What is British Sign Language (BSL)?
BSL is the first or preferred language of more than 70,000 Deaf people in the United Kingdom. Like sign languages used in other parts of the world, it is a full and complete language in its own right, with its own grammar, vocabulary and syntax, and is totally separate from English. It is: • not a way of expressing English with gestures • not an ‘aid’ created to ‘help’ Deaf people communicate • not inferior to or less expressive than spoken language. BSL has been in use amongst the British Deaf community over generations, developing like any other language. It has, however, been under constant attack by those who see it as inferior and would eradicate it. For 100 years, from 1880 to 1980, it was banned in Deaf Schools in the UK and replaced by ‘oralism’, with pupils forced to speak and lip-read English, which most could neither hear nor understand. Consequently, most profoundly deaf children learned very little of anything. The status of BSL rose after a damning report on the failure o
