Strictly, Subtitles and CODA: How the deaf community are represented in today’s media.
When EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis made history as the first deaf contestant to appear in the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing, no one could have foreseen the phenomenal and awe-inspiring impact she would bring to the show and wider society, let alone lift the Glitterball trophy.
According to the training provider BSL Courses, during the week commencing October 25, more than 1200 people applied to trial lessons, while on a typical day, only 20-30 people would apply.
The British Sign Language (BSL) website also saw a 3000% increase in applications to their online courses. Figures from Signature, the deaf communication qualifications body, revealed that searches for courses more than doubled in 2021 compared to 2020. This highlights that by watching Ayling-Ellis on Strictly, the British public has expressed a desire to learn BSL and become more aware of deaf culture.
A survey of deaf children and their families by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) showed that having watched Ayling-Ellis participate in the dance competition, two-thirds of deaf children feel more comfortable wearing their hearing-aids, whilst 70% are much more confident talking about their deafness.
Liam O’Dell is a deaf journalist and campaigner who writes for the deaf blog, The Limping Chicken and the Independent. He expressed how important the representation seen on Strictly was to young deaf children: “I’ve seen examples of young deaf children who have been ashamed to acknowledge their cochlear implants or hearing aids, to dance and embrace their deaf identity. The power of deaf representation is that you are not alone and that when the support is there, you can do whatever you put your mind to.”
Alongside her professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, Ayling-Ellis has propelled the level of deaf awareness to heights it has never seen before and has motivated and inspired the young generation of deaf children to embrace their deafness and believe that they can make a difference.
Ayling-Ellis and Pernice paid tribute to the deaf community by performing their ‘Couples Choice’ to Symphony by Clean Bandit, where they danced to 20 seconds of silence in order to give hearing audiences an insight as to what it is like to experience life as a deaf person.
The highly praised dance won ‘Unmissable TV Moment’ by Heat magazine and ‘Must See Moment of 2021’ in this year’s BAFTA TV Awards, on which an emotional Ayling-Ellis said: “It showed how powerful TV can be.”
O’Dell highlighted just how iconic a moment that was for the deaf community: “I thought it was incredibly powerful and really goes to show the individuality of deaf experiences and the understanding and/or misconception of it in hearing audiences.
“Rose’s ability or inability, does not get in the way of her potential to dance and do it theoretically and powerfully with the right support from Giovanni, so, it was powerful seeing the deaf experience represented.”
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) are a charitable organisation that works to promote and campaign for social inclusion within the deaf community.
Annie Harris is the Advocacy Officer for RNID and is profoundly deaf: “I was blown away, and had to keep re-watching it to really understand the story, the journey, Rose and the fact that she was showing a mainstream audience what it is like [to be deaf] on national TV, which is something we haven’t really seen before. It was such a powerful moment for deaf people.”
Harris went on to stress how the silence wasn’t there just to benefit the deaf community: “For hearing people watching that, they could really connect with Rose and her journey on Strictly, and I know it was only 20 seconds of the silent moment itself, but the impact was felt so widely through the hearing and deaf communities.”
Olivia Powell is the Theatre Programme Manager for deaf-led charity, Stagetext. Stagetext is an organisation that creates captions to make the theatre accessible for deaf people. She commented on her experience watching the silence live on TV: “It was really poignant, moving and exactly how I experience a lot of situations. I think what was really interesting, was that you don’t normally see it [deafness] represented on TV. You might see it in a person experiencing it, but to actually see what they are experiencing is very rare.”
On September 25 2021, there was a power outage where Channel 4 were without subtitles and accessible software for weeks. This outraged the deaf community as they were deprived of the ability to tune into popular programmes, such as The Great British Bake Off.
The outage was caused by the “fire suppression system” at Red Bee Media being triggered, which is the company that provides all of Channel 4’s services. This, in turn, caused the system to be severely and irreversibly damaged, which impacted audio description, sign language interpreters and subtitles.
