While Labour and the Liberal Democrats have split their British Sign Language (BSL) translations of their election manifestos into smaller videos on YouTube, the Conservative Party has released its BSL version in the form of a single, five hour and 24-minute video.
A link to the BSL-interpreted format, understood to have been published at around 4pm on Tuesday, is now available on the Conservative Party’s dedicated manifesto webpage, alongside other accessible versions such as large print, easy read, Braille and audio only formats.
The publication of the BSL video by the Tories makes them the latest major political party to make its policy document accessible to Deaf voters, after the Liberal Democrats uploaded a signed version of For A Fair Deal last Wednesday and Labour released a BSL version of Change on Friday.
The Green Party has only made long, short and easy read versions of its manifesto available online, while a Reform UK spokesman previously said the party would make available an “accessible version” of its “contract” on its website.
However at the time of writing, only a PDF version of the contract can be found online, and it is not clear what “accessible version” has been or will be published.
Unlike Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ signed manifestos, the Conservatives’ BSL translation is not split into several videos, but is instead available in one single, five-hour long upload.
Change is split into eight parts, while the BSL version of For A Fair Deal comprises a playlist of 23 videos.
This website reported on Monday that accessible versions of the Conservative Party manifesto were available “on request”, in an article published before the party uploaded the accessible versions to its website some time later.
Meanwhile, in terms of press conferences, the Conservative Party is yet to host an election event with either in-person or on-screen BSL interpretation for Deaf voters.
Interpreting company Sign Solutions confirmed to Liam O’Dell that it had provided interpretation for the party’s manifesto launch, however no BSL interpreter was visible on the Conservatives’ social media livestreams of the event.
Images: Conservatives/YouTube.
Liam O'Dell 