This week, Rebecca Harris MP met with representatives from the British Deaf Association in Parliament to discuss assistance for deaf children.
Two years on from the historic British Sign Language Act 2022 and to celebrate Sign Language Week 2024, the event celebrated the progress on British Sign Language (BSL) to date and highlighted the challenges families face in accessing BSL support for their deaf children.
Founded in 1890, the British Deaf Association is the UK’s only national representative organisation of Deaf people and British Sign Language. As a Deaf-led membership charity, led and represented by Deaf people for Deaf people, they campaign and advocate for equal rights to fully participate and contribute to society as equal and valued citizens. They are recognised as the UK’s representative by the World Federation of the Deaf, a United Nations consultative organisation.
The event saw the launch of the British Deaf Association’s campaign BSL In our hands to ensure every child has access to BSL. The Government seeks to ensure every family with a deaf child receives support to introduce BSL in the home environment and for early years speech and language professionals to include fluent signing as part of their support for deaf children.
Rebecca commented: “It is important that we ensure language is accessible for deaf people all over Britain by prioritising sign language learning. The Government is very proud of the British Sign Language Act, which made BSL an official language of Britain. It is wonderful that our deaf community in Castle Point gains from the increasing national use of sign language.”
BSL is the first or preferred language of approximately 151,000 people in the UK, around 87,000 who are Deaf and for whom English may be a second or third language.
If you are looking to learn British Sign Language near Castle Point, you can contact:
- Don’t Shout Out, an Essex-based BSL teaching charity
- Adult Community Learning (ACL) Essex offers BSL for the hearing and BSL/lip-reading for the deaf
If you are looking to practice your BSL or find other BSL speakers locally, the Southend Deaf Pub organisation (linked here) do pub trips for BSL speakers!
