UK Council on Deafness

Promoting the use of British Sign Language

Latest News: Department for Work and Pensions announces extra £½m and list of sucessful tenders, details can be found here.

Consortium of deaf organisations are awarded funding, further information can be found on the press page.

The UK Council on Deafness has played a co-ordinating role in the campaign for recognition of BSL. The campaign has been supported actively by many deaf organisations locally and nationally, the most active being the British Deaf Association and the Federation of Deaf People.

In May 2000, the government asked the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) to provide advice on how the issue of official recognition might be taken forward. The DRC in turn sought advice from the UK Council on Deafness. The BDA led this coalition which made a joint submission to the DRC calling for the establishment of a national BSL taskforce and for official recognition of BSL under the European Charter.

In December 2001 Maria Eagle, the new Minister for Disabled People, asked the UK Council on Deafness to organise a meeting with leaders of deaf organisations so that she could find out what 'recognition' would mean and what practical differences it would make to deaf people. Representatives from BDA, FDP, RNID, NDCS, RAD and SIGN met the minister on 31st January 2002 and called for BSL to be included in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, for the government to establish a Taskforce to look at what changes to legislation are required and for the government to encourage the European Parliament to recommend that member states comply with the resolution that indigenous Sign Languages be recognised. The organisations expressed their frustration and disappointment at the lack of progress by the government towards recognising BSL, especially given the strength of feeling and unity between all the major D/deaf organisations.

Since that meeting we have continued to co-ordinate the involvement of the leading deaf organisations and regularly meet with government officials to push for progress.

We are also working at a European level to help create an appropriate vehicle for recognition of Indigenous Sign Languages. This is likely to involve drafting an additional protocol to the existing European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages designed to enable Sign Languages to be covered by the Charter. In November 2002 Malcolm Bruce MP was appointed Raporteur to the Council of Europe and authorised to visit countries in Europe where recognition of Sign Languages is most advanced. We were pleased to be able to assist Malcolm in the preparations for his fact-finding visit to Finland and Sweden and in drafting his report. The Report has been adopted by the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe and has been submitted to the Social Committee for opinion. On 1st April 2003 it was debated in a plenary session of the Assembly in Strasbourg and was adopted with one amendment (see full report below).

On March 18th 2003 Andrew Smith, the Secretary of State at the Department of Work and Pensions, and Maria Eagle, Minister for Disabled People, made a joint statement that the government recognises British Sign Language to be a language in its own right.

The Advisory Panel set up by the government to help set the priorities for the £1m funding to support the recognition of BSL had their first meeting on 2nd July 2003. Representatives from BDA, CACDP, FDP, NDCS, RNID and UK Council on Deafness met with representatives from six Government Departments. The main priorities that emerged from the meeting are:

• to increase the number of BSL tutors particularly in the higher levels which will require improvements to the infrastructure such as accreditation of courses and developing training material for tutors and trainers of tutors.
• to raise awareness of the communication needs of Sign Language Users among employers, service providers and in the wider community.

The Department of Work and Pensions has announced the timetable and process for tendering for the £1 million to fund a discrete programme of initiatives to support the Government's position statement on British Sign Language. The closing date for tenders was 20th January 2004, and the successful initiatives are expected to be announced very soon.

• Submission to the Disability Rights Commission by the UK Council on Deafness
• BSL Campaign update - February 2002
• Letter to the Minister for Disabled People - 30th April 2002
• Report to the Council of Europe for the Protection of Sign Languages - Malcolm Bruce MP
• Government Statement recognising BSL as a language - 18th March 2003
• UK Council on Deafness Press Release welcoming government statement - 18th March 2003
• Protection of sign languages in member states of the Council of Europe - Debate 1st April 2003
• BSL Initiative Tender details

Links to other organisations involved in the campaign:

• British Deaf Association www.bda.org.uk
• Federation of Deaf People www.fdp.org.uk
• European Union of the Deaf www.eudnet.org

And for a greater understanding of Deaf Culture and the important role British Sign Language plays, you can order a copy of the recently published Understanding Deaf Culture - 'In Search of Deafhood'  by Paddy Ladd (Lecturer and MSc Co-ordinator, Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol) from the publisher's website at www.multilingual-matters.com

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