(you can read more about the project in this blog post for iHuman we wrote earlier this year).
Following on from our successful Public Engagement Development Fund grant to create the film, we were fortunate enough to be awarded funding to host our BSL-interpreter film premiere and Q&A at Theatre Deli, as part of the 2023 ESRC ‘Festival of Social Science’. Our presenters on the day included:
- Beth Evans (SUBTXT Creative)
- Josh Slack (Inertia Creative)
- Jon Rhodes (Paper)
The event was BSL interpreted by Kathryn Pearson and Tom Pearson (from Pearson Interpreting) - both of whom we would strongly recommend to anyone looking to make their future events accessible for Deaf audience members.
Kat and Tom not only signed what the presenters were saying; they also had the brilliant idea of signing the film itself for any Deaf audience members. One Deaf attendee told us after the event that not all of the English words in the subtitles were accessible to them. In response to this, rather than publicly releasing the ‘Animating Inclusion’ film immediately after the live premiere, we will now be designing a BSL-signed version of the film to be released alongside the original version.
We were taken aback by the quality of the feedback from our audience members, who asked some brilliant questions during the Q&A session - so many that we did not have time to answer them all on the day! Our team has subsequently got back together to co-create written responses to each question, which we will be sharing with our attendees via email in the very near future.
We are looking forward to publishing the ‘Animating Inclusion’ film online in the very near future, and will continue to share updates via iHuman as this important work progresses.
By Dr Kirsty Liddiard and Dr Ryan Bramley (with Jon Rhodes, Beth Evans and Josh Slack)
