A woman from Leeds has won her compensation fight over the lack of sign language for two No10 Covid briefings.
Katie Rowley, a deaf woman in her 30’s, took legal action against Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove. Rowley complained there were no British Sign Language interpreters for two of the 173 Government Covid-19 briefings in England.
Similar briefings by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, and from Stormont in Northern Ireland included British Sign Language interpreters on screen.
Ms Rowley, a self-employed actor, and writer said the Government had breached obligations to make broadcasts accessible to deaf people under equality legislation.
Ministers disputed this and lawyers representing Mr Gove said Ms Rowley’s claim should be dismissed.
However, on Wednesday, a judge based in London made a ruling in Ms Rowley’s favour.
Mr Justice Fordham said the absence of any British sign language interpretation for “data briefings” on September 21, 2020, and October 12, 2020 constituted “discrimination” against Ms Rowley.
He said damages would be assessed by a judge in a county court and added that the Government was not “in present or continuing breach”.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the court ruled our policy of using on-screen British Sign Language interpreters was lawful during the pandemic.
“Our priority has always been to reach the largest possible audience with important public information and we will continue to ensure that British Sign Language interpretation is made available during COVID 19 briefings.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel