Rebecca-Anne Withey: BSL activities and classes to try during lockdown…

Since we’ve entered lockdown there’s been a huge surge of online classes and activities for families to take part in. All you need is a phone or tablet, internet connection and hey presto – the world’s your oyster.

When it was announced that schools were closing and workers were urged to stay at home if possible, our our attention turned to the challenge of exercising while remaining mostly indoors. Suddenly we were inundated with celebrities offering free online classes or courses for free. Brilliant!

Oti Mabuse from Strictly Come Dancing delivers online dance classes for kids and adults. Dance group Diversity has also opened up its online dance tutorials to the general public, which you previously had to be a member of and pay to view.

I’m sure I also wasn’t alone in trying out the online morning workouts by The Body Coach, Joe Wicks, who declared himself the nation’s P.E. teacher.  I was pleased to see his online workout sessions were auto-captioned, but the speed at which the captions appeared was painfully slow and I ended up losing interest before I’d even managed to break into a sweat…!

Since then, I’ve managed to find a few online classes that are delivered in BSL. Hurrah! Admittedly, a google search for ‘online classes with sign language’ may take you to some groups that use Makaton or SSE as opposed to BSL (which are fine for others but not what I’m looking for…)  and so to save you the time I’ve rounded up my favourites below for your interest!

• First up, a yogi who has been featured in The Limping Chicken before – Bethaney Mouzer of Sign Yoga – is delivering a series of online Yoga classes using Zoom. You can find her through most social media platforms as Sign Yoga @signyogauk and even log onto her website of the same name.

  

• If you want a fitness class of another style, check out James Townsend’s social media pages as James Coach @jamesacoach (Facebook) where he delivers aerobic classes via Zoom. His sessions look so energetic and although I haven’t personally tried his sessions yet, they’re next on my ‘To-Do’ list!
  
• As well as exercising, anyone who knows me will know how much I love my food. So I was chuffed to see that Yvonne Cobb, See Hear presenter and founder of Yumma Food is delivering online cooking classes in BSL using Zoom too. Her social media pages are at Yumma Food @yummafood and her latest online session gets BSL users to rustle up a scrummy vegetarian meatball dish. Yum.
• Yvonne and her husband, Reg, are part of Gloucestershire Deaf Association who have since set up on Facebook ‘Deaf Phil and Holly on the sofa.’ These live video feeds enable viewers to have a natter with the presenters while munching on biscuits from the comfort of their living room by typing messages onto their Facebook screen as the presenters sign back. You can follow @Glosdeaf on Facebook to find out when their next session is.
• The Doncaster Deaf Trust has also released their level one BSL course online for FREE so that anyone new to BSL can begin to take up the language. They have seen over 5,500 people signing up to the course. Why not share this with hearing relatives or friends/colleagues that have always claimed they’d love to learn to sign. No excuse now! Go to www.doncasterdeafsign.org.uk or check out their Facebook page @DoncasterDeafTrust

 

What is everyone else up to online these days? Have you joined an online class or started a new hobby? Tell us about it!

Stay safe.