SignPort Bets a £5,000 Grant Can Open the Fringe

SignPort let deaf Fringe-goers request British Sign Language interpreters in August, paid from a £5,000 grant. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe closed on 31 August with 4,232 shows. Users could ask for two performances each, and every request still went to a human bookings team to see if a show could be made accessible.

That is the wager Deaf Action and the Fringe Society placed. Put the request in an app already built for public services, point it at the world’s biggest arts festival, and test whether demand-led booking can do what three years of email “on request” work did not.

A Catalogue, Then a Human Bookings Team

SignPort is a mobile app from the Edinburgh charity Deaf Action that matches deaf BSL users with BSL/English interpreters. The core product lets a user book, see who is coming, and chat before and after the job. The Fringe layer added in 2026 was a searchable catalogue of shows, by venue or type, with a request button on top.

A tap did not lock an interpreter. Deaf Action’s bookings team still had to work with the performer, the venue and whoever was free, then decide whether that performance could be made accessible. Users could message the team, view interpreter details once a booking stood up, and follow a link to buy a ticket.

The cap was hard. Each person could request an interpreter for up to two performances. Fringe Society guidance during the festival also asked for at least seven days’ notice, with shorter notice only sometimes possible.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A REQUEST

• The catalogue: The user browses Fringe shows, sees which already have BSL, and sends a request for a show that does not.
• The human check: Deaf Action contacts the artist and venue and looks for an interpreter who can take the slot.
• The stage craft: If it is viable, the team sorts lighting for the interpreter and a reserved seat with a clear sight line.
• The ticket: The user can talk to the bookings team in the app and follow a direct link to buy.

Mercy Cherono, SignPort’s manager, said the Edinburgh Festival Fringe involves thousands of performances as well as audiences, interpreters, artists and venues, and that for deaf people it opens cultural experiences that have been hard to reach. The software did the filing. People still had to make the night work.

What £5,000 Buys in Interpreter Time

The Fringe feature was built for the 2026 festival. The Fringe Society covered the cost of the BSL services with a £5,000 grant. That pot is the real size of the bet, because the matching app already existed.

The National Union of British Sign Language Interpreters surveyed members in March 2026 and published median freelance fees in April. The Scotland median for a registered interpreter was £335 for a full day, £170 for a half day and £115 for a short local job. Those figures are guidance, not a cap, and each professional sets their own rate.

SCOTLAND MEDIAN FEES AGAINST THE GRANT

NUBSLI also warns that performance work usually costs more than those medians. Interpreters in that domain are expected to be experienced, to take extra training, and to prepare by reading scripts, watching a live or recorded show, learning lyrics and attending rehearsals. Evening and weekend work may be charged higher. A long or intense show can need more than one interpreter so quality holds.

A Fringe hour is not a clinic slot. If the grant was spent at the Scotland half-day median, it covered 29 bookings. If jobs were billed as performance full days, it covered 14. Either way, the money was always going to run out long before the programme did.

The Old Scheme Reached 16 Shows in Three Years

BSL on Request did not start with SignPort. The Fringe Society’s partnership with Deaf Action was in its third year in 2026, after a 2024 pilot. Westaly Duignan, head of fundraising and strategic relationships at the Fringe Society, said the two organisations had worked together for three years and enabled 16 shows to provide BSL interpretation.

The Society’s own access record for 2025 is smaller still. Nine performances were supported through the project that year, a figure it published as proof that deaf Fringe-goers could pick more of their own schedule. Sixteen shows across three years and nine performances in one year are different counts, but they sit in the same range as a £5,000 pot at Scottish median rates.

BSL ON REQUEST AT THE FRINGE

1. 2018: The Fringe Society begins BSL interpretation for street performances in West Parliament Square.
2. 2024: BSL on Request is piloted, so a deaf audience member can pick a show and Deaf Action tries to book an interpreter.
3. 2025: Nine performances are supported through the project.
4. 30 October 2025: SignPort launches as a free booking app for deaf BSL users and interpreters.
5. 7 to 31 August 2026: The Fringe runs for 25 days, and SignPort adds a show catalogue with a request button.
6. 9, 15 and 20 August 2026: BSL-interpreted street performances run at West Parliament Square.
7. 31 August 2026: The festival closes. The Society later marks the 2026 request service as finished, with a return planned in 2027.

Duignan said the Society was delighted Deaf Action had built a way for BSL users to request an interpreter for the Fringe show of their choice. The app changed who filed the request. It did not, by itself, change how many interpreters August could actually field.

2.4% of Shows Came With BSL Already

Deaf Action said that of more than 3,000 shows at the 2026 Fringe, around 2.4% were set to feature BSL interpretation. On a base of 3,000 that is 72 shows, and the charity’s “more than 3,000” line means the pre-scheduled BSL list was in that region in mid-August, when the feature was announced.

The festival that actually finished was larger. As of 11:30 on 31 August, the Fringe Society counted 4,232 shows from 77 countries, 61,277 performances, 306 venues and 2,805,395 tickets issued. Those close numbers are a different snapshot from Deaf Action’s mid-August “more than 3,000,” and the 2.4% figure was never published against the final 4,232.

