1. Introduction
“In crises where human-induced or natural hazards develop into major disasters that have significant impacts on society, the power of language becomes extremely significant” (2020:4). Indeed, “the availability of timely, high-quality information becomes even more vital.”
As the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) started to spread across Europe in early 2020, states started to respond, by taking precautionary measures and providing public health information. States were warned early of the need to provide information in regional and minority languages as well as national languages in “order for the measures adopted to have full effect.”
Effective communication is not just a question of access to foreign and sign languages; it concerns how appropriate the medium used is – digital or print, the size of the print, the use of images, and for people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities, whether the fonts and backgrounds are readable.
In March 2020, the United Kingdom went into lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This has had an effect on almost all aspects of everyday life, beyond public health messaging. This study looks at the how the United Kingdom authorities did or did not ensure that adequate communication was provided to residents in the period from March 2020 to the beginning of March 2021, as well as responses by civil society to fill the gaps.
1.1. Duty to inform
Chapter 7 of the UK government’s guidance on Emergency Preparedness under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 considers communications with vulnerable people and chapter 14 mentions the use of translators and interpreters. It was last updated in 2012. That same year, then Minister for Communities Eric Pickles recommended that local authorities stop providing foreign language translations to save money, under the austerity agenda. Over the past decade, budgets for local authority translations and interpreting have been decimated or brought under national framework agreements that privatise language services, driving down the quality of services or simply not providing any.
Public authorities nonetheless have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure equality of access to information to people presenting a protected characteristic, which include race (foreign language) and disability (sign language and mental health). With respect to disabled users, the medical and adult social care sectors also have an Accessible Information Standard to follow under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
1.2 The reality
In spite of legal rights, over the past decade, the groups affected – foreign nationals, the deaf and people with mental health problems – have been among the worst affected by the government’s austerity programme, with the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights finding in his 2019 report on the UK that the disabled are the “hardest hit by austerity measures” and ethnic minorities are “most likely to live in poverty and deprivation.” Over the past year, the UK has recorded the largest number of Covid-19 fatalities in Europe with ethnic minorities and the disabled overrepresented in that figure.
The stark inequalities faced by these groups, particularly ethnic minorities, have been the subject of numerous reports, in view of their greater likelihood of contracting the virus and dying from it. These include reports by the Runnymede Trust, which found “Pre-existing racial and socioeconomic inequalities, resulting in disparities in co-morbidities between ethnic groups, have been amplified by COVID-19”, making this “not just a health crisis; it is also a social and economic crisis”, and the Marmot Review.
The language barrier has been identified as a contributing inequality. The pandemic has introduced new terms and concepts into the English language that need to be explained to educated native speakers. How can people be expected to understand them in a language that is not their own or at a level above that which they understand?
2. Foreign Languages
The next UK population census is on 21 March 2021, thus the most recent population data is now a decade old. Nonetheless, the 2011 census was the first to ask questions about people’s main language and English-language proficiency (or Welsh, in Wales). In England and Wales, 8% of people (4.2 million) had a main language other than English and 863,000 considered themselves “non-proficient” in English. Although this affects less than 1% of the population in most areas, in some with large migrant communities, “Newham, Brent and Tower Hamlets [in London] and also in Leicester”, 8-9% of the population “could not speak English well or at all”. These areas are all badly affected by the pandemic. The data collected established that “People who cannot speak English well are more likely to be in poor health.”
2.1 Official response
Information from the World Health Organization (WHO) is aimed at states, who then make that information available to “their populations through their national health authorities. This means that states have been key actors – including information providers – in this crisis.”
The British government did not produce any foreign language translation of guidance prior to 24 March, after lockdown had begun. Guidance on social distancing was produced in 11 languages, but was later withdrawn on 1 May as the guidance changed. By the summer, public health information was translated into 25 languages. However, the 2011 census shows that 88 languages are spoken as a main language in England and Wales, other than English. In large English cities, more than 150 languages are spoken.
Maintaining this slow start, stay-at-home guidance is currently available and regularly updated in 10 languages. Eleven foreign language translations are provided for guidance on the national lockdown rules for England. NHS Scotland provides regular updates for Scotland in easy-to-read English. Support for the Covid-19 app is available in 11 languages. Information about other critical information not related to public health, such as financial support schemes for workers, are available only in English.
Nonetheless, in July 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was proud to announce that its £37 billion private track and track system included translation support in more than 200 languages. One month earlier, contact tracing staff reported that there was no translation support, even though at that stage the DHSC claimed support was available in 130 languages. With outbreak clusters at factories employing largely non-English-speaking staff, this oversight frustrated efforts to contain the virus.
