• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Lib Dem conference: Party adopts call for BSL to be given legal status

Lib Dem conference: Party adopts call for BSL to be given legal status

By John Pring on 20th September 2013 Category: News Archive

Listen

theweeksubLiberal Democrats have unanimously backed calls for British Sign Language (BSL) to be given legal status by the UK government.

It is now party policy to ask Liberal Democrat ministers to press within government for BSL – which can trace its roots back to the 16th century – to be one of the UK’s official languages, along with Welsh, Cornish and Gaelic.

Such a move would mean a right for Deaf people to have information and services provided in their own language, BSL.

The motion was moved by David Buxton, the first Deaf BSL-user to be elected as a local councillor and now the prospective parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn.

He said that BSL-users currently have to rely on asking for “reasonable adjustments” to be made through the Equality Act if they want to access information and services, but that this often means just having written notes passed to them, rather than being provided with a BSL interpreter.

It is now 10 years since the Labour government recognised BSL as a language, but Buxton said there had been no further progress towards granting it legal status.

He told the annual Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow that his party had been the first to provide BSL interpreters at its annual conferences, the first to invite a Deaf BSL-user to speak at conference, and the first to have a Deaf BSL-user elected as a councillor.

But he said: “I don’t want to be remembered as the first and the last. I want to see more deaf BSL-users elected for public office.”

He said his motion was about “our right to BSL, our right to learn through BSL and have services in BSL provided widely, and have our culture treated respectfully”.

He said: “We could have more families… more teachers of the deaf signing fluently, more interpreters qualified, and more deaf people involved in wider society.”

Buxton said recognition of BSL had been fading, with a reduction in funding, fewer colleges offering BSL courses, families with deaf children having to pay more to learn BSL, and interpreters having to find thousands of pounds in fees to become qualified.

He said he feared that cuts to specialist support for the more than 80 per cent of deaf children who were in mainstream education would make it harder for them to secure qualifications, and could lead to them being bullied and becoming socially withdrawn.

He warned that schools were increasingly employing less experienced support workers, who often did not know how to sign and communicate effectively.

Buxton, who is also chief executive of the British Deaf Association, said: “The government needs to work on and do something about the future of deaf children, protecting them from institutional discrimination.”

Greg Judge, another leading disabled party activist, who has a degree in deaf studies, said that deaf people “don’t want your help, they don’t want a handout, they want your respect as equal citizens. Their language is under attack… their proud culture is in jeopardy.”

And George Potter, executive lead on policy for the Liberal Democrat Disability Association (LDDA), told the debate that the 145,000 BSL-speakers in the UK “lack basic rights”.

He said: “We will continue to lobby in government. It is a good motion and it is a good start; it is not the end, it is just the beginning. Please support basic rights and basic dignity for users of BSL.”

The previous evening, Lilian Lawson, director of the Scottish Council on Deafness, who has campaigned for legal status for BSL in Scotland, told an LDDA fringe meeting that a bill should be introduced into the Scottish parliament to establish BSL as one of Scotland’s official languages by the end of this year.

She said that having reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act was “not good enough”, and added: “We don’t need awareness-raising, we need a law. Every deaf child should have every opportunity to learn sign language as well as English.”

Stephen Lloyd, the deaf Liberal Democrat MP, said he was “absolutely determined” to take the issue back to parliament “and move it right back to the top of the radar”.

He added: “All I want to do essentially is copy the [Scottish] legislation. All deaf children need to be able to learn sign language if they can.”

18 September 2013 

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Government ignores warnings of new DWP deaths, and UN intervention, as MPs pass universal credit cuts bill

Urgent letter from UN to Labour government warns: We think your cuts continue Tory attack on disability rights

Race against time to secure DWP deaths evidence before parliament passes new benefit cuts bill

‘Complete shift in thinking’ needed on education of disabled children, says ALLFIE

Minister ignored concerns from disabled advisers, months before publishing cuts bill

Frustration after government only issues partial ban on new floating bus stops

Report suggests five big ideas that could transform disabled people’s mobility

My new book shows exactly why we need the disability movement, says disabled author

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web