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GEMMA DOYLE BACKS DEAF COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN
West Dunbartonshire MP Gemma Doyle has supported calls for equal telecommunication opportunities to be universally provided for the deaf, adding her backing to the VRS Today! campaign at a Parliamentary event earlier this month.
The VRS Today! campaign calls for a Video Relay Service (VRS) to be made universally available to British Sign Language (BSL) users within the UK - a technology which allows them to place calls to hearing people through an interpreter. VRS has been available to sign language users in other countries for several years, whilst its introduction is long overdue within the UK.
Gemma Doyle met members of the deaf community and providers of the VRS technology, adding her support to the campaign after seeing firsthand the impact that VRS can have upon deaf people's lives and ability to communicate. Gemma was joined at the event by local man Gordon Chapman, Chief Executive of Deaf Connections in Glasgow, a leading charity providing support and services to deaf people in the West of Scotland.
West Dunbartonshire MP Gemma Doyle said,
'If I want to speak to my friends, family or constituents at any time, all I have to do is pick up the phone. But 50,000 British Sign Language users across the country are currently denied this opportunity. I want to see the Deaf community having the same access to telecommunications that hearing people take for granted - that's why I'm supporting the VRS Today! campaign.
'I hope that the Government and Ofcom will add their support these proposals to ensure that the current inequality is not maintained and that VRS can be made available to everybody within the Deaf community.
‘I want to see the Deaf community having the same access to telecommunications that hearing people take for granted - that's why I'm supporting the VRS Today! campaign.'
For more information, please visit: http://www.vrstoday.com/