After the Department for Education (DfE) opened a consultation on 15 June into the development of a new GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL), the British Deaf Association (BDA) is concerned about the lack of BSL signers represented in the media to discuss this crucial milestone for the British signing community. Instead, deaf people with clear speech were invited to comment on their behalf.
The consultation seeks views on the proposed subject content for the first-ever GCSE in BSL. It closes on 8 September 2023. The GCSE is set to be delivered in schools in England from September 2025.
The BDA is part of a coalition of organisations, including the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) and the BSL awarding body Signature, which has long campaigned for a BSL GCSE.
Rebecca Mansell, Chief Executive of the BDA, said:
“The introduction of a GCSE in BSL is a truly landmark moment, and we are now one step closer to BSL being taught across schools in England.
While the BDA warmly welcomes this positive and long-awaited development, we were deeply disappointed to see BBC Breakfast inviting deaf people with clear speech to comment on the news yesterday [15 June].
It is vanishingly rare to see a native BSL signer on TV. This was a huge missed opportunity for the BBC to invite a representative of the signing community to give their perspective on this new qualification.
Asking deaf people who can speak to represent signing Deaf people is unacceptable and ableist, akin to inviting English speakers to comment on matters of importance to the Welsh-speaking community. Nothing about us, without us.
This demonstrates how far we as Deaf people still have to go to counter widespread ignorance about our community and language, despite the legal recognition of BSL by the UK Parliament in April 2022 and the subsequent creation of a BSL Advisory Board, established to guide the Government on issues related to BSL.”