Profile photo of dark-haired woman.

Louisa McDaid

Based near central Edinburgh, I am a professional Lipspeaker, 
Live Captioner and Stagetext trained Theatre Captioner, providing communication support to deaf/hard of hearing, neurodiverse and/or non-native English speaking communities since 2004.

A graduate of the Universities of Glasgow and Stirling, I also hold Level 6 British Sign Language and a Level 2 certificate in Deafblind Communication. In 2016, I delivered the Signature Notetaker Endorsement course, which provided a route to registration for Electronic and Manual Notetakers whose qualifications had expired.  I have also served in voluntary governance roles within the profession, including as inaugural Vice Chair and later as Information Officer for both the Association of Notetaking Professionals and the Association of Lipspeakers.

In 2007, I qualified as Scotland's first Stagetext trained theatre captioner for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences and in 2010, I was regional winner in the Communication Professional of the Year Signature awards.  I was again regional winner in 2012, this time in the Signature Learner of the Year category.

As a dual registrant of NRCPD and SRLPDC (formerly SASLI), I adhere to a strict Code of Conduct and Complaints procedure, and must evidence a minimum of 30 hours of CPD annually.  Currently, I am undertaking the University College London 11 week course in post-production intralingual subtitling for deaf and hard-of-hearing people.  I am also working towards A1 proficiency in Scottish Gaelic through the University of Edinburgh.
Registrations 
  • SRLPDC registered Lipspeaker QL00001
  • NRCPD registered Lipspeaker and Electronic Notetaker 1006751
  • Information Commissioner's Office registration no:   ZB158930
  • Disclosure and Barring Service (Enhanced): 001716226977
  • Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checked
  • Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance (HCC). 
Memberships
  • The Association of Lipspeakers
  • The Association of Lipspeakers with Additional Sign
  • The Association of Notetaking Professionals
  • Theatre Captioner Network

 Professional Qualifications
  • Stagetext Certificate in Theatre Captioning for Deaf People
  • SQA Professional Development Award in BSL Studies
  • iBSL Level 6 Certificate in British Sign Language Studies
  • CACDP Level 3 Lipspeaking
  • CACDP Level 3 Notetaking for Deaf People (Electronic)
  • CACDP Level 2 Electronic Notetaking for Deaf People
  • iBSL Level 2 Deafblind Communication
  • Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA)

Academic Qualifications


  • MSc, Distinction, TESOL (Applied Linguistics), University of Stirling, 2020
  • MTh, Distinction, Theology, University of Glasgow, 2003
  • BA, First class honours, History and Religious Studies, The Open University, 2025
  • M.A., 2:1, Philosophy, University of Glasgow, 2001