At the end of July 2020, a group of local authorities, NGOs and charities wrote to the ministers of health and communities to raise their concerns about the “lack of availability of COVID-19 public health guidance in languages other than English, which is preventing people in England who do not speak or read English well from accessing essential public health information and limiting their ability to keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe.” Led by medical NGO Doctors of the World (DoTW), the letter called for urgent assurance “that the government will consider and include non-English speakers in its response to COVID-19 and commit to produce and maintain accessible COVID-19 guidance in languages that reflect England’s multilingual communities.” A government spokesperson told the BBC that “it “wouldn’t be feasible” to provide translations of all of these languages but that it had translated some of its “key messages” around coronavirus into the most common languages spoken in the UK.”
2.2 Doctors of the World (DoTW)
Doctors of the World (DoTW) provides translations of key coronavirus information in multiple languages. It had produced resources in 25 languages by 19 March 2020. With support from the Mayor of London and working with the British Red Cross and various organisations and translation agencies (including Migrant Help, Clear Voice, Transbless Translations, Europia, and East European Resource Centre), it expanded this to 60 languages. By July 2020, these resources were accessed over 59,000 times. Audio resources were also produced in a number of languages but these were not updated after June 2020. DoTW’s rapid needs assessment report found that certain groups “do not have the literacy skills to read and/or comprehend the guidance written in their own languages. People from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and people experiencing homelessness often have lower levels of literacy than the general population, so many cannot access written guidance. Easy-read versions and videos of the main pieces of guidance have been produced in English.”
A question in the House of Lords in November 2020 revealed that, with respect to information made available to asylum seekers, the government “currently [has] no plans to update social Media with COVID-19 guidance in languages other than English and Welsh.” and instead refers to translations provided by DoTW. Links to the translations can also be found on the websites of many local councils.
Concerning its translation process, DoTW has used professional human translators throughout; translations initially produced by non-professionals were subject to “a double review process with another native speaker.” Quality was an important factor to prevent “inaccurate messaging”. Nonetheless, “There were some important mistakes (for example, in a language a translator said painkiller rather than they should have said paracetamol) but these were only in a few cases and we were able to rectify them quickly” with the translation agencies involved.
2.3 Community initiatives
The government’s failure to provide communication in languages other than English gave rise to other ad hoc community solutions to ensure people who do not speak English were informed.
Poonam Parmar from Ilford, Essex, started the Covid Message for All initiative which, in April and May 2020, provided videos and translations of key official messages, produced by volunteers. Parmar said: “I saw in the news that important messages about Covid-19 were inaccessible to diaspora communities and thought, this is something we can change.” Information was provided in 45 languages.
Researchers at University College London (UCL) provided the official translation of NHS information into Yiddish, spoken by the 40,000 members of the Hasidic Jewish community in north London and elsewhere in the UK. It is among the languages with the “lowest proportions of people who could speak English ‘well’ or ‘very well’”, according to the 2011 census. They reported that Yiddish speakers may not have access to online information and that speakers of the language “frequently avoid secular sources of information, especially online media.” The researchers chose to translate the guidance into a colloquial, spoken form of Yiddish and encountered issues in differences in language use by men and women and religious issues related to hygiene that are not considered in the guidance, which had to be reformulated to include them. Translating novel terms such as “social distancing” and the correct term for “cough” also posed challenges.
Local authorities and charities have also used volunteer translators and audio to keep residents and service users aware of the guidance and rules they are supposed to follow. While this has the advantage of local knowledge and how best to convey messages to the community, the quality of the translation may not be adequate and may in some cases unintentionally cause greater confusion.
2.4 Unambiguous and simple information
Alongside reports looking at the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on ethnic minority communities – English- and non-English speaking – across the country, a number of local medical and community reports offer rare insight into the experiences and concerns of the affected communities in their own words.
People in Brighton and Hove, Sussex, from black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee (BAMER) backgrounds told researcher Dr Anusree Biswas Sasidharan that there was a need for “unambiguous and simple information about the local health context. Clear signalling of messaging and guidelines is needed in a variety of formats. This information needs to be culturally appropriate and translated as reasonably required.” The report found that the NHS is one of the biggest employers of ethnic minorities, highlighting the importance of frontline and key workers receiving suitable information.
