We at BDA Scotland are excited to let you know that the Scottish Government has asked us to set up and manage a new Facebook group about the BSL (Scotland) Bill, in October.
The Scottish Parliament’s BSL (Scotland) Bill Facebook group will be closed; people will only be able to access it for archived information and will no longer be able to make comments or upload BSL videos. However, the Deaf community will be able to continue to contribute BSL videos and comments using the BDA Scotland’s new Facebook group.
BDA Scotland will produce accessible and easily understood information in BSL for the new group, as well as administrating it, moderating comments, adding new members and posting up-to-date information to share with our community.
We will be running the Facebook group on behalf of the Deaf Sector Partnership (DSP) which is working with the Scottish Government to support BSL. The DSP includes SCoD, Deaf Action, Deaf Connections and Deafblind Scotland, as well as BDA Scotland.
We will also be developing, contributing to and managing information resources for the group, to be made widely available for external Deaf organisations, the Deaf community and community service providers, giving Deaf people opportunities to contribute in BSL. The aim of the Facebook group is to try include “hard to reach” people as much as possible.
The BDA would like to say a special thank you to the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee for setting up the original BSL (Scotland) Bill Facebook group for the Deaf community, which proved very successful. They have been wonderful, and have kept communicating with the Deaf community through our first language, BSL, which we have really appreciated. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Scottish Government in this way.
Please join our group and continue to support the BSL (Scotland) Bill, which will be an exciting ongoing engagement when it becomes an Act. The BDA is interested in your views and comments, which will help inform our scrutiny of the BSL (Scotland) Bill.
Please check our website later for the new Facebook group address.
Yours in BSL,
BDA Scotland
