Inclusive and Accessible Tourism Industry Workshop: Sign Source Anthony Sinclair
Fantastic. So, we are drawing towards the end of the day. I know it's really disappointing. This is the last time you're going to hear from me.
A if I force you to do it, doesn't um but our next demonstration is from Anthony Sinclair from Sign Source. Um, now before I bring Anthony up and his interpreter, I just want to say today has been incredible and I do encourage each of you to go away, take the tools, take the resources, take the learnings, take the journeys that other people have been on in other organizations and begin to make change within your organization. It doesn't matter how small, how big, how long it's going to take you. The point is that you start trying, you start doing because that's how we work towards a better future. And I know somebody who understands us is Anthony from Science Source. So Anthony, please
make your way to the stage. And then after Anthony, we will have our closing remarks from the absolutely fabulous [Applause] Emor. Hello. Let me um give my description of
who I am. I'm a male. I'm a white male. uh medium height. Uh I have I've bit of balding but um short hair. I've got a beard. Um I have a navy blazer and a pink shirt on underneath it and navy trousers with brown shoes. The voice that you're hearing is the voice of a British Sign Language interpreter. That is a female
voice. So that might seem a bit um jarring because I'm a male, but you're hearing a female voice. Um Chloe is sitting opposite me, the interpreter. So
it's lovely to be here. very nice to meet you all and I just want to say thank you so much uh to tourism and I for organizing. I feel so privileged um and honored to be invited here today. So I want to start off with um some questions linked to uh hearing privileges that we all benefit from in society. So I want you to put your hand up if you feel like you benefit from these privileges.
So the first uh question is I can assume that most people I meet on a daily basis will speak the same language as me making communication easy. Raise your hand. Thank you. The second question, I book into a movie at a time that suits me. The third question I have, I can have an early night in the hotel and watch TV with um with a range of uh TV options. The fourth question, I can enjoy chitchat with hotel or restaurant staff or other patrons. The fifth question is I can check into a hotel and ask about the services on offer and I can have uh smooth communication with that and the last one. I can order my meal easily and
communicate the choices and modifications that I need. Thank you for raising your hands and participating. And I'll explain a little bit about that later on, but um this will all be linked to the presentation that I'm going to give. So to start off, I want to explain
about my background. So I was born profoundly deaf and I was born into a family who are not deaf. So everybody in my family can hear. We call them hearing people. So I have an older brother and two younger sisters. And I grew up um using an oral method of communication. So I
moved when I was 11 years old to a boarding school. It was a grammar school in England. So it was the only one all across the UK. So I had to move to England, disconnect from my family and move over to a boarding school. When I finished my um grammar
school education, I went to Sheffield University to um study a sports science degree and then I moved back to Northern Ireland and I did my post-graduate education um at PGCE to become a qualified teacher. After that, I set up my own business which is called signed source. And the reason why I wanted to set up my business um was really I'm an advocate for the deaf community and and um for deaf awareness in society um and British Sign Language and I have uh I work with a range of different sectors um the medical sector, education, hospitality, sports, I um deliver training for a range of different sectors and I want to give a bit of my experience in regards to hospitality. So, I remember my wife and I, we just got married and we had gone on this fantastic honeymoon. We went skiing and
we went skiing every single day and we were very active and we just loved it. It was a great time. But one evening we decided we just wanted to chill out. Uh we had this luxurious hotel room and in the evening we agreed that um we wanted to get room service um which was just beautiful and we wanted to just watch a film. So we thought really excited for
