Sign language wins recognition

From: Guardian, UK - 19 Mar 2003

John Carvel, social affairs editor
Wednesday March 19, 2003
The Guardian

Deaf people yesterday won formal government recognition of British sign language as a language in its own right, requiring education authorities to provide better opportunities for deaf children to learn communication skills.

Andrew Smith, the work and pensions secretary, promised more resources for training teachers and interpreters in the language. Charities representing deaf people said the door was now open to establish the language as a subject for GCSEs, A-levels, and university degrees.

Sign language is the preferred method of communication for 70,000 people in Britain, making it second to Welsh as a minority language, but until yesterday it lacked legal status.

Under disability law, employers and service organisations are obliged to offer "reasonable" facilities for deaf people, but there is little guidance about how much is reasonable.

With only 182 fully qualified interpreters in Britain, the courts have accepted that it is not possible for every company to provide a full interpretation service for staff and customers.

Mr Smith promised an extra £1m for training, and a sympathetic hearing for recommendations due shortly from the Council of Europe which are expected to require signing interpretation to be given to profoundly deaf people during important interviews and medical appointments.

Mr Smith's decision was welcomed by charities that have been campaigning for more than 20 years for official recognition of British sign language. John Low, the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People, said it would help the spread of a video-telephone interpretation service being developed with the police, social services and Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Tom Fenton, the chief executive of the Royal Association for Deaf People, said recognition was "the most important event in the history of Britain's second largest indigenous language".

Susan Daniels, the chief executive of the National Deaf Children's Society, said the decision should end a "postcode lottery" that stopped children using sign language at school in areas such as Surrey, where the local authority disapproved of it.

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