Deaf mum sues Little Mix promoter in sign language row Eight-year-old Cate Merry and her friend Megan are big fans of Little Mix. They've got the T-shirts, the photo albums, the CDs, can sing the songs and rock the dance routines. So how did their love of the band lead to unprecedented legal action? Last year, Cate's mum Sally Reynolds bought six tickets to see the band in concert on 1 September at the South of England Event Centre in Sussex. Sally is deaf and booked for herself and two deaf friends to go with their daughters who are all able to hear. In order that she and her two friends could fully access the performance, Sally asked the organisers, LHG Live, to provide a British Sign Language interpreter. She was initially offered carer tickets and told that she could bring her own interpreter, but she didn't consider that met her needs or amounted to full access. Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Sally explained: "We asked two or three times, please can you provide the interpreter for us, and the explanation we got back was just a 'no'. "It didn't have any reason behind it and eventually we became so frustrated. "I wanted to share the same experience my daughter had - essentially I just wanted access to the songs." Under the Equality Act 2010, any organisation supplying a service to the public is under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a disabled person's experience is as close as possible to that of someone without a disability. With just days to go before the concert, and no interpreter in place, Sally took an unprecedented legal step. She decided to instruct lawyers to apply for a court injunction to force LHG Live to provide a British Sign Language interpreter. It worked. Hours before the hearing was due to take place, LHG Live agreed. The girls and their mums got to go to the concert and when Little Mix took to the stage their lyrics were interpreted for Sally and her friends by a specialist interpreter from the company Performance Interpreting. However, the concert had started with two supporting acts and the interpreter had not been booked to cover them. "I felt that we were really part of the Little Mix experience," said Sally, "but because it was so good I realised that we had missed out on the first two acts. "So it was very much a disparity of experience compared with everyone else. "We only got access to the last act. If you went to a film can you imagine only getting access to the last 20 minutes? In a statement, LHG Live told the BBC: "We received a request from Sally Reynolds to supply an interpreter. "We consulted with her recommended agency and agreed to provide the professional interpreter of her choice for the Little Mix show. "This included specific staging and lighting, and a set list in advance." LHG Live also provided upgraded tickets, access to private accessible toilets and all public announcements on giant screens either side of the main stage. Sally Reynolds is now issuing legal proceedings for the failure to make reasonable adjustments, in the form of supplying an interpreter, for the whole concert. Her solicitor Chris Fry, managing partner of Fry Law, believes the action shines a light on a wider point.
Why insist on a sign language interpreter to mouth and gesticulate to what the band are singing? If you are there to watch the band what good is it having someone stood next to you that you have to look at to understand what is going on? The venue would have been just as well off giving the Mutt & Jeffs a lyric sheet. And what on earth is there to be gained by knowing what the lyrics are to a Little Mix song? They're not exactly Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. Example; "Hair" Switch it up Switch it up Oh, whoa Yeah-eh, yeah Let's go I call my girl (hey!) 'Cause I got a problem (what?) Only a curl (mmmh) Is gonna solve it Then I don't really care, Just get him out of my hair, yeah Let's switch it up, get it off my shoulder I've had enough, can't take it no longer I'm over him I swear, I'm like yeah You don't have to be deaf to know this is just Teenie pop drivel of the highest order. The law says public venues must make reasonable adjustments which the concert provider clearly did. The fact that the uppity wretch is now complaining that they all missed out on the experience of the support acts is the absolute height of c.untishness.
Most worrying thing about all this is why some fat white middle aged bloke gets so pissed off about some Little Mix fans and their kids.
Would deaf people not be a health and safety issue if there was a fire but they couldn't here the alarm?
Anyone can sue anyone about nearly anything as long as a) they're willing to pay and b) there's a lawyer willing to take their money (basically, every lawyer). Unless she actually wins the case who gives a ****. I remember a thread on here a couple of years ago about a smoker suing the government for not being allowed to smoke in his cell. It produced the usual 10 pages of beel and rage from the usual suspects. A few weeks later he lost the case and it was reported as a single paragraph on page 26 of most ****ty tabloids. Man the **** up ya ****s.
Dev anti disabled Nazi. By the way it is a legal requirement for all entertainment outlets to make sure that people with disabilities enjoy the same experience as able bodied folk so... **** you Dev. It's ok Nikki I'll stick up for you.
Aye and as Grove pointed out they have to make "Reasonable" adjustments. They promoters offered to let her bring her own interpreter and were willing to let the interpreter in for free. I think that's more than reasonable, besides, it was only the support acts she missed out on, not Little Mix themselves. And how can she have the same experience as people who Can hear? Simple answer, she can't.
