Wow – what a few weeks it has been. We have been on a panel for COP26, Set about launching our new partner web site. Taken on director development. Been on two Podcasts, completed our CBS (Cambridge business school) course and taken my first exam in BSL (British Sign Language).

The last of those really got me thinking, especially as my friend Alesia wanted to listen to the podcasts. The issue is she’s also my BSL teacher and is deaf. Sure I could have turned on the captions, and yes they work ok. Yet the richness of langauge is lost in captions and the richness of a BSL interpreter is also lost. I didnt know the subtleties of BSL until I set about learning it. It is in the dynamic nature and subtleties that the richness of the language is exposed, and like spoken languages the inflections and intonations are expressed. It also has regional variances, like dialects or accents which quite often throw me.

I wanted to involve my friends in the podcast, we have an ambition to make our own, yet how to do that? That, in nutshell is the challenge with some diversity and inclusivity – it’s making the mainstream accessible.

Alesia and I are formulating a plan – The podcast will need to be more a webcast, obviously. yet if we can record it with a place for the BSL interpreter, then with the aid of a transcript, we record and overlay the BSL – Boom we cr`acked it. well hopefully.

Anyway that’s the idea and the cunning plan, Any good examples you’ve seen? drop me a line. Next week I’m off to London, Alesia is off to Moscow ( better take a coat Alesia). So we will pick up the plan when we are back.

Take care, stay safe and keep exploring.