The British Deaf Association (BDA) is encouraging members of the public to upload images of their handprint to an online gallery, as part of a new petition calling on the UK Government to fund access to British Sign Language (BSL) for deaf children in the early years.
More than 90 per cent of deaf children are born to hearing parents with no knowledge of BSL, with families instead left to pay thousands in order to communicate with their child – a situation the BDA has described as “inconceivable”.
The petition is the latest progression in the charity’s ‘BSL in Our Hands’ campaign, launched in March for Sign Language Week, which asks for £4.96 million of government funding to “develop BSL across the country for deaf babies” from birth to the age of five.
The Department for Education (DfE) ruled out introducing a “universal free BSL course” for hearing parents in January, responding to an online petition by writing while the government “recognises how important it is” for families with deaf children to access BSL courses, “funding is available through the Adult Education Budget”.
The dedicated budget, a government-funded programme to support adult learners, has previously been dismissed as a solution by the BDA and fellow charity the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), who say many families “do not qualify, cannot access the appropriate courses, or find they are oversubscribed”.
Rebecca Mansell, the BDA’s chief executive, told Liam O’Dell last month that the “whole approach” around the adult education budget “has to change” to concern BSL provision “in the home”.
The BDA states the “vision” behind its handprint petition as being about “a world where every deaf child has the language to share their hopes, dreams, fears and ideas”.
It continues: “We want British Sign Language in the hands of those who need it most. There are over 50,000 deaf children across the UK, over 90 per cent of whom are born to hearing parents with no knowledge of sign language.
“Babies start to develop language from birth. Early language acquisition is essential for a child’s development and wellbeing, yet access to sign language is limited, patchy and expensive.
“We need the Government to fund free access to sign language for every deaf child and their families. We need BSL in their hands, now.”
In addition to submitting their handprints via a dedicated webpage, individuals are being asked to share pictures on social media using the hashtags #BSLInOurHands and #HandprintPetition.
The petition’s launch comes in the middle of Deaf Awareness Week, with this year’s theme revealed by organisers the UK Council on Deafness as being “celebrating love and trust”.
On Tuesday, the BDA published its ‘BSL Manifesto’ for the next government, a four-point plan calling on political parties to “talk to the UK’s only national representative association for BSL and the Deaf community”; provide “free and immediate BSL support for deaf babies and their families”; provide “full access to bilingual education” in English and BSL; and ensure the upcoming BSL GCSE is taught by Deaf BSL signers.
The UK Government launched its consultation on draft subject content for the qualification in July last year, with the DfE hoping the course will be taught in schools from September next year.
In its manifesto, the BDA has called on the next government to work with the BDA and the BSL GCSE coalition to carry out a “planned, incremental rollout” of the qualification, with schools and teachers connected together through a programme lasting at least 10 years.
Noting that “Deaf people face systemic barriers to becoming school teachers”, with very few hearing teachers fluent in BSL, the BDA also calls for investment in a “sustainable Deaf-led BSL teaching workforce”, working with organisations such as the Association of BSL Teachers and Assessors (ABSLTA).
Elsewhere, the BDA states the next government must carry out reviews of public sector spending on BSL initiatives with the involvement of Deaf-led organisations, and of the British Sign Language Act 2022, which granted legal recognition to the language in Great Britain, and placed a duty on the UK Government to produce regular reports on its work to ‘promote and facilitate’ BSL.
The legislation, first introduced as a Private Members Bill by ex-Labour MP Rosie Cooper, initially included the requirement for the government to establish a “British Sign Language Council” to advise ministers on the use of BSL, before it was removed due to rules prohibiting Private Members Bills from creating new public expenditure.
The government instead committed to establishing a ‘BSL Advisory Board’ as a non-statutory body, with all 16 members revealed at the BDA’s BSL Conference in London in March last year.
However, in its manifesto, the BDA has called for the advisory body to be transformed into a statutory body, recognised in legislation, with the charity claiming “Deaf people are not meaningfully consulted or involved” in the Act’s implementation.
Similarly, the BDA says the next government must implement Article 24 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which states countries who have signed the treaty should facilitate “the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community”.
While the UK Government ratified and agreed to follow the UNCRPD in 2009, it is yet to be enshrined in law, with the current Conservative administration instead committing to “promote [a] better understanding” of the convention “across government” in its Disability Action Plan published in February.
Just one month later, government officials gave evidence to the United Nations in Geneva on its adherence to the UNCRPD, after the UN Committee found in 2016 that there had been “grave and systemic” violations of disabled people’s rights in the UK.
In April, the UN Committee overseeing the convention concluded the UK Government had made “no significant progress” in improving the rights of disabled people – a finding which Disability Unit official Alex Gowlland, who gave evidence to the committee, told Liam O’Dell the government “strongly rejects”.
On education, the BDA says the next government must “address and remove barriers” preventing Deaf people from working in roles supporting children in the early years, and “develop and fund pathways” for Teachers of the Deaf (ToDs) to become fluent BSL signers, with the charity claiming “many [ToDs] cannot sign fluently”.
Back in February 2022, NDCS reported Teachers of the Deaf numbers had reached a 10-year low, with one in six specialists lost since 2011.
Both the manifesto and handprint petition can be found on the BDA’s website.
Images: British Deaf Association/Twitter.
Liam O'Dell 