The BDA's BSL seminar and AGM held in March at the Bristol Deaf Centre was well-attended and gave members the opportunity to find out and discuss more about the status of BSL in this country, how it compares to Wales and some European countries and the BSL Act in deaf education.

The first speaker was Verena Krausneker who is an expert in issues regarding the rights of people who hold minority languages and she concentrated on the status of sign language in Britain with a paper titled: "The status of sign languages, European inspiration."

Verena has been particularly active in campaigning for minority communities who are looking for recognition of their language and she is involved in the Austrian Deaf Association board, similar to the board on the British Deaf Association.

Verena explained: "One example where we have constitutional recognition of sign language is Austria. As an Austrian I'm proud to say that in Austria we achieved a constitutional recognition two and a half years ago. There is an article in the constitution which says Austrian sign language is fully recognised as a language. There is a second sentence which says more shall be regulated in further laws. So, the constitution refers to further laws and says these laws should take care of actual linguistic rights.

"What I'm not so proud of is these laws don't really exist yet in Austria. We achieved a huge step by a constitutional recognition which is symbolically the highest possible in the legal way of thinking. The actual effect on deaf life and sign language users lives has been questionable. Close to nil. So, it's important to understand you can have a very strong legal recognition but still have no real changes in real life.

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