A Doncaster Deaf Trust created free online British Sign Language course has registered more than 15,000 participants in just under a year.
The lottery funded course, launched on March 27 2020, was targeted with getting 1000 people to learn to sign in its first year but has been overwhelmed by the public’s response and now has more than 15,000 people learning to sign.
Alexis Johnson, executive principal of Doncaster Deaf Trust said: “This is a phenomenal result and for our pupils and students to know that there are an extra 15,000 people from across the country learning to sign is simply wonderful.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have seen such a positive response to our free resource. Sign Language is a great communication tool for people to learn and we know that there are many campaigns to have British Sign Language taught in schools.
“This course is teaching individuals, businesses and families the basics of communicating using sign.”
The course covers basic signs including greetings, numbers, addressing people, travel and transport and hobbies.
Alexis added: “It is really simple to sign up and you can take part in the course at your own pace, doing a little each day and practicing as often as you can.
“Huge thanks to Natalie Pollard who is the course designer and one of the signers, Mike Beslin, the eLearning course producer from the Trust and our signers who have worked tirelessly to make this happen. Without the Lottery Funding this would not have been possible, so a big thank you goes out to them too.
“Anyone wanting to share videos or photos of them practicing their new skills should tag Doncaster Deaf Trust social media pages in their posts.”
To sign up to the free course visit www.doncasterdeafsign.org.uk
The Trust has also released this video for Sign Language Week 2021:
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Hartmut
March 24, 2021
Wow, a small town like Doncaster got 15,000 wanting to learn sign language! Is it online? Could all 15,000 be accommodated?
Cathy
March 24, 2021
Wowzers!! It is amazing that 15k have signed up for the BSL course and how does it work when thousands are online at the same time? It is fascinating how hearies are hugely interested in the language yet so few end up as interpreters! A very interesting irony indeed.
Helen
March 26, 2021
I bet that most of these people have no idea they are going to be learning the wrong signs for their region, they cannot all be from Doncaster.
Cathy- if all BSL courses were free and local/online like this one, I’m sure there would be many more interpreters than there currently are, but the costs are prohibitive for many people: to go from 1 to interpreter level costs over £10,000 in the South East of England.
There are the additional problems with the travel involved to access courses, childcare issues, and whether people’s jobs allow a regular course (so many people work variable shifts and evenings/weekends now).