Campaigns such as ours won’t usually carry out acts such as helping to find interpreters. We absolutely do not support propping up governments failures or filling gaps in support however, in this particular case there simply isn’t the time to wait for legal support. We are going to be getting legal support for the individual, but her business will go under if we do nothing.

Stop Changes have seen horrendous cases and treatment whereby people are facing forced redundancies, capability proceedings and demotions. In all these cases however, the individual is being supported.

In this case, the individual has no support. We were contacted at a time when she is at the point of giving up. It takes a lot to set up a business and to put in the hours of work needed to make it a success. This business makes most of its annual income at this one event. We will be asking our lawyers to provide urgent assistance and hope that we can get the AtW funding reinstated. If this happens then the interpreters booked will be reimbursed for their time, however they need to be prepared that this may not happen. Rather to be dishonest and leave interpreters out of pocket, we felt the best way to handle the situation would be to ask for people who were prepared to be volunteers.

The government is trying to be divisive. It wants interpreters to take the blame for its actions and treatment of deaf people. We aren’t going to allow that to happen. We aren’t prepared to watch someone’s livelihood be destroyed. Access to Work provision isn’t simply about work. It’s about feeling valued.

Sometimes people that are about to give up, need to be reminded that they are valued.

Coming together IS our campaign.