‘Lack Of Interpreters Meant I Believed I Had HIV For Two Days’

A deaf man mistakenly believed he had tested positive for HIV because he couldn’t get access to an interpreter in hospital.

Richard MacQueen, a father-of-three from Dundee, was being treated in A&E for pneumonia and misunderstood the nurse when he was given his test results.

The 42-year-old is profoundly deaf and British Sign Language (BSL) is his first language.

He said he had asked for an interpreter in hospital several times.

“My father was there. He was really the only hearing person in my family who was willing to help but he doesn’t have advanced BSL skills at all and I really needed an interpreter,” he said.

“The doctor brought a nurse, who was a very nice person, but she had very basic sign language skills.

“He used her as a communication method and they were talking about my HIV results, and she did this thumbs up sign and I thought, ‘Well what does that mean?’ Does that mean that I have it? That I am HIV positive, or I’m OK because I’m negative?”

Mr McQueen was confused and upset.

“I was worried about whether I had HIV or not, whether I would face a lifetime of treatment, whether I might die from this. I had no idea how I was going to tell my family.”

Richard says it took two days for a qualified interpreter to arrive and explain he had been given the all-clear.

“If an interpreter was provided initially, I would never have had to have gone through all that,” he said.

Richard is now sharing his experience to launch a new app – the first of its kind in the UK – which links deaf people and BSL users with interpreters.

He hopes it will mean mistakes like the one he experienced won’t happen to anyone else.

SignPort, which has been described as ‘Uber for BSL interpreters’, was developed by the Edinburgh-based charity Deaf Action with the support of a Scottish government innovation scheme.

Richard, who took part in a 10-month pilot for the app, says it’s a huge step forward for the deaf community.

“You can use it all the way from the workplace to a wedding. It’s going to make a massive change for us as deaf people. Finally, we can connect directly to interpreters in one place.

“Always in the past we had to consult with a number of different agencies and service providers – email them, search all this stuff out for ourselves, try to contact interpreters direct and you were really in the dark.

“It was very time consuming, very stressful because you never knew if you were going to have an interpreter.”

The new app brings everything into one place. Users can easily see which interpreters are available.

According to Scotland’s 2022 Census,more than 100,000 people in Scotland can speak BSL. And up to a million have some form of hearing loss.

Phillip Gerrard, chief executive of Deaf Action, said the app would be a “game changer” for BSL users.

“Scotland is indeed leading the way in providing this innovative service. Scotland has a really great tradition of innovation in many areas, but especially for the deaf community and by the deaf community.

“This is going to make a huge difference, not only for Scotland but for the whole of the UK, because as soon as the rest of the UK see what’s here they’re going to want the same.”

The app is free to download and use for deaf BSL users and interpreters, with interpreter fees paid by the person or organisation who makes the booking.

It comes after a review commissioned by the Scottish government in 2019 found the struggle to find interpreters wasn’t always due to a shortage of trained professionals, but because the existing booking system was fragmented and time consuming, leading to missed appointments and barriers to education.

SignPort took two years to develop, with Deaf Action working alongside technology firm Burrotech through the Scottish government’s CivTech programme.

The Scottish government is encouraging businesses to sign up to the app.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “This app builds on our commitment to make Scotland a more inclusive place for deaf people. It also represents exactly the kind of innovation we want to see through our CivTech programme – technology that transforms lives and removes barriers.

“This app addresses challenges that have persisted for too long. As a social enterprise, SignPort will reinvest in the very communities it serves, creating lasting change beyond improving bookings. This is community-led innovation at its best.”