this, really looking forward to it. So we got our room service, we had our mail delivered and we got ready to watch the TV, but unfortunately there was no subtitles available. So this was in Canada and Canada are actually quite advanced compared to Northern Ireland, you know. Um so I was actually quite shocked about the um inaccessible TV options. So the staff were very apologetic and tried to work out how to make this more accessible, how to get the subtitles working. They had to get
another staff member in. Then what they did, they took the TV away, brought in another TV. So my wife and I were sitting there awkwardly. It completely killed the romance of the evening. So as you can imagine from that, that has stuck in my memory ever since. So I thought I need to set up this uh business with sign source. And the aim
of my business really is to make uh the the community much more accessible for the deaf community um especially in the hospitality sector. Uh and I suppose a lot of people aren't really sure about what to expect when a deaf customer comes in. So that's what I do. That's I deliver training on how to uh you know welcome our uh deaf clientele. So I deliver training in Belfast. So um
companies like the Mac Theater or Kremlin Road Gail or um the Titanic Museum in different restaurants um lots of different um businesses. Recently I delivered deaf awareness training with the Lyric Theater and basic British sign language. And the reason why I did that, we had a deaf actress called Paula Clark. She actually was involved um it's the first ever deaf actor in Northern Ireland who has been involved in mainstream production. She was actually involved in Richard III in the Lyric Theater, which is massive for the deaf community to break through these barriers. Um, so the plan was that we were going to invite the deaf community to come along and watch the show. So I
would say about 99% of those deaf audience members had never been to the uh theater in their whole lives because it had never been accessible to them. So I provided um basic British Sign Language or sorry the Lyric Theater provided British Sign Language and Irish sign language interpreters. So as you can see we have a I'm using British Sign Language today. Um, so I have a British Sign Language interpreter, but then we have ISL interpreters on the side of the stage, and they're completely different languages, which just shows the beauty and the richness of the language and culture within Northern Ireland, especially in the deaf community. So I delivered um deaf awareness training and basic sign language to um the staff members and actually there was over 50 deaf audience members and actually a lot of them experienced quite a bit of anxiety but they went to support Paula who was a a big uh character in the deaf community. Um and the staff then had um
the awareness of how to sign you're very welcome here today and you know just given them basic information and a lot of the audience members um were able to then communicate with the staff and this was a very new experience that they knew these signs um would you like a beer? Would you like a pint, a half pint, a glass of wine? Do you know that was really a new experience for the deaf community and also um the deaf people love to talk. It's just a part of our culture. So even having that awareness of tapping a deaf person on the shoulder to let them know we've got five minutes do you know or those signs to say we've got to go right now. The show's starting. So the deaf community enjoyed themselves so much and just had the best time because it was the first time in their life their lives they actually had such an accessible experience and it just changed their um perception of going to the theater. So that's kind of a bit about what I do. So this is about my family life. So my wife, she is hearing and my children are all hearing. So they're not deaf but
they're bilingual. And my wife is uh fluent in British Sign Language. She is an interpreter, but it's not the interpreter in front of me. Don't don't make that mistake. She's not here today.
She's um the the lady on the screen. Um and we communicate through British Sign Language. So, whenever I'm not in the room, then they um communicate in spoken English. And that's just how our household works. So, I want to show you a little video. This is my daughter. Her
name is Kate. So, she's six years old now and loves getting into mischief. She's the boss of the house. Um, but this video shows Kate at 16 months old and we had just been to the park kind of um like a country park and we were just home and this is our conversation and I'm going to show you the video of the conversation that we had at 16 months old with Kate. [Music] [Music] Baby, baby food.
