Virgin Atlantic first UK airline to offer BSL trained crew
Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with deaf Gladiators star, Jodie Ounsley, who was joined by deaf content creators and British Sign Language (BSL) users, Hermon and Heroda Berhane, onboard the only UK airline to offer BSL trained cabin crew on a flight to Washington DC.
Image courtesy Virgin Atlantic
The initiative is to help better understand the needs of Virgin Atlantic's deaf and hard of hearing customers as part of the airline’s commitment to ensuring every customer has a positive and inclusive travel experience.
The airline, which is the only UK airline to offer British Sign Language (BSL) trained cabin crew, asked the trio to test its services on a flight from London Heathrow to Washington.
The experience was captured in a film released today to mark International Week of Deaf People, which sees Virgin Atlantic BSL trained crew providing the airline’s signature warm welcome in BSL, assisting with onboard navigation, alerting passengers to onboard announcements and offering assistance with accessible in-flight entertainment.
Jodie, who was born deaf and wears a cochlear implant and Hermon and Heroda, who communicate in BSL, shared their feedback with Virgin Atlantic’s newly created Accessibility Advisory Board, which was developed to help enhance the airline’s accessibility offering. The board will include leaders from across the industry each with their own personal experiences of accessible travel, who will review processes and products and help shape the development of new offerings to ensure Virgin Atlantic continues to empower customers to travel the world.
In addition to ongoing BSL training, Virgin Atlantic has also committed to increase the subtitled options available on in-flight entertainment from the current 80% of movies and 40% of TV, increase clarity of services and links to special assistance contact within Virgin Atlantic’s My Booking platform and the introduction of Sign Live, an on-demand BSL interpreter for customer service teams ensuring support at all points along the journey.
The commitments build on Virgin Atlantic’s existing inclusivity initiatives, which include bespoke BSL and Deaf Awareness training conducted by Remark!, the leading deaf-led organisation who provide BSL training and translation for the community, and is available to all colleagues and the availability of hearing loops onboard all flights. Virgin Atlantic’s team of BSL trained crew has more than doubled since the start of 2023 and are available to request on all flights.
Jodie commented: “Until recently I didn’t feel confident enough to fly on my own but knowing that airlines like Virgin Atlantic can provide specially trained crew with the awareness and understanding to make me feel comfortable onboard is really empowering.
“It’s amazing to see the feedback myself, Hermon and Heroda provided is going to help make the experience of flying even better for deaf travellers in the future. I can’t hear without my cochlear implant, so things like increasing the availability of accessible movies and TV will mean I can enjoy even more entertainment onboard.”
While onboard, Hermon and Heroda shared that they found it ‘surreal’ to feel understood and commented that being able to communicate their requirements and needs made the world of difference.
While much of Virgin Atlantic cabin crew BSL training, which has been made possible through the partnership with Remark!, focuses on the travel experience, the Accessibility Advisory Board plans to explore broadening its training programme to expand learning to include more general conversation, based on their feedback.
Emma Flanagan, Virgin Atlantic BSL trained cabin crew, commented, “My goddaughter was born deaf, so I started learning BSL so I could communicate with her. I also have Tinnitus, so understand what the experience of flying can be like for someone with hearing loss.
“Making all passengers feel included and empowered at every stage of the flight is a key part of our role as cabin crew. Being able to go that one step further and do this in BSL for passengers is hugely rewarding, from ensuring everyone feels welcome, to assisting with announcements, to helping them to experience the full warmth and joy of a Virgin Atlantic journey.”
Virgin Atlantic has been working with the RNID - the national charity supporting the 18 million people in the UK who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus to uncover new research around travelling for the community.
The insights reveal that while 82% of the people surveyed by the charity who are deaf or have hearing loss say they’re planning at least one trip abroad in the next 12 months, more than half (58%) worry about communicating with cabin crew when they fly and nine in 10 feel concerned about missing announcements and key information.
Eighty-one per cent would welcome deaf awareness training as standard across the aviation industry, while BSL training (21%), consultation from those with hearing loss to improve policies (79%) and the introduction of technological support for deaf people and people with hearing loss (83%) were also measures that people who are deaf or have hearing loss would like to see introduced.
It also revealed that the introduction of deaf awareness training for airlines would make people who are deaf or have hearing loss feel more confident when travelling (80%), supported when travelling (61%) and even more inclined to fly (17%).
The campaign is part of Virgin Atlantic’s ongoing commitment to inclusive travel for all. It follows a new partnership with Channel 4 that has seen one of Virgin Atlantic’s BSL trained crew join the broadcaster’s sign language interpreter on screen in a series of idents and the airline’s support of the England Deaf Rugby team for their recent tour of South Africa.
Teri Devine, Director of Inclusion at RNID, said: “1 in 3 adults in the UK are deaf or have hearing loss, yet our research shows that every day people face negative attitudes and behaviours at work, when they’re out shopping, and even from their families.â¯The impact of this can be huge: making people feel excluded, lonely, and disrespected, and destroying their confidence.
“We really welcome Virgin Atlantic commitment to making travel inclusive for everyone and getting people to 'see the world differently' by putting in place inclusivity measures to ensure every part of the flying experience is accessible to deaf people and people with hearing loss. We want people across the UK to stand with us and say that the way deaf people and people with hearing loss are treated really does matter, which is why we created free BSL phrases and communications tips so everyone can make those small changes to show ‘It does matter’ at home, at work and whilst flying off on holiday.”
Robert Morgan, Head of Services at Remark! Said: “We have valued our long working partnership with Virgin Atlantic on the consultation and delivery of the BSL training. The content of the training was highly tailored to the context of Virgin Atlantic, making it relevant and applicable to the daily interactions of the crew. The incorporation of Virgin Atlantic specific vocabulary and scenarios ensured that participants could immediately apply their newly acquired language skills in their professional roles. We are proud with success of the partnership and hope this encourages more people to learn BSL.
“It is commendable that Virgin Atlantic have paved a clear pathway to ensure all their deaf customers face no barriers during their journey with the airline and made the decision to have a qualified Deaf teacher lead the training sessions. This choice not only ensured effective communication in BSL but also demonstrated a commitment to cultural appropriateness and inclusivity.”
Methodology
The research was conducted by RNID with members of RNID’s Research Panel. The survey was open from 30th August – 8th September 2024. A total of 335 panel members completed the survey.