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The BSL debateWhat recognition would mean | Taking action | Resources It's difficult to think of a more important issue in Deaf culture at the moment than BSL recognition. In a VEE-TV café discussion, Celia Hulme and Gavin Lilley from the Federation of Deaf People (FDP) talked about the organisation’s campaigns for BSL recognition. Young Glaswegians Katrina Dolan and Brian Duffy also gave their views on how BSL recognition would improve their lives. Katrina’s hope is that BSL will be taught in mainstream schools from a young age, making communication easier between deaf and hearing children. She feels BSL deserves equal status with languages already taught in schools, such as German and French. Gaelic, she pointed out, is a minority language in Scotland but is recognised – so why not BSL? Brian believes that BSL recognition would lead to more trained interpreters. There is a shortage of interpreters in the UK generally and in Scotland in particular. Celia and Gavin of the FDP, organisers of the BSL march in Preston held in February this year, discussed the work of the Disability Rights Commission in advising the government on BSL recognition. The Disability Rights Commission supported BSL recognition, but Celia feels that this is a linguistic rather than disability issue and, as such, should not be dealt with by the commission. She likened the BSL campaign to the recent Welsh language recognition debate. What recognition would meanThe advantages of official recognition of BSL as a language would include the following:
Taking actionThe first BSL march, held in London two years ago, was attended by 4,000 marchers. In the year 2000 the number increased to 9,000! This year’s London event is to be held in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 7 July. BSL marches have also been held regionally, although Scotland has yet to organise one. The FDP are keen to encourage local action. They want people to write to their MPs, so if you're interested, contact them for examples of effective letters. ResourcesOrganisationsSee Find out more for all the main organisations run by or for deaf people. British
Deaf Association (BDA) The Federation
of Deaf People WebsitesBritish
Sign Language.com British
Sign Language Info Web The Disability
Rights Commission (DRC) The Federation
of Deaf People BooksImprove
Your BSL by Paul Redfern (Deaf Works, 1999) £7.50. Linguistics
of British Sign Language: An introduction by R Sutton-Spence and B
Woll (Cambridge University Press, 1999) £16.95. Sign Language
Companion by Cath Smith (Souvenir Press, 1996) £10.99. Signs
Make Sense by Cath Smith (Souvenir Press, 1990) £9.99. CD-RomsThe following are all available from: Microbooks
Ltd BSL Works
(Microbooks, 1998) £49. Deaf World
(Microbooks, 1997) £39. Sign Away
(Microbooks, 1998) £39. Sign Now:
the British Sign Language CD-ROM (Microbooks, 1997) £59. Signs
for GCSE: Maths, IT, English and Science (Microbooks, 2000) £39.
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