Deaf Role Model of the Month: Jeff McWhinney

Each month we invite an inspirational or outstanding deaf role model to share their story. This can be from what they’ve learnt, to what they wish they’d have known as well as their best deaf tips.   

Our role model this month is Jeff McWhinney. Jeff’s career is a story of pioneering leadership and personal resilience. From being the first Deaf Chief Executive of the British Deaf Association, to setting up the UK’s first VRS service, SignVideo.  Read below to find out more!

Please tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Deaf, originally from Belfast, and was raised in a Deaf family where British Sign Language (BSL) was our primary language. My career has been dedicated to championing both Language and Deaf rights. I had the privilege of serving as the first Deaf CEO of the British Deaf Association (BDA). Alongside my wife, Brigitte, who is an accomplished interpreter in several signed languages, I co-founded SignVideo in 2004 – the UK’s pioneering video relay and interpreting service. Today, I chair LumoTV, working to transform Deaf media representation. A significant achievement was my key role in the campaign for the BSL Act 2022. Yet, my greatest pride lies in passing on our rich Deaf heritage to my children and grandchildren, marking the sixth generation in our family lines. 

Did you grow up in the Deaf Community or come to it later in life? 

I was born into the Deaf community. My parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren are all Deaf, and BSL was my first language at home in Belfast. These deep generational roots mean Deaf culture wasn’t something I simply discovered; it is, in essence, my cherished inheritance. 

What was your experience of education and higher education as a deaf person? 

My education presented stark contrasts. At Jordanstown School, signing was openly accepted, fostering a more natural learning environment. However, at Mary Hare, it was severely suppressed. This challenging duality, where BSL was celebrated at home but forbidden at school, profoundly shaped my commitment to advocating for linguistic rights throughout my life. 

Your career has involved being part of a lot of Deaf and Disabled organisations. How did it all begin? 

My career started in my home town of Belfast, Northern Ireland. I was the editor for “Voice of the Deaf,” a monthly magazine for a local Deaf charity. In this role, I wrote about local, national and world events, such as the 1991 Deaflympics.

In 1984, I moved to England for a new job as the London Area Development Officer for Breakthrough Trust (now called DeafPlus). There, I got involved in their project, EuroAction, which aimed to encourage new ideas and leadership across Europe.

I helped organise the first European-wide Deaf Youth Leadership Camp in Holland. This camp brought together young Deaf people from four different countries who were seen as future leaders. This important work directly led to the creation of the EuroYouth Deaf Council, which was the early version of today’s European Union of Deaf Youths. Many people who attended these early groups are now leaders in their own countries. For example, Helga Stevens, a Belgian Deaf Senator, came third in the voting for the President of the European Parliament (not Deaf Association president, but the top politician in the EU!).

After three years there, I joined the Greater London Council’s Disability Resources Team. In this team, I helped create policy templates for local councils to make sure Deaf people in London had better access to services. I also turned into a reality the UK’s first professional agency for booking BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters in 1986. This service was funded by London authorities and built on the foundation work done by Linda Richards.

You became the first Deaf Chief Executive of the British Deaf Association. What steps did you take to get into that leadership role? What qualities do you think make a good leader? 

My career path included key steps. After leaving the Disability Resources Team, I joined Wandsworth Borough Council as a town planning officer with a disability access remit. I actually took a substantial pay cut, a calculated risk to enhance my career development. It offered a fast management training course with Kingston University Business School, that addressed a weak area for me, my lack of university qualifications. This worked out very well. This opportunity and my progress there led to two quick promotions to the Senior Economic Development Officer. Taking a lower salary was worth it because I gained key skills in political negotiation within the Council, as well as enhancing my strategic planning and people management skills.

Then, I became the first disabled Director of the Greenwich Association of Disabled People (GAD) in its history. I changed this small organisation into a pioneering organisation in the field of independent living solutions including managing accessible properties on behalf of housing associations. This greatly improved my executive, financial, and strategic skills, building on my MBA training, and prepared me well for the next step up career-wise.

Becoming the first Deaf Chief Executive (CEO) of the British Deaf Association (BDA) at 34 years old was a very important moment. This was especially true because although the BDA is an organisation led by its members, it had never had a Deaf CEO before. In a way this was triggered by a global Deaf Empowerment movement that began with the “Deaf President Now!” protests and success at Gallaudet University as released recently as a documentary – well worth watching for some inspiration that campaigns do succeed.

