Dear BBC,
Last night Sara Cox made a number of comments complaining about the screening of an English language film with added captions, asked for a discount and commented back to many Deaf people who complained at how offended they were that they were ‘gobshites’.
The timeline of her comments and some of the reactions by Deaf and hearing people on twitter can be read here (this is just a snapshot):
http://www.peskypeople.co.uk/2011/07/radio-tv-presenter-sara-cox-demands-refund-for-subtitled-film-screening/
Sarah is in a postion of influence and with nearly 300,000 followers on twitter should be taking more care at her comments (not withstanding the ones about the film and sex scenes involved).
No doubt her comments are thoughtless (the tweets have been deleted from her twitter account @sarajcox) but they are also offensive to many Deaf and hard of hearing people.
Her comments are still available from screenshots taken of her twitter account.
I cannot watch films at the cinema or on tv without subtitles I do not have the luxury of just planning a trip to the cinema. The same applies for online video on demand online which has ziltch captioning.
Ms Cox should
a) take responsibility for her comments not just delete them and think they will go away
b) apologise to those she offended on twitter and on radio/tv (since many of us Deaf people can’t hear the radio (especially for calling us ‘gobshites’ for being offended),
c) undergo Deaf and Disability Awareness training (do not all BBC staff have to follow the Equalities Act 2010?).
d) Lastly she should meet Deaf people including others from twitter there are also many Deaf people who have in the past and now work for the BBC as well.
She should understand the very profound issues we face as Deaf people in a hearing world.
Maybe she could turn this very offending situation round by her actions and apologies.
I look forward to receiving your reply,
Yours sincerely
Alison Smith
Pesky People
www.peskypeople.co.uk
Why do we have to put up with someone who are narrow minded, yet she are BBC’s employee and we Deaf people have to pay full tv licence, yet we cannot hear anything on radio, I dont think we should be paying full tv licence and having somone like ‘her’ yes that stupid woman working for BBC.
Hi I was wondering what was going off at first when I logged into my Twitter account. I knew she’d done something to annoy the deaf, but as to what, I did not know till read the news on Yahoo and here. She had no right to say that.
As many have said already, and like wise me here, I am deaf and have to rely on subtitles too. I wait till the film I’d like to see is out on dvd, because this is the only luxury I have due to subtitles not being accessible at suitable times. I think Sara Cox needs to publicly apologise for offending us, and to be given some deaf awareness training.
I saw the drama unfold and thought to myself… almost the same as you Alison! There is so much awareness to roll out, until people realise just how many deaf people there are in the UK (10 million) they will continue to make fun of us and our needs. At least Sara was able to attend a screening at the time that she preferred – unlike us, who sometimes have to travel miles to see a promised screening, and sometimes it’s not even shown, they forget to switch the subtitles on or find the recording is not subtitled after alll. Sara should be amazed she got the opportunity to see how some films are accessible to us at last!
I agree totally with both of you (Suzie and Liz) – it is also very telling with my ever growing DVD collection as I can’t remember the last time I went to see a film in the cinema that was subtitled.
It would be great if this was turned around to something positive by Ms Cox not just in the way of an apology but of action on her part.
Its been some time since I went to cinema. My boyfriend wanted to take me to one some time ago, but I said now I know what I miss without subtitles, there’s no way I’m going. Then he said to me, we can go to a subtitled one. Again I had to remind how hard that is. I said to him if you want me to go to one, we would both have to put a holiday in at work for it. Not practical at all.
My recent dvd I bought was Beastly. Loved it. With subs. 🙂