Respondents to this study and others flagged the increasing difficulty people had in accessing medical care. With surgeries closed, appointments have to made over the telephone, and although interpreters are often provided for appointments and consultations, administrative staff only speak English, thus getting an appointment in the first place can be impossible. This increased anxiety and led people not to seek medical care they needed. This situation also applies to users of British Sign Language and people with mental health issues who reported “feeling misunderstood due to mental health.” This study also cited ongoing research at UCL on ethnic minority (BAME) communities’ experiences of lockdown, which found that causes of isolation experienced included an absence of technology, a disability and language or communication barriers.
The findings of researchers in Crawley, Sussex, recommended that “Interventions and information must be accessible and equitable, tackling both language and communication barriers. Images, plain language and easy read through a range of channels will help deliver key messages whilst aiding digital and in-person translation” and that the correct dialect is used for some languages. It noted that “From the perspective of Covid-19, language can influence how symptoms such as “dry cough” are understood.”
Researchers looking at ethnic minority communities in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, found, in addition to the issues mentioned above, that “Only one of the participants was aware that their ethnicity could make them more of risk of infection”, signalling the extent to which coronavirus messages and information are not getting through to the public. Participants were also in “unanimous agreement” that where English is not their first language “this continues to be a major challenge and barrier when accessing health care not just during the pandemic”.
Researchers looking at the experiences of the Turkish and Kurdish-speaking communities in Haringey, London, found that the communities were unaware of the translations offered by DoTW. In addition, “Many refugees or asylum seekers who were unwell during the outbreak were reluctant to go to hospitals as they were afraid of data sharing between the NHS and Home Office.”
3. Sign Languages
British Sign Language (BSL) is the first language of over 87,000 deaf people in the UK. It is not English and users do not necessarily read English well or at all, thus subtitles and written English materials may not be inclusive of BSL users. The need for disability inclusiveness was flagged early: “All communication should be disseminated in plain language and across accessible formats, through mass and digital media channels. Additionally, strategies for vital in-person communication must be safe and accessible, such as sign language interpreters and wearing of transparent masks by health-care providers to allow lip reading.”
Instead, as with the response in foreign languages, this has mainly been provided by NGOs and charities, in particular Sign Health, which has provided over 100 videos, including summaries of government briefings and guidance. An October 2020 report by Sign Health on the impact of Covid-19 on the deaf found that “74% percent of the deaf people who responded said they have found it more difficult to access healthcare” and that “78% of survey respondents said that they found the coronavirus information shared by the government either partly or completely inaccessible.” Like ethnic minority communities, deaf people faced more challenges in the workplace and with remote learning, particularly due to the lack of BSL interpreters on video platforms and digital work meetings and the use of face masks in the workplace.
While in many countries, sign language interpreters have gained visibility and recognition through their presence at official briefings, they have been conspicuously absent from British government briefings. The four nations of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have been independent in deciding on the coronavirus measures they take. Outside of England, BSL is recognised as an official language, thus in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, BSL interpreters have been a regular fixture at briefings led by the heads of these nations. Northern Ireland has two: one for BSL and one for Irish Sign Language (ISL).
The British government briefings’ lack of sign language accessibility led to a Twitter campaign asking #WhereisTheInterpreter? by 9 March 2020. By late April, this led to an application for a judicial review into a potential breach of the Equality Act 2010 by not providing a BSL interpreter. The action was put on hold in July 2020 as briefings were not held over the summer. Another judicial review application made at the end of 2020 relating to the lack of a BSL interpreter for medical briefings in October has been granted permission by a judge in Leeds, as it concerns “the Government’s compliance with its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 so as to provide health critical information in a form that is accessible by deaf users of BSL.” Research by Fry Law, taking on these cases, found that “The vast majority of important information provided by the UK government relating to COVID-19 and its impacts on society has no BSL interpretation”.
In a multicultural society, the needs of deaf people who use sign languages other than BSL and ISL must also be considered.
4. English
Communication problems and exclusion do not only concern languages other than English.
4.1 Digital exclusion
The coronavirus-related lockdown has seen a clear shift to digital as a lifestyle with online schooling, working from home, online shopping and video conferencing. Although internet usage is a 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), having internet access is not the same as being able to use it meaningfully. In 2018, around 5.3 million adults, “or 10.0% of the adult UK population”, were reported to be “internet non-users”. More than half had a disability. Around 22% of the UK population is estimated to lack basic digital skills, with the poorest households twice as likely to lack internet access.
Owning a smartphone, as over 80% of the UK adult population is reported to, is not tantamount to internet access. Many people rely on public places, particularly public libraries, for internet access; these have been shut down during much of the lockdown. Libraries also help people to use the internet to complete forms and access government services. With many public services having shifted online and information from local authorities available only in digital English-language format, millions of people are excluded. With more than one million jobs lost over the past year, the “digital barrier” posed by the digital welfare state is an area of particular concern; universal credit applications have to be made online.
