Jeff McWhinney

Jeff McWhinney (born 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland), is a leader in the UK deaf community.

Early life
Jeff McWhinney was born into a Deaf family in Belfast. His parents, brother, and sister are all Deaf.

He was, like many others living in Belfast, impacted by the Troubles in Northern Ireland, as loyalists mistakenly killed his cousin. She was married to Masserati Meli, a Roman Catholic, and was shot through a frosted window at the back of their East Belfast home. It is believed that her husband was the intended target.

Jeff McWhinney was raised in a bilingual environment, with his family using both British Sign Language (BSL) and what some consider Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL), as well as English. He also learned Irish Sign Language (ISL) from the community. Living between London and the south of France, he later acquired American Sign Language (ASL), French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB), and French Sign Language (LSF).

He was educated at the Jordanstown Schools in Belfast, where one of his teachers, Mr. Press, had also taught his father. In the 1970s, he attended Mary Hare Grammar School for the deaf.

McWhinney was born into a deaf family in Belfast, His parents, his brother and sister are all deaf.

During the Troubles in Northern Ireland loyalists killed his cousin as a mistake as she was married Masserati Meli, a Roman Catholic, and she was shot through a frosted window at the back of her house in East Belfast and it was believed that it was a mistake as the target was her husband.

Jeff McWhinney was raised in a bilingual environment, his family who used both British Sign Language (BSL) and as some may say, Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL) and English. He came to pick up Irish Sign Language (ISL) from the community. He later learned to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL), and French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB) and French Sign Language (LSF) as he is living between London and the south of France.

He was educated at the Jordanstown Schools in Belfast, where there was a teacher, Mr Press, who also taught his father. He then went to Mary Hare Grammar School for the deaf in the 1970s.

Deaf rights and organisations
In Belfast, McWhinney grew frustrated with Deaf clubs and organizations that weren't managed by Deaf people. He founded the Northern Ireland Workshop with the Deaf, inviting prominent speakers like Paddy Ladd, a leading Deaf academic and activist, and George Montgomery, a renowned educational psychologist, to discuss Deaf liberation.

In 1986, he became the first Secretary of the Euro Youth Deaf Council (now the European Union of Deaf Youths), organizing Leadership Camps in Holland (1986) and Belgium (1987). Many participants from these camps have gone on to become influential figures in the Deaf community, such as politician Helga Stevens, who came in third in the EU Presidential elections, and Dr. John Bosco Conmara, an Irish academic at Trinity College Dublin.

McWhinney's career as an activist took off in 1984 when he moved to England to join the Breakthrough Trust (now DeafPlus), a charity promoting integration between Deaf and hearing people from a bilingual British Sign Language and English perspective using BSL as the common ground for integration and inclusion.

From there he was appointed as the Head of Sign Language community at the Greater London Council and later the London Borough Disability Resource Team (LBDRT), where Jeff McWhinney established eleven Deaf Image campaign groups in London and sign language-centered services, including the UK's first sign language interpreting booking agency in 1987. McWhinney worked with a visionary team at LBDRT with disabled luminaries such as Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston, Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton and Katherine Gillespie Sells.

Jeff McWhinney transitioned to Wandsworth Borough Council, joining their Economic Development Office. Through their fast-track management scheme, he pursued an MBA at Kingston Business School on a day-release basis. He received two promotions within the Economic Development Office, ultimately becoming a Senior Economic Development Officer working on projects like the town planning and development of a village-style independent shops area on Old York Road using Council funds.

His first top management role came in 1993 when he was appointed the first disabled Director of the Greenwich Association of Disabled People and Centre for Independent Living (GADCIL), working alongside leading disabled activists like Rachel Hurst.

In 1995, he made history as the first Deaf person to become the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British Deaf Association (BDA), one of the UK's largest Deaf societies. During his tenure, he united 34 national and local Deaf organisations, successfully lobbying for UK Government recognition of British Sign Language as an official language by Andrew Smith (British politician).

