British Baking Show/Twitter
By including a deaf baker on this season, The Great British Baking Show has made an important step toward more inclusivity on the show. Tasha was introduced on the show just like any other player, and her interpreter, Daryl, was brought in as a completely normal, necessary addition. Some vocal fans of the show, however, have treated Tasha with utter disrespect from nearly the start of the season.
In the latest episode of GBBS, Botanicals Week, Tasha—who usually speaks vocally and communicates with her interpreter via a mixture of signing and verbal speech—spent the back half of the episode signing with British Sign Language (BSL). Some viewers chimed in on social media, criticizing Tasha for signing instead of speaking aloud. She might’ve been doing this, they claimed, because she lost in the technical and was having an overall bad week.
Luckily, some other folks in the GBBS fanbase came to defend Tasha almost immediately. “Very upsetting to see people criticising Tasha for her decision to sign,” one fan shared. “Deaf people are entitled to communicate however they want and feel comfortable, and that doesn’t always need to be one way or another. If it bothers you that you can’t understand, learn BSL.”