Deaf community in B.C. calls for sign language during wildfire updates
Posted August 23, 2023 4:00 pm.
Members of the deaf community in British Columbia are calling on the province to include American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters in its wildfire updates.
Kimberly Wood, founder of the Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement, said through an interpreter that members of the deaf community have been excluded from receiving lifesaving information during these updates, and screen captions don’t cut it.
“There are many deaf Canadians who have experienced language deprivation growing up,” Wood said. “English is not our first language so reading English on a screen caption, sometimes not even in real time, isn’t the best for us. It’s not our primary mode of accessibility; we would prefer somebody signing in ASL.”
The Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement works on behalf of deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind individuals, as well as children of deaf adults and interpreters.
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Last weekend, when 12 deaf people had to evacuate from the Kelowna area due to encroaching fire, Wood said the omission of ASL during live updates made it extremely difficult for those individuals to figure out what to do.
“They didn’t know what to do or where to go. They were contacting other deaf people trying to figure out what to do, what they should do,” Wood said. “it was just a very unfortunate situation.”
Luckily, Wood said all 12 people got out alive and five of them have now returned home.
The Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement said in letters to CBC and CTV, which stream the updates, that they support comments on X made by Joseph Murray, president of the World Federation of the Deaf, which voice their concerns.
Deaf people’s access cannot depend on a fortunate confluence of events and people.
Access in national sign languages must be built into official governmental emergency preparedness plans and service providers should also make such plans.
— Joseph Murray (@drjosephjmurray) August 12, 2023
Today, the province demonstrated its capability for change during its 1 p.m. wildfire update, which featured an ASL interpreter. Tara Gostelow, media relations director for the province, said this has been difficult to achieve in the past due to uncertainty.
“Unfortunately, this hasn’t been possible until now due to the evolving wildfire situation and uncertainty over timing and speakers. ASL interpreters require advance notice to participate in media availabilities. Due to the focus on operational response, we have not been able to give adequate notice to secure ASL services,” Gostelow said.
The province said it’s hopeful future wildfire updates can be made more accessible as the wildfire situation in B.C. stabilizes.
-With files from Srushti Gangdev
