Jeff McWhinney: Politics must create a level playing field for the deaf community

The article outlined the scandal that not one of the political parties had sought to reach out to the 100,000 deaf people in Britain in the only language that they understand – British Sign Language.

After it appeared, there was an unprecedented level of tweets and e-mails in the deaf community. Most said the same thing: this cannot be allowed to endure. Deaf people have been marginalised, ignored and unheard for decades. Perhaps if there were deaf MPs, or at least deaf parliamentary candidates, the parties would take notice of the issues that dominate their daily lives.

One of those who commented on the BSL:UPTAKE site was David Buxton, a deaf person who has fought a battle to become an MP for a decade. David was actually adopted as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Lewisham East in the 2001 General Election. Like me, David is a deaf BSL user. So to get his arguments across and talk to his potential constituents, he had to employ BSL/English interpreters.

David tried to get the cost of employing interpreters exempted from his 'ring-fenced' election budget, the limit that any candidate is allowed to spend on their campaign.

He was told unequivocally that the cost of interpreters could not be exempted and he was legally obliged not to go over the limit set by the Electoral Commission. Since good interpreters do not come cheap, he soon reached his limit. Because he is deaf he was automatically put at a disadvantage. That's on top of the disadvantage of having to find the money for interpreters in the first place!

David tried to find voluntary interpreters, with little success. Nevertheless, he managed to increase his party's share of the vote by 5 per cent. After The Scotsman piece David wrote to BSL:UPTAKE saying: "A lot of people ask me why I do not stand for this General Election. Simply, I cannot afford to pay BSL interpreters, costing about 500 a day for four weeks of a campaign."

I immediately replied to David – and to the deaf world generally – saying that my company, Significan't, would be prepared to pay the deposit for any Deaf BSL user standing as an independent candidate in any British constituency at a by-election or General Election. That offer still stands.

When I was a young man in Belfast, I wanted to get involved in politics, but, like David, I was excluded by the barriers to access. Thirty years later my four deaf children are still growing up in a world where they still face the same limits to democratic inclusion and involvement. It just cannot be right that a whole section of British society is denied basic rights because of the language we use.

One way to overcome this is for deaf people to stand and (I hope) be elected as members of Parliament – or members of the Scottish Parliament.

Last week, in its programme for government, the new coalition government at Westminster said that it "will introduce extra support for people with disabilities who want to become MPs, councillors or other elected officials". I hope this includes interpreter support for deaf candidates. Whether it does or not, I for one will be happy to put my money where my mouth is – or, as a BSL user, should I say: "My hands?"

Jeff McWhinney was chief executive of the British Deaf Association from 1995-2004. He is now managing director of Significan't, a social business which provides a video interpreting service for deaf people