I believe the following points sum up my main qualities as a leader:

• Empowering people and giving them the tools they require to achieve their best.

• Building and fostering a strong, united team of people better than myself in their fields.

• Managing people respectfully, with fairness as a main principle – for me equity is a key principle.

• Strategic Planning for the future with a clear vision that I share and make others believe in.

• Being brave enough to make tough decisions, and taking full responsibility for them, the buck stops with me, full stop.

• Staying strong in my beliefs even under a lot of pressure, while still being open to listening to different ideas.

You then founded SignVideo back in 2004, what drew you to setting this up? Why was this important to you? 

As BDA CEO, I observed a profound inequality: while I had excellent interpreter access, many Deaf individuals struggled with everyday services, often relying on inadequate interpreters whose communication quality sadly diminished the Deaf person’s standing in mixed company. This was unacceptable. My vision was clear: to create an accessible online video interpreting service.

Given other priorities at the BDA, I made the significant decision to leave and, with my wife, established SignVideo. For us, it transcended mere business; it was a powerful act of activism through technology. We were driven by the goal of empowering Deaf people with true independence, ensuring they could access qualified BSL interpreters instantly, enabling them to communicate effectively and be seen as equals.

You are now Chair of the Board at LumoTV. What do you hope to see develop in the next few years in regard to deaf talent on and off screen? 

My job as Chair at LumoTV is to help our CEO and the whole team do their best work. Many may not realise that I am the first Deaf individual to serve as Chair of this organisation. I am lucky that the restructure has resulted in a new and superb leadership team and Board which has been united and instrumental in our transformation. We are focused on changing LumoTV from how it used to be – an organisation led mainly by hearing people, known before as the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust (BSLBT) – into LumoTV – an efficient organisation that is led by Deaf people.

Our plan is very clear,  we plan to reach every Deaf person who uses BSL and make sure they feel truly connected to and enjoy the programmes on LumoTV (BSL Zone). We are strongly committed to making BSL content much more visible to everyone. We also want to help a new generation of Deaf people become programme makers. This means we are making sure we use our money in the best possible way for creating new content and sharing it widely.

A main goal for us is to truly show the many different kinds of people within the Deaf community, both in front of the camera and behind it. We are ordering new and exciting dramas and factual programmes that our audience will really connect with. We are also building strong partnerships with other groups and growing our reach through different ways, like our improved YouTube channel. All of this is done while making sure we spend appropriately on making good programmes and getting them out to people.

Along your career, have there been many challenges or barriers as a deaf person? How can we improve access into leadership roles for deaf people? 

Early in my career, it was very hard to get university qualifications. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, no one had even thought about having BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters working in universities. I remember being interviewed for university without an interpreter. They even refused to write down the questions. Laws like the Disability Discrimination Act or the Equality Act didn’t exist then to challenge such unfair practices.

I’ve always asserted that my deafness isn’t the issue; the challenge is that hearing people often can’t use BSL (British Sign Language), and more so in the prevailing British culture, out there people raised here in this culture are often embarrassed to use gestures, unfortunately this seriously limit their interactions with us. This failing results in hearing people feeling powerless when they first meet a Deaf person, a feeling they’re not used to. To improve access to leadership for Deaf people, we need to empower hearing people in order to overcome their embarrassment as well as changing their self-perception. This is important if one wishes to create workplaces where everyone, both Deaf and hearing, feels truly comfortable communicating and working together effectively.

To enhance access to leadership roles for Deaf people, we need to ensure the pathway includes:

• Provision of communication support from the very first job interview for all roles and levels.

• Offer deaf awareness and/or specific communication insight workshops for current leaders to make the workplace truly equal for everyone.

• Establish programmes that connect Deaf people who aspire to become future leaders with experienced mentors who understand Deaf culture and are able to communicate efficiently with us.

• Make sure working arrangements are flexible and that communication tools are

• always available to fully support Deaf professionals.

What has been the highlight of your career or greatest achievement to date? 

Without a doubt, SignVideo has been a huge success. Brigitte and I had a vision to both improve the quality and also reduce the time Deaf people had to wait to book a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter. Before SignVideo, they had to book at least two weeks ahead of the event. We brought that down to just minutes, or even seconds sometimes. This completely changed how Deaf people could access communication and at the same time are assured of the quality of interpretation into spoken English.  SignVideo was crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a lifeline that allowed Deaf individuals to join remote work meetings, make and receive work phone calls, and have interpreters join their team meetings remotely. If it weren’t for SignVideo, it’s very likely that many, or even all, Deaf people would have been seriously stunted and/or left facing serious problems career-wise. 

