Signing at Little Mix concert

fields5069

The Happy Mondays used to have one of those signers. Bez, I think his name was.

Mind you, Ian Curtis used to do it himself.

crunchman

Heartfeltdawn said:

bodhi said:

I do wonder if it actually did take a threat of legal action before they took these steps, though.

According to the BBC article:

"Under the Equality Act 2010, any organisation supplying a service to the public is under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a disabled person's experience is as close as possible to that of someone without a disability.

With just days to go before the concert, and no interpreter in place, Sally took an unprecedented legal step.

She decided to instruct lawyers to apply for a court injunction to force LHG Live to provide a British Sign Language interpreter.

It worked. Hours before the hearing was due to take place, LHG Live agreed."

So it would appear that legal action did spur them on. 

The issue is what counts as reasonable?

That's very much a matter of interpretation.  There are those who would argue that it's a concert - it's about hearing music and nothing anyone can do will ever replicate that experience for a deaf person.

If the Spice Girls ever reform, I pity the interpreter who has do that.  How do you do Zig a Zig Ah?

Sporky

bodhi said:

Ravenous said:

As usual the truth is a little different to the original story (as I thought the moment I heard about it.)

Indeed.

I didn't know or think that the interpreter would actually have to learn the lyrics beforehand.  I thought it would be a case of listen and interpret on the spot, but I guess it's more complicated than that, then.

I don't think the listen and interpret approach would be satisfactory - the signing would lag behind the music. With a lyric sheet in advance they can sign in sync with the music, which is probably more engaging for the customer and easier & less stressful for the interpreter.

menamestom

I’m wondering how this would work for acts who improvise or alter the setlist etc depending on how they feel.  Some acts would be literally impossible to sign and whilst I empathise with her position I do wonder how bigger non-mainstream pop acts will deal with it if they don’t have a routine set-in-stone.

bodhi

I just listened to a couple of Little Mix songs on youtube for the first time, and yes I can see that the interpreter would need to do some prep work.  Songs are quite busy.

snakemanStoo

I once played for a wedding which was signed. 

The interpreter wanted a lot of time with the various musicians to learn how the songs were phrased to set her timing up.  She worked really hard that day, and it was just a 45 minute service.

I know this adds little to the discussion, I just wanted to show off.

Garthy

bodhi said:

That's great and looks impressive.

I do wonder if it actually did take a threat of legal action before they took these steps, though.

"She was initially offered carer tickets and told that she could bring her own interpreter, but she didn't consider that met her needs or amounted to full access.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Sally explained: "We asked two or three times, please can you provide the interpreter for us, and the explanation we got back was just a 'no'."

I don't think all the details are clear enough.

It's fucking horse shit. My wife is profoundly deaf and my son is going the same way and in our opinion Ms Reynolds was going after compo as soon as she booked the tickets. Does she have a signer at home or in the car when she's listening to Little Mix? Why does she (or indeed us) need special access to private loos? I'd be mortified if I came out of that loo to see a queue of kids in wheelchairs wondering just what the hell I'm doing there when their choices are far more limited.

Why did her own interpreter not meet her needs? Why should Little Mix have to have a cast iron set list for just four people?

She paid for tickets in the rafters then was given the very best tickets in the house and VIP loos FOC because she is thoroughly taking advantage of accessibility laws. It must now cross LHGs mind if it's just cheaper to imminently refund the next deaf person booking tickets  and pay whatever fine comes their way and if that is the case Sally has fucked it all up for people like us.

english_bob

Garthy said:

Why does she (or indeed us) need special access to private loos? 

I don't recall seeing anywhere in either the article or the response from the promoter that she asked for this. 

bodhi

Garthy said:
It's fucking horse shit.

I was talking about the bit where their statement says they're looking at solutions to ensure accessibility longer term.  That's a positive in my book.  Everybody wins.

We don't actually know if she asked to be treated to the nth degree or whether the organisers offered those extras freely, so it's hard to make a call on that one.

FelineGuitars

So the woman could have seen was the likely setlist was from Setlist.fm and printed off the lyrics from her daughters CDs or from the internet .

She may have been disappointed though that the songs were vacuous tripe or too explicit or sexual for her young daughters to be listening to .

Col_Decker

Can it be done at comedy clubs too. That'd be a laugh.

Ravenous

Col_Decker said:

Can it be done at comedy clubs too. That'd be a laugh.

Yeah, shouting out the punchline just before the comic delivers it.  That'd make us popular!

Heartfeltdawn

Garthy said:

It must now cross LHGs mind if it's just cheaper to imminently refund the next deaf person booking tickets  and pay whatever fine comes their way and if that is the case Sally has fucked it all up for people like us.

Which really would be discriminatory. 

usedtobe

Wait for the dvd, and turn on subtitles.

notanon

I don't know little mix songs but can you imagine songs with lyrics that have fast runs of words such as:

"It's a turn-around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
Medicine is magical and magical is art
The boy in the bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart"

It is gonna be a blur isn't it? Surely that is going to take a talented signer?

Garthy

Heartfeltdawn said:

Garthy said:

It must now cross LHGs mind if it's just cheaper to imminently refund the next deaf person booking tickets  and pay whatever fine comes their way and if that is the case Sally has fucked it all up for people like us.

Which really would be discriminatory. 

Exactly my point. 

Myranda

"especially as on act was Australian"... Do interpreters need to add an accent?

Surely as a parent at a little mix concert she's little more than a taxi and chaperone... Does she really need lyrics? Seems no different to grandad trying to play PUBG, strange and embarrassing...

However, for inclusivities sake, a LED strip displaying lyrics at every concert would be very easy and cheap to set up... Feed in some lyrics and timings, set it to one side/above/below the stage... Everyone can enjoy the lyrics. Who knows, maybe cannibal corpse make a good point in their lyrics and we can all benefit.

As for braille at an art gallery - what does it say?
"This is a pretty sunset... Oh sorry, you don't know what that looks like but trust us, it' a good one"
...
"this painting is even better than the last, you're absolutely getting your moneys worth, why not visit the gift shop"
...
"no really,we wouldn't dream of making our comments up, this really is beautiful. No, don't ask someone... Just weep for joy that you're near it... Oh and your face should be turned to the left a bit as you're not facing the art... No a little bit more... Not that much! There, perfect."

My cousin's son is profoundly deaf, and I grew up with a deaf friend... So I've been exposed to deafness for some time (though not experienced it thankfully)... Never been asked the lyrics to the song I was listening to though. 

richardhomer

Looks like Dylan perceived the risk of legal action quite some time ago:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0