Oh [Music] baby, [Music] Back dog. Apologies. I just realized that there was no audio in that the last time um in the Titanic. I think there was um audio description on those videos and I realized that you didn't have one. I'm
so sorry about that. That that wasn't accessible. Apologies. So the video um got actually over 16 million or six million views. Um and
lots of parents of deaf children actually were just so mesmerized that a deaf child or a hearing child could sign. Um and actually a lot of the advice is that you know it's better to learn sign language later on. But actually that is um maybe not correct. So um what has been noticed is that uh what I noticed in my home that my kids had less tantrums because they were able to express themselves through this visual medium and then later they developed that um ability to speak in in spoken language. So, for example, the
the sign for milk or that we're be able to point, you know, really simple ways of communication. Um, iconic sign language what we is what we call it, you know, like rain, you know, it's very visual, the sun, um, words like this, they're iconic signs, which means that you can see and understand what that means. Um quite simply um and lots of parents who have deaf children they encourage both spoken language and sign language. Um so it means that they have access to both worlds. You know they can communicate
through spoken language and um through sign language as well. So I'm just going to read some of the statistics up on the board. So um the slide says access to services and this is about public attitudes. So over twothirds which is
67% of deaf people and people with a hearing loss have experienced negative attitudes or behaviors in the last year which is a statistic given by RNID and a third so 33% of people with hearing loss and just under twothirds of deaf people 61% and British sign language users 63% have experienced people talking to someone who is with them rather than directly to them in the last year And that's another statistic from the RNID. So these are um statistics from the RNID. And interestingly, I have asked some um of the deaf community. Now we deaf people have different levels of hearing loss. Some some deaf people can um hear better than others and speak uh better than others. And lots of other
deaf people are profoundly deaf, have never heard any um amount of sound, so they have less ability to speak. Um, and I asked them, do you know the people who can hear a little bit better? Um, do they have that ability to chitchat with hospitality staff and they said actually no because it's very tiring for me. I'm profoundly deaf. So I I don't have that access. I'm always using gestures or written language. Um, so I had a bit of a misconception there. But um, this is
actually linked to um, attitudes. Do you know people who grow up um who can hear and use spoken English as a as a medium to communicate um you know that can really affect their confidence if they become deaf later in life um and their well-being as well. It can really affect your mental health because they maybe don't have that knowledge on how to communicate or society doesn't have that knowledge on how to communicate with deaf people to slow down or to make sure you're making eye contact or to um have clear lip patterns and things like that.
But interestingly, most of the time, uh, say if I treat my wife and we're taking my children out for a restaurant or a meal or a hotel and I would love to treat my wife, um, to these I I'd like to lead this, uh, treat. They still look over at my wife or, you know, and and my wife doesn't want to have to translate for me. She just wants to, you know, relax and enjoy. But they're always, um,
averting their gaze to my wife or my children and they're only kids. Do you know when they say tell your dad, you know, whatever it is, and they're only children. Do you know imagine your children having to translate for you, it doesn't feel right. Um the brain isn't fully developed yet, and they feel like they have this responsibility to translate for their dad. And um you
know, lots of deaf people have that similar experience. And also um for for deaf or hearing people who become deaf and in in later life that can also affect um their their confidence. So the slide now says uh barriers and the statistics given is uh 75% of deaf people find hospitality venues inaccessible and 80% of deaf people rely on textbased communication at work. So it's quite a high percentage and actually um over time it is getting better but it's still a very high percentage. So, we're still working um and we're really grateful for, you know, society becoming more accessible and the changes that are being made and the barriers that are are being adapted. Um
but we're, you know, everything's new and and we're making these changes as we go along. Like for example, the Titanic um museum um or Kremlin Rode, you know, we have these exhibitions and if you're a hearing person and you go in and you have this immersive experience, an interactive experience with these holograms, but for deaf people, we have a translation on a screen. Um so we're looking back and forward from the interactive immersive experience and then to the the sign language. And actually, even though this is an amazing step in accessibility, it does take away from the immersive experience that we are able to have because we're trying to work out which translation is this related to, do you know, because it's the same person every single time.