In 1999, McWhinney challenged a decision by Woolwich Crown Court staff that prevented him from serving on a jury due to his deafness. Although unsuccessful in overturning the decision because of the existing law restricting the judge's options, he secured a commitment from then Home Secretary Jack Straw to review the law preventing Deaf people from serving on juries. This initiated a process that led to a change in legislation, allowing BSL interpreters in jury deliberations today.

SignVideo (https://signvideo.co.uk/our-story/)
He left his BDA management post in September 2004 to start up a new video technology enterprise, as managing director of Significan't (UK) Ltd. This company was considered to the fastest growing social enterprise staffed entirely by sign language users. He introduced the videophone to the deaf community and established the SignVideo Contact Centre, a centre which provides instant access to sign language interpreting through video conferencing. With the Greater London Authority and London Connects he succeeded in securing a grant of £500,000 from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's e-innovations programme. The SignVideo partners are CISCO, Tandberg, Prime Business Solutions and Tiger Communications. With this quartlet from the leading technology companies the platform developed by the SignVideo Contact Centre enabled full access by videoconferencing through many different avenues from the legacy ISDN videophones to the latest in 3G video mobiles. The SignVideo Contact Centre, was the runner up of the prestigious national e-Government Awards for 2005 the first deaf or disabled enterprise to receive this recognition.

In 2007, Jeff McWhinney presented the concept of applying the latest in technology to demolish the barriers to social inclusion for deaf and disabled people, using SignVideo as an example, to the School of Government attended by senior civil servants and as a result of his paper was one of the five enterprises selected by Trevor Reed and Lindsey Spancer the then Prime Ministers to share a stage with him at a conference attended by the top two tiers of senior civil servants. That year SignVideo was selected as one of the three preferred suppliers in video interpreting to the Department of Work and Pensions and was the sole provider for the period 2008–2010 with the other two preferred suppliers ceasing their operations.

In 2010, SignVideo went national establishing partnerships with Deaf Action in Edinburgh, Scotland. That year SignVideo brought the video interpreter to smartphones and tablets by launching its Android app and subsequently the iOS app for iPhones and iPads.

In 2011, SignVideo launched BSL LIVE, a world first live video interpreting service that enabled deaf BSL users to communicate immediately with the service providers through their own websites. After this service was taken up by public authorities, British Telecom became the first commercial company to launch SignVideo BSL LIVE on its website. This has expanded to three banks – Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland and the Halifax.

In his September 2004 interview with SIGN MATTERS, he commented: "The word 'Deaf' has several different perceptions out there ranging from those deaf because of old age to Deaf BSL users. Also there are hidden groups within the sign language community such as Children Of Deaf Adults (CODAs). Working for the sign language community means we can include all these people in our campaigns for language rights. A good quote I have used often express how I feel about this subject. Hearing people love English and its richness however it is seen by the Deaf as a tool to achieve equality. But no-one realise that Deaf people love sign language and its richness in the same vein as that of hearing people above! While this new vision is promising, the real challenge for this new concept of a Sign Language community is whether Deaf people are ready to accept that hearing sign language users belong to this community. Deaf individuals have faced oppression from hearing people throughout much of their lives, including the suppression of our sign language which was banned in deaf schools and education for over one hundred years. This ban has formulated Deaf people's attitudes and inherent anger towards hearing people, even those who want to work with us.

McWhinney passionately recounted, "I led a group of Deaf youths in Finland back in 1987, and one of them asked our guide how many staff members at the Finnish Association of the Deaf were Deaf. The guide began counting, then paused and asked, 'Why do you want to know?' This struck me as incredible—it simply didn't seem to matter to him. This was true inclusion in action.  British Deaf people have yet to experience this level of acceptance, but I have high hopes that we will one day!"

Today, Jeff McWhinney continues to make a difference as a management consultant with Vortex Consulting, working with business agencies, mentoring, consulting, and coaching new startups, microbusinesses, and managers in community organizations. A proud father of four Deaf children and grandfather to three Deaf grandchildren, he takes great joy in knowing they are connected to a rich tapestry of Deaf ancestry, with six known Deaf generations dating back to the early 1800s in Ireland, Finland, Belgium, and Russia. McWhinney divides his time between London and Carcassonne in the south of France, remaining actively involved in community activities on both sides of the Channel.