Former TV news subtitler scoops award

Jean Gough, who was a television subtitler for 13 years and has also worked on shows like Have I Got News for You and Big Brother, scooped the Communication Professional of the Year accolade at the 2011 Signature Annual Awards on Friday last week (November 18).

The Lower Stondon resident now works as an STTR on a freelance basis and helps deaf and deafblind people in a variety of situations including conferences and special events like weddings.

Jean, 55, who lives in Fakeswell Lane was nominated by the people she works with and attended an awards ceremony at Plaisterers’ Hall in London.

It was a case of second time lucky for Jean as she was nominated for a Signature award back in 2009, only to be pipped at the post.

Jim Edwards, chief executive of Signature who presented Jean with her award said: “Jean’s clear passion for her profession and the support she has shown to the deaf community makes her a worthy winner of the Communication Professional of the Year award.

“Jean has time and time again proven her determination in making a difference to the lives of deaf people.”

After originally working for Her Majesty’s Court Service Jean undertook training to use a Stenograph machine, which she still works with today.

Using the machine Jean takes down speech using specialised shorthand which the machine then converts into text. She started working in television subtitling back in 1993 and worked on programmes at the BBC and at Red Bee Media.