Scotland has launched a six-month video interpreting pilot in every community pharmacy, giving Deaf and Deafblind British Sign Language users immediate access to a live interpreter. Some public services ask for three forms and a password from 2014. This one asks you to scan a QR code.
Using their own smartphone, a customer enters the pharmacy name and region, then presses connect. A qualified BSL interpreter appears by video, with no advance booking, so the customer can discuss prescriptions, Pharmacy First or an ordinary cough that has already ignored two cups of tea.
The Scottish Government calls the fully funded service a UK first and says it was shaped with BSL users. That matters. A pharmacy consultation should be private and direct, not a family charade beside the shampoo while everyone hopes the dosage instructions become self-explanatory.
Pharmacies need no new equipment and pay no extra cost. They are being asked to display the QR-code poster, which is a pleasingly rare government technology project whose hardware is paper and whose user manual does not arrive in a wheelbarrow.
Contact Scotland BSL says the pilot covers all pharmacy services and is live now. Mammy's verdict is simple: put the poster where people can see it, keep the camera permission on, and let independence be the ordinary part rather than the special arrangement.
