Fighting for Representation
A brief history of BSL and the ongoing movement towards language recognition
Bluebell Nicholls
Column I
British Sign Language, or BSL, is the language spoken throughout Britain by the hearing impaired. For the hearing-abled it is a language that perhaps many have witnessed but one that few people have engaged with, and even then it can often be the punchline. BSL users and the British Deaf Association (BDA) continue to fight for legal recognition of BSL as a language, despite the fact that according to the government 11 million people in the UK are classed as deaf or hard of hearing, and of these 151,000 are BSL speakers.¹ As the global drive towards representation of minority groups has grown, so has the drive for the recognition of BSL and protection of deaf culture and heritage.²
The concept of using visual signs as a substitute for conveying ideas shared in spoken language has existed for centuries. Of course, it is logical that sign languages would have existed in a pre-industrial Britain, as deaf people would have too. However, one needs to distinguish between signs created within deaf families and rural communities, e.g. ‘home sign’, and a standardised national sign language. There is evidence as early as the sixteenth century of sign being used as a form of communication in Britain. In 1602 there is an account in Richard Carew’s Survey of Cornwall of Edward Bone of Landoc, servant to Sir Peter Courtenay, and his friend John Kempe conversing in sign.³ Furthermore, in 1576 a description of a wedding ceremony between a Thomas Tylle and Ursula Russell describes how Thomas gestured with his hands to confirm the marriage as opposed to a verbal declaration. This also shows that authorities appeared to be willing to accommodate the use of sign language.
Yet sign language only took a step towards standardisation during the Georgian era. Thomas Braidwood founded the first deaf school in 1760 - Braidwood’s School for the Deaf and Dumb, which taught via speech as well as via what would become known as BSL. After relocating to London, this legacy would continue through his nephew, Joseph Watson, who was also headmaster of the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in the early 19th century.⁴ However, this turning point in attitudes must be recognised for what it was - an outlier. Not only were these schools institutions that served children of rich families (as opposed to a national deaf educational initiative), but discrimination against the deaf continued pervasively. Arguably Braidwood himself was not fundamentally concerned with creating a standardised sign language, since when American deaf educators such as Thomas Gaulladet arrived in Britain aiming to learn from Braidwood’s institution, Braidwood refused to cooperate. (Consequently, this formed the linguistic connection between French Sign Language and American Sign Language, as Gaulladet travelled on to Paris instead.)
During the Victorian era, the advancement of sign language was significantly set back. While there had been increasingly more institutions teaching sign and greater efforts were made to bring the deaf community together, at a conference in Milan in 1880, this all radically changed. A group of teachers of deaf students decided that teaching sign language was detrimental to the learning of spoken language, and therefore sought to outlaw it. For the next century, deaf education focused on the ‘oral method’, insisting deaf students be taught to communicate verbally.³ Not only was this detrimental to the overall education of deaf students, many of whom were leaving school with a reading level well below their peers, but it stifled the development of BSL.⁵
Sign languages survived through ‘home sign’. This is attributed to the creation of dialects within BSL, as there was no longer a centralised organisation or community bringing the deaf together, but rather considerable effort to subdue and isolate their deafness. With no formal teaching of BSL, dialects logically emerged in each geographic centre, as the passing down of the language would only occur within the locals in the community. The influence of this period carries forward to today, as multiple signs for the same vocabulary exist. I personally experienced this on arrival at the Cambridge Sign Language Society, where I was informed some of my signs were ‘northern’, much to my southernly surprise.
Over the past two generations, from the 1970s onwards, attitudes towards the deaf community have overall become more positive. Organisations, in conjunction with a shifting social background, have not only put deafness in the public spotlight, but also worked towards increasing awareness of the deaf community. For example, legislation such as the 1995 Disabilities Discrimination Act and the 2003 Communications Act demand that organisations provide adjustments for hearing impaired employees and the media meet BSL interpreter targets. Viral videos of sign language interpreters, such Tara Asher at Stormzy’s Glastonbury set,⁶ have highlighted not only that BSL is dynamic and thriving, but how the language is evolving into the 21st century and that when put into the mainstream, BSL attracts wide acclaim.
Yet, the deaf community is still significantly set back by the government’s refusal to include it in language-based legislation. The British Deaf Association’s latest report (as of 2014) appeals for BSL to be included in the same branch of protective legislation as indigenous languages. It cites the failure of the government to include BSL in the 2002 Protected Language Status (which protects Scots, Ulster Scots, Welsh, Scottish, Irish Gaelic, and Cornish), despite the fact that these languages average similar if not a lesser number of censused speakers as BSL. For example, a 2017 Freedom of Information Request based on the 2011 Census revealed that 557 people claim Cornish as their main language,⁷ which is both a vastly smaller geographically and proportionally compared to BSL (not to dismiss the legitimacy of Cornish as an indigenous language). The BDA’s report also cites that the 2010 Equalities Act fails to mention BSL at all, which may lead to ignorance about the deaf community’s issues.⁸
Once BSL gains legal status as a protected language, the deaf community will have a greater standing from which to combat workplace and educational discrimination. Under current legislation, BSL speakers are marginalised as “a direct result of linguistic exclusion” (BDA Legal Status of BSL/ISL, p.22)⁸, which manifests, for example, in below average levels of educational achievements and healthcare information, but higher than average levels of acquired mental illness and exclusion from employment.⁸ Whilst anti-disability discrimination policies like the 2010 Equality Act exist, there is a gaping loophole in that the language of the deaf community is not legally recognised as a language at all. The BDA’s 2014 report thoroughly explains how by recognising BSL, it signifies a step towards legitimising a sense of the deaf identity and recognising deaf and BSL speakers as a cultural and linguistic group, as opposed to just seeing deafness as a disability for which adjustments need to be made. It emphasises the valuable contributions the deaf and BSL speakers have made to society, and how investing in this marginalised community is critical for fostering inclusivity. Legal recognition is the vital next step forward for BSL and its users.
¹ ‘Saleem: Profoundly Deaf User’, GOV.UK <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-disabilities-and-impairments-user-profiles/saleem-profoundly-deaf-user> [accessed 8 October 2020].
² Jim G. Kyle and others, Sign Language: The Study of Deaf People and Their Language (Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 5.
³ UCL, ‘UCL – University College London’, History of British Sign Language <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/british-sign-language-history/> [accessed 7 September 2020].
⁴ ‘A Brief History of British Sign Language (BSL)’ <https://www.signcommunity.org.uk/a-brief-history-of-british-sign-language-bsl.html> [accessed 24 October 2020].
⁵ Adam Schembri and Kearsy Cormier, ‘How British Sign Language Developed Its Own Dialects’, The Conversation <http://theconversation.com/how-british-sign-language-developed-its-own-dialects-112445> [accessed 24 October 2020].
⁶ Aimee Cliff, ‘Sign of the Grimes: Stormzy’s Glastonbury Interpreter on How to Translate Rap’, The Guardian, 2 July 2019, section Music <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/02/stormzy-glastonbury-interpreter-viral-rap-sign-grimes-tara-asher-british-sign-language-deaf> [accessed 24 October 2020].
⁷ ‘Cornish Language’, Wikipedia, 2020 <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cornish_language&oldid=984826422> [accessed 24 October 2020].
⁸ ‘BDA_Legal-Status-of-BSL-ISL_11-Mar-2014.Pdf’ <https://bda.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/BDA_Legal-status-of-BSL-ISL_11-Mar-2014.pdf> [accessed 7 September 2020].