hearing loops, infra-red systems and captioning,” explains Adams.“ People also engage with music via other senses, including vibration.”
A handfull of festivals, venues and artists in the UK have been taking matters into their own hands and making proactive adjustments to improve accessibility. Attitude is Everything awarded Reading Festival an Outstanding Attitude Awards in 2016 for its approach in breaking down barriers for Deaf and disabled people.
It uses a combination of live and pre-recorded interpretations to make music and comedy more accessible to its large Deaf BSL-using fan base. Its organiser, Festival Republic, has been working hard to do more for the community of Deaf fans at Reading during the past several years. The Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham was also commended for its new BSL service in partnership with Performance Interpreting, offering tailored BSL interpretation as part of its core programme as well as upon
“ There is a lack of mention or transparency in legislation as to what these requirements are when it comes to sign language interpretation so the provision is inconsistent,”- BDA research and policy offi cer, Aine Jackson
request.“ Our aim is for as many Deaf British Sign Language users as possible to enjoy as many events as possible,” says Stephen Chaston, the venue’ s dedicated accessibility officer.
Examples like these demonstrate inroads are being made, but it is clear we still have a long way to go in the UK when it comes to making events fully accessible for Deaf and disabled fans.
This will undoubtedly be an important test case for the industry and one that AAA will be following closely. The outcome could potentially have a big impact on the future access rights and provisions for Deaf people at events. AAA
16 MARCH 2018 ACCESSAA. CO. UK