FRINGE 2026 AT THE CLOSE

• Shows: 4,232 from 77 countries, as of 11:30 on 31 August.
• Performances: 61,277 across 306 venues over 25 days.
• Tickets issued: 2,805,395, excluding free and non-ticketed shows.
• Pre-scheduled BSL: Around 2.4% of more than 3,000 shows, per Deaf Action in mid-August.

Nathan Rollinson, 36, has been deaf since birth and works as a photographer and tastemaker. He used the feature to book an interpreter for two shows, the cap, and described the usual hunt for BSL information as frustrating.

It has been very frustrating and disappointing at times, especially when you want to enjoy the same cultural experiences as everyone else but cannot easily find information about BSL-interpreted performances. The Fringe has so many shows but without clear access information, it can feel overwhelming and discouraging.

Nathan Rollinson, photographer and SignPort user

He said SignPort made the process smoother and that an easy way to find interpreted shows and book interpreters would make a real difference. The catalogue attacked the information problem he named. The two-show limit and the grant still sat behind it.

Artists Can Still Say No to a Request

Fringe Society guidance for companies made the human veto plain. Artists did not need to do anything in advance. If a performance was requested, Deaf Action would get in touch. The charity might ask for a conversation about how interpretation would work, and might ask that an interpreter see the show before the booked date, watch a video, or get a script if the piece had one. The Society said it would cover the interpreter’s ticket for a preview.

The team would also need to agree where the interpreter would stand, and the venue would need a reserved seat so the deaf audience member could see both the stage and the interpreter. Companies could opt out. The Society asked them not to refuse on the spot and to speak first with the coordinator, named as Liz, an experienced performance interpreter who might offer a workaround.

That is a long chain for a festival in which many shows run an hour, in stacked rooms, with tight turnarounds. A request filed on a Tuesday for a Saturday night still had to clear the artist, the room, the lighting and a professional who may already be booked for medical or council work. The app shortened the email trail. It did not shorten the prep.

Why 1,500 Interpreters Cannot Cover August

RNID, the national hearing-loss charity, says there are around 1,500 registered sign language interpreters in the UK and up to 87,000 deaf BSL users, roughly one interpreter for every 60 users. Those professionals are not waiting in Edinburgh each August. They work hospitals, courts, classrooms and jobs under Access to Work, and performance interpreting is specialist on top of that.

SignPort’s own pitch is that the old booking trail, back-and-forth email, leads to missed appointments. That is why the Scottish Government supported SignPort’s development with £350,000 through CivTech, with software partner Burrotech. The app is free for deaf BSL users and for interpreters. Public bodies pay an annual subscription. At launch on 30 October 2025, six public bodies had put it in their BSL plans.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes launched it at Deaf Action’s Edinburgh headquarters as a tool for essential services, not for comedy clubs.

The Fringe catalogue is a new front end on that civic product. It does not mint interpreters. If registered professionals are already thin in winter clinics, they are thinner still when thousands of rooms go live at once and a performance booking can wipe a half day plus rehearsal.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The terms: The 2026 Fringe layer let users request BSL for up to two shows, with interpreter fees drawn from a £5,000 Fringe Society grant.
• The process: Requests went to Deaf Action’s bookings team, which still had to clear artist, venue and interpreter, and artists could decline.
• The close: The Fringe Society now says the 2026 BSL on Request service is finished and due back in 2027.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Volume: How many SignPort requests were filed during the 25-day run.
• Fulfilment: How many of those requests produced an interpreter in the room.
• Spend: How much of the £5,000 was actually paid out, and at what rates.
• 2027 money: Whether other Edinburgh festivals will put in the extra funds Phillip Gerrard asked for.

No public tally has been released. Until one is, the bet cannot be scored as a win or a miss, only as a small pot aimed at a huge programme.

Edinburgh as a Year-Round Interpreter Request City

Cherono said that if the technology can improve access across a programme of this scale, it could be adapted for hospital appointments, council services, workplaces, conferences and major events. That is the product SignPort was funded to be. The Fringe module is the loud demo.

This app builds on our commitment to make Scotland a more inclusive place for Deaf people. It also represents exactly the kind of innovation we want to see through our CivTech programme – technology that transforms lives and removes barriers.

Kate Forbes, Deputy First Minister, SignPort launch, Edinburgh, 30 October 2025

Phillip Gerrard, Deaf Action’s chief executive, said the charity was grateful to the Fringe Society for backing the pilot and that it showed a genuine commitment to access. He called it a chance to test an approach that puts more choice in deaf audiences’ hands, and said the hope was that this was only the beginning. If similar investment came from Edinburgh’s other festivals and cultural groups, he said, the city could build a city-wide interpreter request scheme and aim to be one of the most accessible festival cities for deaf people.

Rollinson asked funders to treat equal access to culture as worth paying for, and said more money would mean more availability. The Fringe Society’s accessibility page now states that the 2026 BSL on Request service is closed and will return in 2027, when the festival is due to run from 6 to 30 August. The software will still be able to take a request. The question that will decide 2027 is the same one 2026 never answered in public: how many interpreters the next grant can actually put in the room.