NEW SIGN LANGUAGE SERVICE
A new Sign Language Interpreting Service has been launched for Health and Social Care appointments in Northern Ireland.
HSC Trust areas and services: • Belfast Health and Social Care Trust • South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust • Southern Health and Social Care Trust • Northern Health and Social Care Trust • Western Health and Social Care Trust • Ambulance Service Northern Ireland • All Primary Care Services
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It will offer a range of in-person and remote sign language interpreting services for health and social care appointments. The service has been established in partnership with the Department of Health and has been provided by Sign Language Interactions whose core mission is to facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people, so that language is no longer a barrier to understanding and opportunities.
It will deliver a diverse package of communication supports for people who are deaf, deaf-blind and hard of hearing for health and social care appointments, including in-person and over video sign language interpreting (BSL-British Sign Language and ISL-Irish Sign Language); remote sign language interpreting; deaf/blind interpreting; lip speaking and electronic note-taking. Approximately 8,000 people use sign language in Northern Ireland including British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL).
The Disability Discrimination Act places a legal obligation on all businesses and organisations to make their services accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people. This means that members of the deaf community may struggle to access services and information available to the wider community. BSL and ISL interpreters play a crucial role in bridging that gap and making the interaction between deaf BSL/ISL users and non-BSL/ISL users possible. They also help to convey information in a way that written communication is unable to. Written communications are not as direct as signed conversations and can often lack the nuance that professional BSL/ISL interpreters can bring.
It is often assumed that most deaf people can lip- read, this is untrue. Lip-reading skills vary significantly from person to person and are affected by a host of issues, such as the
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he new regional sign language interpreting service has been launched from 1 April 2023 across the following
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