Deffo! Wales Deaf Youth Forum submitted this petition to improve access to education and services in British Sign Language, or BSL: improving access for families to learn BSL; adding BSL on to the national curriculum; improving access to education in BSL for children and young people; and providing better access to services in BSL, such as health, education, social care and public transport.  

British Sign Language is the UK’s fourth indigenous language, recognised in its own right in 2003, and campaigners are calling for deaf BSL users to be seen as a language minority group. Currently, there are deaf children in Wales in mainstream education with limited access to other deaf peers and communication support. As a result, they leave school at 16 with an average median reading age of nine. They often also have poor speech and lip-reading skills, which hasn't changed since the 1970s, and failures in increased mainstream education are only exacerbating this. Families have limited access to support groups and other similar families, and are unable to learn BSL unless they can afford the high costs involved. There is no opportunity for deaf children and young people or their families to learn their own language, BSL, or even to gain BSL qualifications until they are 16 years old, when they leave school. They've missed out on important life skills, life-changing conversations within the home and local and worldwide news.

Last month, the education Minister announced that modern foreign languages were being included within international languages in the curriculum, and that this would also include BSL. However, BSL is not a foreign language, it is indigenous. The National Deaf Children’s Society have stated that although they appreciate that the structure of the new curriculum will facilitate the ability for schools to teach BSL on the new curriculum, they believe that the Welsh Government could take an active role in encouraging schools to pursue this option. They added that encouraging more schools to teach BSL is crucial, given its status as an official language in Wales. They said that, at present, too many deaf children who are first-language BSL users are being supported in schools by staff who have only a very basic level of Sign. They're very disappointed that a recommendation by the children's commissioner that access to BSL should be made available to all families with deaf children, has not been taken on board, and they said a stronger message is also required to ensure that local authorities start to regard provision for learning BSL as part of their duty in meeting a deaf child's additional learning needs, because they said that, at present, this is simply not happening in practice. 

In response, Deffo! Cymru stated that 

'the GCSE benefits only those in secondary school, whereas learning from nursery will prepare all of those who access BSL for a future GCSE or indeed the current system of Qualifications for BSL'.

Although they welcome the education Minister’s vision for seeing languages taught in schools, they express concern that this is the choice of the school, not the child,

'to enable them to improve access to learning, further education, social skills, leisure pursuits, employment and life fulfilment'.

Twelve days ago, I visited the together creating communities group at St Christopher’s School in Wrexham, at their request, to discuss their work exploring whether Wales could follow Scotland’s lead in implementing BSL into the curriculum.

Deaf constituents in north Wales have e-mailed:

'deaf people who I am advocating are suffering all throughout Wales and many are in mental health crisis', adding that the British Deaf Association is very much at the forefront of pushing for legal recognition of BSL in Wales, and is asking local authorities and public services to sign up to their charter for BSL, and make five pledges to improve access and rights for deaf BSL users. We have a charter already—let's use it—but presently, only two of the local authorities in Wales have signed up.

Last October, I called on the Welsh Government to respond to calls for BSL legislation in Wales made at the north Wales Lend Me Your Ears 2018 conference, looking at Scotland’s 2015 BSL Act and their 2017 national BSL plan, establishing a national advisory group, including up to 10 deaf people who use BSL as their preferred or first language. Although the Wales Act 2017 reserves equal opportunities to the UK Government, a BSL (Wales) Bill would be compliant if it related to the exceptions listed in it. Without specific rights-based legislation, the Welsh Government’s generic legislation is going nowhere.