APPENDIX 7
Memorandum submitted by the British Deaf
Association (BDA)
The British Deaf Association (BDA) is grateful
for the opportunity to submit written evidence to the Culture,
Media and Sport Committee's inquiry into public libraries.
The BDA exists to ensure that deaf people who
use British Sign Language (BSL) have the same rights and entitlements
as any other citizens. We are the only national charity run by
deaf people for deaf people and provide a range of services to
the deaf community. These include community advocacy, youth services,
a national textphone helpline, and a health and counselling service
which provides counselling in British Sign Language. The Association
also runs a multi-media information unit which makes information
accessible to deaf people in BSL formats, for example on video
and CD-ROM.
Deaf people who use Sign Language face many
barriers to their full participation in society, not least when
it comes to accessing information. For many BSL-users English
will be a second language. Consequently, information in written
form can be difficult to understand.
The BDA believes that this poses a real challenge
for public libraries seeking to broaden access to their resources.
However, we have been impressed by the attempts of a number of
libraries not just to improve access for deaf people to existing
provision, but to offer new services and resources specifically
targeted at the deaf community.
Two local authorities in particular have developed
extremely valuable services to their deaf communities. The British
Deaf Association believes that they constitute models of good
practice which other libraries would do well to follow.
Gateshead Borough Council recently established
a project to facilitate deaf people's access to information at
Gateshead Central Library through a system of videophones. The
videophones are based at five locations around the town, including
other libraries, deaf organisations and a local college. Using
these terminals, deaf people are able to contact the Central Library's
reference section in their first language, British Sign Language.
A member of staff, who is herself deaf and a BSL-user, receives
the calls and provides a gateway to the information held by the
library.
A similar scheme operates at Bury Central Library.
Set up in December 1998, the project aims to provide a service
for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, students of British
Sign Language, professionals working with deaf people, and parents
of deaf children. The library stocks videos, CD-ROMS and dictionaries
for students learning BSL, as well as books on deaf culture and
history, and a collection of signed and subtitled videos. As in
Gateshead, deaf users can contact the library by videophone and
their call is taken by a member of staff with BSL skills.
Both Gateshead and Bury libraries offer information
on equipment for deaf and hard of hearing people, including induction
loops, alarm clocks, textphones and closed caption video recorders.
They also operate a lending service which enables deaf people
to borrow equipment for a free trial. Gateshead is now developing
its project to produce information about local services in BSL
formats. With funding from the local Health Action Zone, the library
is producing a series of signed and subtitled videos about local
health services.
The British Deaf Association believes that these
schemes constitute excellent models for other libraries to follow.
Not only have they improved access to existing library provision
for their local deaf communities, they are making a significant
contribution in combating the social exclusion of deaf people.
We hope that the Government will actively promote such models
in the future.
January 2000
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