Politics is indeed all about compromise. It’s ‘the art of the possible’. So we shouldn’t be surprised if the #BSLBill before Westminster now looks like a fudge. It is a fudge. I supported the Scottish #BSLAct, also not perfect. I get that a delicate balance has to be struck. 1/ But there comes a point where the compromises go too far. Where what’s left achieves little. Or where it’s actually WORSE than useless.

I get the point about intersectionality in the DEAFWORLD. I get that the d/D issue bugs people in the non-binary fluid universe of identities now widely acknowledged. I get the idea that ‘lived experience’ matters. Where does this leave us with regard to collective action? Thread I’m a hearing, signing academic who has puzzled and published around these issues since the 1990s. I value theory: nothing’s more practical than good theory. But when we NEED to be clear about community membership for practical purposes & to secure RECOGNITION for signing people?

I didn’t altogether expect that my ‘end-is-nigh’ comments on the effect of technology on the future of translation & interpreting (at @ciuti2018 conference) would be popular. It’s not a scholar’s job to say what’s popular, but to consider evidence & arrive at honest conclusions. What I see is: language technologies have got cleverer at breathtaking speed in the last decade. And cheaper: ‘Alexa’ can deal with all sorts of talk, and the manufacturers are smart enough to more-or-less give it away, undermining any public resistance, until we’re all hooked.