"Deaf Access"

The reason for this posting is that I feel there has been a direct violation of my mum and dads rights to accessibility. They are both deaf and need BSL interpreters.

Examples below are of times where they have been let down and no interpreter has shown up.

Nephrology appointment in Wishaw my mum showed up to receive important news that she is possibly going for a heart bypass operation which was a huge shock. This was written down on a piece of paper for her by the doctor as there was no interpreter provided. Can you fathom that? Receiving such life changing news on a piece of paper? This  hugely knocked her mental health and will permanently affect her for the rest of her life. The little confidence she had in the NHS has now diminished.

Another occasion my mum was at an appointment at Wishaw General. During this appointment there was no interpreter so the option of "interpreter on wheels" was used, which is not what my parents ever want to use. I can appreciate the pandemic caused some friction but still, this is not an appropriate way of communication for my parents. It has to be face to face. In light of using this, due to the small screen provided to my mum she missed vital information that fortunately didn't seriously harm her as later her GP told her to stop taking the steroids even though doctor insisted that he had informed my mother. Only through the GP noticing my mum still taking these did she luckily intervene and ensure my mum takes no more. Even though she did keep taking them for weeks it almost was fatal.

There is various other examples of my mum attending appointments and being let down. There is also hundreds of occasions where I have taken unpaid days to act as my mothers interpreter. I want to reiterate, the informing of a heart by pass on a piece of paper is what catapulted this complaint to my top priority in life right now.

Another example of discrimination regarding accessibility is my father recently attended a dental appointment They requested one from the NHS yet no one showed up. He had to get emergency work done without being able to communicate. Again, can you imagine how daunting this would be? Also this experience along with hundreds of other instances for him have been extremely damaging to my fathers mental health and he also now has no confidence in the NHS interpreting service.

This has ruined my mental health and stifled my career because I am always called upon to interpret for either of my parents resulting in request for unpaid days. Some occasions have meant I have lost employment because I am trying to help them and employers are not considerate of what I am actually dealing with.

My fathers own parents have been fighting this battle for over 60 years and we are still having issues with accessibility for deaf individuals. I am here now again decades later pushing to better understand why there has been no drastic change to improve support systems for deaf people.

I have been unable to hold down a job because of how mentally draining this has been on me. I am unable to live my own life because I am constantly having to be an interpreter. I often feel suicidal because I am struggling to cope with how inconsiderate the NHS are being. As mentioned before, access for deaf people is no where near where is should be in public establishments like hospitals so how bad do you think it is in private ones?

Each day is a battle that I must do, because I know if I were to proceed and give in, the police would write down the damning news on a piece of paper for my parents. This is what makes me ill at night and traps me into going over and above what I should have too. All to ensure my parents understand fully what is going on when experiencing typical daily tasks and routine appointments.

I want a written apology but this won't resolve the issue. This will only allow me to show my parents that I am trying to get answers for them.

I want to see actual change. My parents are both in their 50s now, and are still needing advise hospitals that they are deaf.

Poor IT system is meaning that even staff are in the dark, this has to be changed and seriously assessed. Only then can I have confidence that interpreters will already be requested before having to remind the NHS that my parents are deaf. This constant reminding of our circumstances damages all our mental health as we are constantly feeling like we are forgotten. If you refer to the Equality Act 2010, it states that reasonable adjustments must be made to help aid communication issues. I dream of the day an interpreter shows up without my request. Both my parents are deaf from birth, like thousands of others. So put this on the system and give staff a chance to do a better job of noticing they need to arrange things like interpreter. They are deaf now and forvever. I cannot stress how frustrating and demoralising this is to have to constantly remind establishments even though they have been using them for decades.

For years now my mums health has been slowly in decline, she is extremely vulnerable. The COVID pandemic was damaging to the deaf community and they were completely shut out. Being on immunosuppression drugs meant I acted as a carer even more so than usual. I am not their carers, I am their son.

I would like some kind of  compensation for my family for decades worth of what I feel to be a neglect of their needs, causation, breach of duty of care, loss of earnings and constant violation of basic human rights.