British Deaf Association announces inaugural BSL Conference to launch BSL Alliance and share ambitious 10-year vision for Deaf community following legal recognition of British Sign Language
The British Deaf Association (BDA) will host the first-ever national BSL Conference in London on Friday 17 March 2023, following the passage into law of the British Sign Language (BSL) Act on 28 April 2022. The Act recognised BSL as an indigenous language of Great Britain after many years of campaigning by the Deaf community, spearheaded by the BDA and the BSL Act Now! campaign group.
Participants at the Conference will explore what this historic piece of legislation will mean in practice for Deaf people, how they can hold government departments to account as they implement the provisions of the Act, and how the Deaf community and decision-makers, stakeholders and service providers across the UK can work together to build on the Act to improve the lives of thousands of British Deaf people.
The BSL Conference will take place during Sign Language Week (13-19 March 2023), a campaign coordinated by the BDA which aims to both celebrate and promote BSL across the UK and to protect and preserve the endangered language for future generations.
The BSL Act (2022) aims to “guide government departments on understanding their duties, support departments in their use of BSL across public communications and publicly report on [their] progress”. The Government-appointed BSL Advisory Board is currently recruiting BSL signers to “advise on the implementation of the Act” and “better understand and offer solutions to barriers to inclusion for all who have BSL as their language”.
In response, the British Deaf Association will launch a new BSL Alliance, an expanded coalition of Deaf organisations tasked with monitoring the progress of the BSL Advisory Board as they implement the BSL Act.
The BDA will also launch an ambitious 10-year strategic vision at the Conference. The vision sets out a world in which the thousands of British Deaf and Deafblind people whose first or preferred language is BSL are empowered to live their lives as full and equal citizens and in which their status as a linguistic and cultural minority is recognised, respected and reflected in accessible public services.
Rebecca Mansell, Chief Executive of the British Deaf Association, said:
“After decades of campaigning by the Deaf community, led by the BDA, the BSL Act has now passed into law. Our language has at long last been recognised! What happens next?
This is an absolutely crucial moment for Deaf people’s civil rights as a linguistic and cultural minority in the UK. We want to scrap for good the extremely damaging ‘medical model’ of deafness, which sees Deaf people as ‘impaired’ and somehow in need of fixing. We want to create a world in which BSL signers enjoy the same rights as their fellow citizens and our unique visual language and culture is recognised, celebrated and protected for future generations.
The BSL Conference will bring Deaf and hearing community representatives together for the first time to understand the implications of the Act, to explore the role of the Government-led BSL Advisory Board and the independent BSL Alliance, and to build long-lasting relationships that we hope will make our ambitious vision possible over the next decade.
We dream of a Britain where every Deaf child and their parents receive free support to learn BSL from birth so they can communicate as a family.
We dream of a country where all public services are automatically accessible to Deaf people so they can live life as independent adults.
We dream of a nation with an inclusive, enlightened attitude that recognises the unique linguistic and cultural status of the BSL signing community and consigns audism (discrimination) against Deaf people to history.”
Confirmed keynote presenters at the Conference include: Tom Pursglove, Minister of State for Disabled People, Health & Work; Craig Crowley MBE, Chair of the BSL Advisory Board; Rosie Cooper MP, BSL Bill sponsor; Dr Kate Rowley (DCAL / UCL); and Dr Rob Wilks (University of South Wales), with more presenters still to be confirmed.
Topics to be covered during the conference include: The future of BSL in the UK; Introducing the BSL curriculum in primary schools; bilingualism and bimodal communication; the campaign for free BSL classes for the families of Deaf children; Deaf education in Scotland and Wales; Best practice from the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015 National Plan; and Embedding BSL in Social Care in Wales, with more topics still to be confirmed.
