The British Sign Language and Linguistic Access Working Group (BSL&LAWG) has been convened and chaired by the Scottish Government since 2000. Its work comes under the remit of the Scottish Government’s Equality Unit. The Working Group consists of representatives from deaf organisations and Government officials. It enables the Government to discuss issues at the heart of linguistic access for deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing people. On its website there is a statement in BSL and English about Linguistic Access and Deaf People, as well as information about the work of the Group and issues affecting Deaf people. BSL&LAWG is a main partner organisation in BSL:UPTAKE.
The British Deaf Association (BDA) (http://bda.org.uk) is the largest Deaf organisation in the UK that is run by Deaf people. It represents the Sign Language community, which is united by shared experiences, history and, most importantly, by British Sign Language (BSL). There is a great deal of information on the BDA’s website, much of it in BSL as well as English. BDA Scotland has its own Committee (http://bda.org.uk/Scotland-i-59.html) and an office in Glasgow. The BDA is an advisory partner to BSL:UPTAKE.
The Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD) – www.scod.org.uk - is the lead organisation for deaf issues in Scotland. It represents 90 organisations working with and on behalf of Deaf Sign Language users, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing people. Its membership provides an effective working partnership between the Voluntary Sector, Social Work and Education Departments, NHS Trusts, Health Boards and the Government. SCoD’s website has a large amount of useful information, much of it in BSL as well as English. SCoD is an advisory partner to BSL:UPTAKE.