In a report to a parliamentary committee on conditions in asylum accommodation under lockdown, it was reported that Serco asked asylum seekers in accommodation it ran in Coventry to pay £7 per day for internet access in their rooms, more than the £5 they are given each day to cover essentials such as food and toiletries. The committee noted that: “Smart phones, access to the internet and television can be a lifeline to a range of external information and support services. Prior to the lockdown many asylum seekers will have relied on local libraries and voluntary support groups, which are now impossible to access physically, to obtain such support.” This applies also to other disadvantaged groups.
In forthcoming research by this author, one NGO in Yorkshire told her, concerning homeless asylum seekers: “Not being able to see people face to face makes communicating information where English is not the first language a big challenge. We have had to rely on technology – phone calls and WhatsApp video messaging. In Bradford we do have Wifi in our properties, however we have issues with the phones that residents have, they often are not up to date phones and therefore struggle to support technology. A lot of our residents are not literate therefore they are unable to read messages so we are relying on people answering the phone and there phones being charged up and also working.”
4.2 Mental health and learning difficulties
Digital exclusion is not only linguistic. People with mental health problems have greater support needs, which cannot always be met online. In a briefing on remote access for people with mental health issues, Mind stated that “Three quarters (75%) of people who have experienced mental health problems have serious difficulties engaging with at least one commonly used communication channel, such as via phone, face-to-face or online.”
The move towards remote courts and medical consultations have proved exclusionary for all of the groups considered above.
4.3 Plain English
Across the United Kingdom, around 9 million adults are functionally illiterate or have “very poor literacy skills”. They have no access to much of the information that is available only in print or online videos that can only be accessed via websites in written English.
The reports by Fry Law and DoTW mentioned above show that much of the information available on government and official websites is too complex for the average British adult to read: “The majority requires a reading level of Year 9 or above. A number of content sections required university+ reading levels based on the Flesch-Kincaid Calculator.”
An academic study on the accessibility of online information to non-English speakers found that although traffic to government websites for information has peaked since the introduction of lockdown, “the vast majority of information readily available to the British public is not easily readable for most of the adult population.” In addition, very few websites use visual graphics as support.
4.4 Mixed messaging
It can be argued that the British government’s English messages are sometimes deliberately meant to be confusing. A key example is the government guidance on 15 May 2020 to “stay alert” to the virus as it started to ease restrictions. The purpose of this is to shift the onus, for their own safety, to the general public. There serious ramifications too, such as wrongful convictions due to rushed legislation and a lack of understanding of the guidance by the enforcement authorities.
The mainstream media has a role to play in the rise in racist incidents over the past year and the virus being blamed on ethnic minority communities. This emphasis on the alleged lifestyles and habits of particular groups also shifts the responsibility for the virus onto one section of the community and away from the government. While the academic, medical and community studies cited here speak to people from ethnic minority backgrounds, there is little engagement with the mainstream media or the government.
5. Conclusion
Given the move to digital solutions for state duties over the past decade and the decimation of the public social sector under the guise of austerity measures, the British government’s response is unsurprising in its inadequacy.
It can be compared to the response to the Grenfell tragedy in 2017 when translations into at least 18 languages was provided via a translation agency and a charity for the victims, not by the public authorities. Almost four years on, survivors who have not been permanently rehoused have support services, including language support, provided largely by the local community and charities. On the national scale, however, as the pandemic has shown, the burden this places on underfunded and under-resourced community groups, charities and local authorities is “not sustainable or practical”. The voluntary sector cannot wholly and indefinitely deliver services that are the government’s responsibility.
Among the recommendations in Baroness Doreen Lawrence’s report into the “disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities” is that the government must “Ensure everyone can access Covid-19 communication”, by removing “linguistic, cultural and digital barriers to accessing public health information including accessing testing, use of the track and trace app and other health and care services. […] Communication must have the trust of all communities and be tailored to different communities.”
The communities worst affected by the lack of access to official guidance and communication related to the coronavirus pandemic are the same communities who were most disadvantaged prior to March 2020. The failure to address this exclusion has seen inequalities grow, and will hinder future post-pandemic progress.
Your Starter for Ten: translate this into intelligible English:
Unpublished forthcoming academic research by the author is included in this study.
References:
Federici, F. M. & O’Brien, S. 2020. In: Translation in Cascading Crises, Federico M. Federici and Sharon O’Brien (Eds.), , Oxford, Routledge.
one small window... 