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Background

British Sign Language (BSL) is the first or preferred language of many Deaf people in Scotland and the rest of the UK. It is a language of space and movement, using the hands, face and head. Its grammatical structure is quite different to that of English. For many Deafblind people, BSL is also their first or preferred language.

In the UK, BSL is the indigenous manual language in the same way that English is the indigenous spoken language. It is recognised that the primary users of BSL are Deaf as BSL is wholly accessible to those who cannot hear a spoken language. Deaf people who use BSL are part of a recognised cultural and linguistic minority. Unlike people who speak other minority languages, many Deaf sign language users cannot learn to speak English as they cannot hear the language with its subtle differences in regional variations and dialects.

In February 2007, the Scottish Executive published a consultation document – A Strategy for Scotland’s Languages. In this document, BSL is described as:

“a real, full and living language that is part of our rich cultural heritage. It has its own vocabulary, structure and grammar, which is different from English, and like spoken languages in Scotland, has its own regional variations and dialects”.

This strategy did not become a working document for the Scottish Government at this time, therefore although BSL is recognised as a language in its own right, Scottish society and the information and services that are available to its hearing population are not accessible for Deaf people.

The UK Government recognised BSL as an official British language on 18^th March 2003. However, since then, BSL has not been given any legal protection in either the UK as a whole or in Scotland, which means Deaf people do not have full access to information and services as hearing people do, especially in the areas of education, health, and employment; and are disadvantaged in their everyday lives as few hearing people have even a basic grasp of BSL.