Whereas, if you were a hearing person, you've got the sound and the sights and and you're able to immerse yourself in that experience. So, it's a little bit different for deaf people. And I think a lot of venues don't actually realize this. And a lot of um times these types of venues are very Englishbased but English can be a deaf person's second language because sign language is a visual medium. So it's um it's our first language and I'll explain about that um on my next slide. So in regards to the history of
sign language in 1880 sign language was banned in uh Milan because professionals believed that the best way to educate deaf children was through oral spoken language. They believed that if they educated deaf children in sign language that would disrupt their development of speech. Now, sign language has a different grammatical structure to English um which then influenced this uh decision and this was a really dark time for the deaf community. It had a really big impact. So, fast forward to the 1970s, there was research um conducted that um was about deaf children who leave school at 16 have a reading age of around 9 years old. So that was 90% of
deaf children who leave um school at 16 had a reading age of 9 years old. So the deaf community were incredibly behind and their uh understanding of written English was very behind. So for example, if they're trying to access um access services in in written English now um it's not actually accessible because of those barriers that were in place in the past in regards to education. And for me, you know, I had access to education through university and I had the opportunity to have interpreters, um, which was amazing for me, but the previous generation didn't have that access. And it was really thanks to them that had to advocate for years and years and years to make life more accessible for the next generation, and I benefited from that. But we're still working um,
and advocating for increased access all the time. So the question is who should fix the problem and I'm not trying to be too direct um but trying to work out who who bears this responsibility because at the minute it's always become a deaf person's problem you know the deaf community's problem and now actually we're realizing do you know if society changes if we can make adaptations in society to make society more accessible it can make our lives as deaf people more just much easier to engage with the community. We're so grateful for interpreters. Um interpreters almost it's like the gap or sorry the bridging the gap between the two worlds. Um so for example right now I'm using British Sign Language on stage and then we've got an interpreter translating that into English so that you can all understand my presentation. So right now the
interpreter is bridging the gap. However, what I would love is to have direct communication. It's more natural, you know, it's more engaging. So, we have people who are committed to and willing to learn sign language. Um, and I train deaf awareness and that helps to increase that engagement and it's getting better and better all the time. So, for example, my neighbor, I have two lovely ladies who live next to me um and they're learning sign language at level two and the other neighbor um has attended training in deaf awareness and that makes my home life so much easier. They can understand
my culture and my language that it's different as well. So, this is a video. It's a woman and she's s she's deaf herself and she's um signing and it's just uh an example of of how um deaf people don't actually have access to the information behind them because they can't hear it. So that's just an example of a lot of deaf pe or a lot of people sorry think that um maybe deaf people can communicate using um you know spoken language and lip reading but actually we don't have access to what's happening behind us. Um so say for example if there was a fire alarm that went on you know we can't hear that information. Um so it's all just about access and about how do we access that information and make it more accessible for deaf people. Um the next slide is about hospitality.
So um the written English says 65% of deaf hospitality workers experience workplace anxiety. 50% reported feeling isolated due to a lack of communication and 30% have left jobs due to po poor accessibility and discrimination. So these statistics are again from um RNID. So currently we are in the process
in the dev community um to the legislative process to um engage with the BSL and ISL act and we're hoping that next year in February 2026 that this it recently we've just passed um the second stage of the leg legislative process and um so the NI assembly are on the second stage. It's just been passed. So um we're in the third stage at the moment and then we need to move through the stages to become um for it to become an act but unfortunately uh it doesn't mention on the act at the moment or the bill at the moment about hospitality businesses and private businesses. So that's a big challenge for us how do we make these changes in hospitality. Now,
there are businesses um that are willing to make these changes and we know that there are budget constraints um and so we really appreciate those businesses that are really willing to make these changes and to make um these businesses more accessible for the deaf community. I'm sure you're all starving, so I promise this is the last slide. Um so I'm going to show you a quick video. This is our dream world. Um so hopefully
one day, one day we'll have a world like this. I don't know when, but this is just my dream. Um, this video is in a different language. So, it's in it's filmed in a different country. Um, but
there are subtitles so you can watch it. One thing that you will see, um, the term deaf and dumb. So, this is a a a different country in there. Um, this was filmed in 2014. Um, we don't use that terminology. Um, we just use deaf or heart of hearing. Um, or a person with a
hearing loss. Deaf and dumb. Please don't use that term. I know that that's in the video, but it's it's not an accepted [Music] [Applause] term.
Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Hey, covering my [Music] [Applause] crash. [Music] Yeah. Heat.
[Music] How do I [Music] get sun? [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.
[Music] So, thank you very much. I'm sure you're all very excited for your lunch and it was lovely to meet you all and to be here. And if you have any questions um about um sign source and what what we do um and and how to approach deaf people, please um approach me during the lunch and I'm more than happy to chat. I hope everyone has a lovely day. Thank you so
much.
2025-05-09 22:51