NDCS released a statement which read that it was ‘completely unacceptable’ that Channel 4 was unable to provide subtitles while also highlighting that it had ’a direct and detrimental impact’ on young deaf viewers and most, if not all of the 12 million deaf people in the UK.
As part of Captioning Awareness Week, which is celebrated every November, research from Stagetext revealed that young people are using subtitles a lot more and that 25% of the general public have subtitles on their TV constantly, which highlights how imperative it is that broadcasters ensure programmes are made accessible and how Channel 4’s inability to do so, hugely impacted the deaf community.
Powell concluded by giving her thoughts on the Channel 4 debacle: “It was appalling frankly, how long it took them to address it in the first place and to get it back up and running. It really affected a lot of people as they couldn’t watch programmes that their friends and family were watching and to be without a show that brings you love and joy, can be really damaging for people’s mental health.”
Ofcom, the TV regulator watchdog, were also extremely concerned over the situation with Channel 4 after it went ten days without any accessible software, saying: ‘We are extremely concerned given the impact on people who rely on these services to access television’ and that ‘if any broadcasters fail to meet their annual access services requirements as a result of these issues, we will consider the appropriate regulatory response.’
O’Dell was left “baffled” by the way Channel 4 dealt with the fiasco and called upon Ofcom to launch an investigation and take action: “Communications around this issue were as inaccessible, irregular and as confusing as watching shows without the subtitles was in the first place. To put in one way, it was just shocking and appalling- they didn’t give any time-frame until very last minute to tell us when they would get a replacement sorted.”
O’Dell continued: “It wasn’t just the ridiculous failure that it was, it was the attitude of Channel 4 to not keep people updated that was shocking, so I think action from Ofcom would be welcome to illustrate that is not okay and hopefully set an example to other broadcasters that, if that happened to you and you followed the same routine, you would face the same punishment.”
Ofcom later released a statement in January which revealed that they would launch an investigation after Channel 4’s annual report revealed that only 85% of their content on Freesat was provided with subtitles, 5% under its annual requirement.
Harris revealed how RNID had been working with Ofcom to help rectify the situation going forward: “We’ve been working really closely with Ofcom to provide services and information for the deaf community. They’re investigating it and they’re going to make sure the communication’s there and hopefully that will show that they’ve actually listened to the deaf community.”
CODA is a film that was released on Apple TV last year and stands as an acronym for ‘Child of Deaf Adults. The film centres around 17-year-old teenager Ruby and her dream to pursue a music career; however, she is torn between her deaf parents, who rely on her to interpret for them in a hearing environment.
The film has received critical acclaim from critics; however, it generated a mixed response from the deaf community.
O’Dell highlighted how he feels the film perceives the inaccurate stereotype that deaf people cannot enjoy music: “It really presented music as being the antithesis for deaf culture and that it’ll stop the CODA to pursue a career in singing, which isn’t right, deaf people can still enjoy music as much as hearing people can.”
Harris also expressed her thoughts on the film, and while she praised its representation and deaf awareness, there were parts that left her concerned: “Personally, I thought the film was a bit of a cliche. The parents were shown to be fully dependent on the child, and they should have had an interpreter- so that was sort of a negative portrayal of how the parents were coping as deaf adults.
“I know lots of families who are CODA’s and they’re very insistent that they won’t use their child as an interpreter, but putting that aside, I think it was really well made and it was really good to have a platform to raise deaf awareness.”
Troy Kotsur won the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his role in the film. He is the first deaf male actor to win the coveted award and the first deaf actor since co-star Marlee Matlin for ‘Children of a Lesser God in 1987, 35 years ago.
In his speech, Kotsur said: “This is dedicated to the deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community. This is our moment.”
Through the deaf representation and breaking of barriers in Strictly Come Dancing and CODA, it emphasises that the right steps are now being made to represent the deaf identity and culture to a mainstream audience. However, through continuous misconceptions and inaccessibility through subtitles, there is still a long way to go.