13 - 19 March 2023
Sign Language Week
Welcome to Sign Language Week, an exciting national campaign led by the British Deaf Association (BDA)!
Sign Language Week is celebrated every year in March to commemorate the first time British Sign Language (BSL) was acknowledged as a language in its own right by the UK Government on 18 March 2003. This year, we are marking the 20th anniversary of that historic moment.
We are also celebrating an even bigger milestone! On 28 April 2022, British Sign Language was finally recognised in law as an indigenous language of Great Britain in the BSL Act (2022). This followed similarly ground-breaking legislation in Scotland - the BSL Act (Scotland) (2015).
This year’s Sign Language Week will run from 13 – 19 March 2023. The theme of this year’s campaign will be “Protecting BSL”.
Our aim for Sign Language Week is to celebrate and educate the British public about British Sign Language (BSL), to encourage more people to start learning our beautiful, unique, visual language, and to protect and preserve BSL for future generations to come.
Join us and become a #BSLally!
# Protect Promote Preserve BSL
BSL will be available soon
We're still making preparations for this year's Sign Language Week and will update the website regularly in the run-up to March. Thank you for your patience.
# PROTECT PRESERVE PROMOTE
BRITISH
SIGN
LANGUAGE
BE PART OF #SLWEEK2023
SCHOOLS - SIGN UP TO TAKE PART IN A FREE BSL LESSON!
We are working with the awarding body Signature to deliver the UK’s largest British Sign Language lesson online, with primary schools across the UK all learning BSL at the same time!
The lesson will give children the opportunity to learn BSL from a native Deaf teacher, BSL See Hear presenter Yvonne Cobb, and find out more about the British Deaf community.
If you are a primary school and would like to sign up to take part in the lesson, please complete an application form and we will send you more information.
Together, we can break down language barriers
We want to show people across social media how easy it is to introduce themselves in BSL, and to build a movement of BSL allies who appreciate our beautiful, unique language and will help us break down barriers and end language deprivation for Deaf people.
Whether it's your first time learning to sign, or you know some already, we want you to raise your hands and introduce yourself as a #BSLally in BSL today. Nominate 5 other people to do the same and share!
Follow for handy tutorials to help you get the conversation started:
GETTING INVOLVED
WHAT IS BSL: UNDERSTANDING OUR LANGUAGE
Setting the standard for a bsl gcse
GETTING INVOLVED
WHAT IS BSL: UNDERSTANDING OUR LANGUAGE
Setting the standard for a bsl gcse
BRITISH DEAF ASSOCIATION
Join Our Newsletter
Join Our Newsletter
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SIGN LANGUAGE WEEK 2023
ABOUT
Sign Language Week is an annual national campaign led by the British Deaf Association (BDA).
This year’s Sign Language Week will run from 13 – 19 March 2023. The theme of this year’s campaign will be “Protecting BSL”.
It is our mission as the guardians of British Sign Language to protect and preserve our language, in particular from those who discourage the parents of Deaf children from learning to sign with them, and from those who promote communication systems such as Makaton and Signalong, which are not an adequate or appropriate substitute for BSL when communicating with Deaf people.
It is our ambition to build upon the official recognition of our language in 2022 to get more people across the country learning BSL and becoming allies of the Deaf community, who can support us as we work to protect, preserve and promote our beautiful, unique, visual language for future generations to come.
BSL will be available soon
We're still making preparations for this year's Sign Language Week and will update the website regularly in the run-up to March. Thank you for your patience.