Who inspires you and why? (In the deaf community or otherwise) 

Steve Biko and his writings had been a real inspiration for me. He was a young, peaceful Black activist living in South Africa in the apartheid era whose ideas about Black Consciousness really connected with me. This idea was all about helping Black communities understand their own value and importance and more importantly reflect and change their assumptions . It changed the meaning of “Black” from just a race to a strong, good, and uniting identity.  This idea is similar to my own life philosophy, where I encourage the empowerment and strength of Deaf assertion and identity under the concept of “Deaf Consciousness”. 

What ways do you think hearing people can be allies to the deaf community? Any DOs and DON’Ts? 

DOs:

• Try to learn some basic BSL (British Sign Language). Even knowing a few signs shows you truly respect Deaf people and want to talk to them.

• Speak directly to the Deaf person. Look at them and talk to them, not to their interpreter.

• Be patient and flexible when you communicate. It might take a bit more time, or you might need to try different ways to talk.

• Ask how they prefer to communicate. Just ask, “How would you like to talk?”

• Speak up against ‘audism’. This means actively challenging unfair ideas or actions that assume hearing ways are better than Deaf ways.

DON’Ts:

• Don’t keep repeating the same words. Lip-reading isn’t perfect; at best, you only understand about 30%. If you say things in a different way, it helps us understand better. Repeating the same sentence doesn’t help anyone at all!

• Don’t shout or raise your voice. This doesn’t help and isn’t respectful especially when it attracts unwelcome attention by others!

• Don’t speak too slowly or make your lip movements too big. This changes how we normally speak and makes lip-reading difficult, and often quite funny for us. If you don’t want us to laugh at your attempts, then please don’t do this!

• Don’t say “never mind” or “I’ll tell you later” if communication is difficult. This leaves us out and makes us feel our options to contribute to the issue aren’t valued.

• Don’t assume a Deaf person isn’t smart or capable. Being Deaf is about a different culture and language, not about someone’s cognitive ability.

3 top tips for deaf people? 

I would suggest that these three helpful principles for Deaf individuals to live well and succeed in today’s society would be helpful to those starting out in their careers:

1. Be proud and strong in your Deaf identity.

Don’t accept any ideas or beliefs that make your Deaf identity seem less important. Be confident in who you are. Being Deaf is a very important part of you; stand strong, embrace being Deaf, and make sure your hearing friends and colleagues respect this, often by taking the first step here, they often appreciate it as it helps them to relate to you better rather than being kept in the dark about your personality and how you want them to perceive you as.

2. Ask for effective communication access and support.

It’s not just your job to make sure communication works; it’s something both sides should work on together. Insist on being in places where everyone tries hard to understand each other, and encourage hearing people to meet you halfway. Empower your hearing colleagues to inform you if they feel that the interpreter/communication support worker does not reflect you well – it is the only way you can proceed in your career – with the wrong person you are perceived according to their interpretation level – this was a lesson I learnt hard at the beginning of my career – with a good hearing ally I was able to proceed in my career without any impediment or restrictions – I became a valued asset to my employer in my own right..

3. Share your own story and unique point of view.

   

   Jeff delivering presentation as guest speaker at Healthy Deaf Minds London

Don’t let other people decide what your experiences or abilities are. Share your stories, show how varied and exciting the Deaf community is, and actively help to improve our standing and create real inclusion for everyone. Mention the basic principles of Deaf Gain and how it helps everyone in the wider society – for instance I was involved in the early forms of email “Electronic Mailbox” as it was called back then – communicating with deaf people in Holland, Belgium as well as other parts of the UK in 1984 with BT, and later with Vodafone sending SMS messages in 1994 – back then these were seen as a tool for deaf people to communicate – look at it now!! And as an addendum Vinton Cerf – the designer of the TCP/IP protocol that led to the Internet) was also deaf from birth and married to a deaf woman!

To read more inspirational role model interviews, take a look here. If you would like to be an ally to the deaf community and learn sign language, check out our BSL courses here.

Looking for more support? We’ve made it our mission to improve the lives of deaf people everywhere. Check out Deaf Unity’s projects to find out what we can do for you. If you’d like to get in touch, contact us here.

Filed in: Real life stories