Learning British Sign Language can open up a whole new world, hidden in plain sight. It is more than a means of communication, it is a gateway into a vibrant culture and community. Many hundreds of years old, British Sign Language (BSL) is the heritage language of deaf people in the United Kingdom. Entirely visual, it uses three-dimensional space to make it’s point, and because it has no written form, it’s survival depends on being passed from person to person.
Gloucestershire Deaf Association (GDA) is at the heart of keeping BSL alive in Gloucestershire. As a living resource of deaf culture, GDA ensures that the next generation of deaf children can access the language and identity that is their birthright. Since ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents with little knowledge of deafness, the importance of early BSL is often overlooked. In past decades, deaf children were sent to residential schools where sign language was passed on pupil to pupil. Nowadays most of those schools are closed and deaf children are raised in mainstream environments. The results can have benefits but the downsides can mean deaf people are left without the language that comes most naturally to them.
A Journey of Identity
Imy Harris, a vogue model, influencer, and star of the BBC’s Great Pottery Throwdown, knows this all too well. Growing up, she often felt caught between two worlds. She felt she was ‘too deaf for the hearing world but not deaf enough for the deaf community without knowing sign language’. It meant that growing up she felt alone, ashamed of her deafness and found it hard to find a positive deaf identity.
When Imy was young, there was no support available for new families and it was left to her mother to find the right communication path for her. Without support, she taught herself Makaton in order to teach Imy. Makaton uses signs but it isn’t a full language like British Sign Language and doesn’t bring the cultural connection of a community. They were left to find a way through by themselves.
The Missing Link for Families
It was only when Imy was a teenager that she found the GDA and met youngsters with a similar experience to her own. Her experience is not uncommon, there are no official programmes to guide new parents of a deaf newborn towards the benefits of early sign-language which is proven to support speech acquisition. Research from UCL shows that without early sign language, deaf children risk cognitive delays. Yet there is currently no statutory funding to support new parents in learning BSL from the start.
New parents often find themselves part of a medical system of appointments and procedures without meeting other deaf families or discovering that deafness can be a positive source of culture and pride.
Imy feels strongly that this needs to change and has become an ambassador for GDA to support our work with parents and children. Our new baby group ‘Dalmation pups’ is a first step towards addressing this gap in services and our connected up primary age group ‘Dalmations’ and ‘Nxt gen’ youth club ensures that deaf and hard of hearing children have peer support in a ‘total communication’ environment where they experience a positive deaf identity that supports their self-esteem.
Reclaiming Connection
Looking back, Imy regrets the lost time but she feels she has come a long way on her journey towards accepting her deafness and joining the signing community.
She wishes she’d done it earlier ‘I think I missed out on that connection and opportunity to embrace my identity because I didn’t really know where to start, so I lost my identity and because I was ashamed of who I was, growing up, it was really isolating’
‘Learning Sign with GDA isn’t just learning a language, for me, it’s part of reclaiming my identity. Having an interpreter can be great but I want that one on one connection to my community without having to go through somebody else,
She’s excited to get started – ‘When I met the team they were really open, it’s not about who is the better than the others, everyone is learning together, everyone is in the same boat, so it’s very welcoming’.
A Call for Everyday Inclusion
Gloucester Deaf Association is a place where all learners are welcome whether you’re a hearing person who wants to communicate with deaf people, you want to your business more inclusive or you just want to discover a fascinating new language. Either way, Learning sign language is a satisfying pursuit and it also makes Gloucestershire more accessible and inclusive to the deaf people who live and belong here.
Imy believes that small steps can make a big difference:
‘We all know words like ‘Ola’ or ‘Bonjour’, so why can’t people say ‘hello, how are you’ or ‘thank you’ in BSL in the place where we live’. A little signing goes a long way and can allow deaf and hard of hearing people to feel comfortable in our community and lead their lives without a continual battle to gain access to the most basic services and the businesses that hearing people take for granted.
Join the Movement
Join our BSL College beginners course starting on International Sign Language day, September 23rd. No prior knowledge necessary, you’ll receive bespoke bonus material and access to our unique ‘Sign and Social’ practice group which helped our last cohort achieve 100% pass rate. Book here: BSL College
Or why not take your commitment further and become an inclusion partner and really commit to transforming Gloucestershire into an accessible place for deaf people. 1 in 5 people have some form of hearing loss so it makes business sense to be Deaf Aware. We want to see a Gloucestershire where every deaf person has the language access they need; A place where Sign Language can flourish and inclusion is put first. Email us for an information pack at BSLCollege@gda.org.uk
