BSL:UPTAKE » Blog Archive » The Long and Winding Road – Part 1: Introduction to the BSL Translation of Extracts from the Roadmap

The Long and Winding Road – Part 1: Introduction to the BSL Translation of Extracts from the Roadmap

Part 1

THE BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE & LINGUISTIC ACCESS WORKING GROUP

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

A ROADMAP TO BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE & LINGUISTIC ACCESS IN SCOTLAND
(2008)

Introduction to the BSL Translation of Extracts from the Roadmap

The British Sign Language & Linguistic Access Working Group (BSL&LAWG) is convened by the Scottish Government’s Equality Unit. The Group consists of representatives from national deaf organisations and government officials. It enables government to discuss and address issues at the heart of linguistic access for Deaf, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing people, guided by organisations with specialist expertise and with day to day contact with the groups of deaf people mentioned in this report.

The BSL&LAWG has been in existence since 2000. One of its main aims is to raise awareness of linguistic access across government. In April 2007 a BSL & Linguistic Access Project Manager was appointed to work with the working group in order to produce this roadmap.

The roadmap cannot hope to address all aspects of access for deaf people living in Scotland but it does outline many of the major issues, and points to some of the ways towards improvement, particularly in public policy. It will contribute to the knowledge the Scottish Government requires in making informed judgements about linguistic access when it is formulating, revising, or implementing policy. It is intended to be a resource for government and whilst it is primarily aimed at central government officials, it should also be of use to other bodies, such as local authorities.

The full roadmap can be found on the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/07/01102537/0. But it is not meant to be a once-and-for-all report. It is a dynamic work in progress and it will need to be adapted as circumstances change, as goals are achieved, or as new legislation comes in. It is a challenge to everybody to work for change, including the deaf community and everyone involved in the deaf sector. So it needs to be understood by everyone, including Deaf people who use BSL.

That’s why we’ve made this translation of some of the main points of the roadmap into British Sign Language, so that BSL users can understand what the roadmap says and can play their part in working for change.

The roadmap was published by the Scottish Government, Edinburgh 2009.

The views expressed in this report are those of the Working Group and do not necessarily represent those of the Scottish Government or Scottish Ministers.