Bill to legally recognise BSL as a language praised by Harrogate deaf woman
West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper's campaign to get British Sign Language (BSL) officially recognised will be be debated in Parliament today
A deaf woman from Harrogate has told us it's about time British Sign Language (BSL) was made a legally recognised language.
MPs will debate the British Sign Language Bill in parliament today which will give deaf and hard of hearing people rights to interpreters through Government services and at health appointments.
It would also place a responsibility on the Government to publish reports on the use of BSL and issue guidance to organisations.
Chloe Marshall, who was born deaf and now has a cochlear implant, hopes it'll encourage more people to take up the language.
She said:
"For the first nine years of my life I remember really struggling to communicate with people and being so agitated that if I wanted to be in a group of friends I couldn't understand what they were saying because no one knew how to sign or had little awareness of it."
Although BSL was recognised in its own right by the government in 2003, it has no legal protection meaning it isn't mandatory for organisations to put in support for deaf or hard of hearing people.
Chloe added that it makes attending appointments "extremely difficult".
"I can't hear on the phone. It's not nice to have a family member ring up somewhere on your behalf because you want that privacy", she said.
"It can also take up to one or two weeks for an interpreter to be available which isn't good because what happens in that week could be really bad by the time you actually get to the doctors.
"Deaf people have to work twice as hard to achieve what they want to do. For things not to be put in place for us it's quite upsetting because it limits our opportunity to achieve the things we want to achieve. It's 2022, we shouldn't still be fighting for this."
West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper, who grew up with profoundly deaf parents and used BSL as her first language, first put the Bill forward six months ago. Since then she's worked with the Chair of the British Deaf Association and the campaign has been backed by Strictly winner and deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis.