Deaf discrimination still an issue

Danske Bank in Northern Ireland paid £2000 compensation to a deaf lady this week after she brought a discrimination case against the company.

The BBC reports that the bank has promised to change proceedures to offer better service to deaf customers but it highlights an ongoing issue for people with hearing loss in contacting many companies and organisations.

While the lady was not a BSL speaker in this case, she needed the help of her brother to make an emergency call to her bank after noticing fraudulent behaviour. The bank had refused to help as they were not speaking with the official card holder.

This marks a serious problem for people with hearing loss. From a security point of view, the measure is in place to stop fraudsters claiming to have permission from the card owner. For those not able to converse over the phone however, it leaves a big problem.

It means that deaf people cannot interact with services in the same way or expect the same service as hearing people. This was the basis for the discrimination case made to the Equality Commission.

Discrimination solutions

However, there is a solution. Andrew Dewey is Managing Director of Sign Language Interactions, one of the partners at Forth Valley Sensory Centre. Andrew commented:

“Having to rely on a hearing person to make a call for you should be a thing of the past. British Sign Language (BSL) users living in Scotland can now use the online BSL video interpreting service called contactSCOTLAND-BSL, to make calls to their GP, Council and many other public and charitable organisations for free.

“For more information on how to use the service see www.contactscotland-bsl.org More and more private companies also offer BSL video relaying interpreting to make contact, which should improve access for Deaf people who use BSL.

Forth Valley Sensory Centre is a keen advocate of good service and equality for people with sensory loss. This includes hearing problems or visual impairments. We are able to provide sensory awareness training to companies to help them look at how they work with sensory people and help improve their services. We hope that we can see the end to discrimination in this way.