BSL Act Now: Deaf charities ‘should have done more’ to publicise sign language bill, BDA chair says

David Buxton, chair of the British Deaf Association, has admitted that the consortium of Deaf charities supporting the British Sign Language (BSL) Bill “should have done more” to publicise the proposals to the Deaf community.

Speaking during a livestream on Tuesday evening, Mr Buxton responded to questions from Deaf audience members about the Bill’s progress ahead of its committee stage next Wednesday.

In response to one question, he replied: “I want to take ownership that I, we, as the consortium [of charities], should have done more to publicise what this is and what’s involved and what the process has been.”

The campaigner also went on to add that the coalition of nine charities have considered the possibility of continuing the BSL Act Now group, with the organisations contributing resources and “collecting case studies”.

“We have committed to being guardians of the effectiveness of the Bill. We haven’t discussed any tangible amendments that we want to be in the Bill because we haven’t seen the new explanatory notes that are going to be broadened. Until we see how that looks, how that’s written, we won’t know what we need to really push for,” Mr Buxton added.

The comments followed a recent meeting with the Minister for Disabled People, Chloe Smith MP, where it’s claimed Ms Smith said there is “scope” for the explanatory notes accompanying the BSL Bill to be broadened.

Mr Buxton said the BDA hope the legislation or its notes would be amended to make the link to the Equality Act and reasonable adjustments “very, very clear”, in light of last year’s successful legal challenge against the government as part of the Where Is The Interpreter campaign.

He continued to say that while there is no reference to tactile sign language in the Bill at present, government officials said this information could be included in the explanatory notes.

After one Deaf individual referenced BSL access to healthcare, Mr Buxton responded: “The minister has been very, very clear. She wants this guidance to trickle all the way down to your local GP surgery.

“She wants it to trickle down and affect the local receptionist in your GP surgery, to ensure that interpreters or whatever it might be is provided to meet BSL needs.”

The BDA chair also offered up a defence for Section 1(2) of the Bill, which states that the legal recognition of BSL “does not affect the operation of any enactment or rule of law” – something previously criticised as meaning no new rights are created for Deaf BSL users.

“[It] is the same as the Welsh Language Act [and] the Scots’ Gaelic Act.

“If they didn’t limit its effect, they would have to go through every single statute on the statute book and every single common law to ensure that there wasn’t some kind of unintended effect by having BSL legally recognised,” he said.

Elsewhere, Mr Buxton confirmed that the BSL Council – now known as the BSL Advisory Group – will be based upon the National Advisory Group in Scotland and the BSL Scotland Act.

“The minister has already approached us and spoken to the nine organisations and what the makeup of that advisory group should be. Now, we have been very clear that it should not be the nine organisations.

“The nine organisations have their own interests and they should be allowed to pursue those, and our special advisory group should be representative of the Deaf community – the wider Deaf community – and all of the interests that the Deaf community would like to bring forward,” Mr Buxton said, adding that it would need to be “as diverse as possible” with representation of the three home nations, diversity of age and LGBTQ+ representation.

He continued to say that the selection of individuals for the advisory group “should be an application process” with joining criteria “transparently published”.

The BSL Bill is back in the Commons on 23 February for its committee stage, starting at 10am.

Mr Buxton also confirmed that attempts to bring the date for the third reading forward – a session currently set for 18 March – were unsuccessful, but said that time pressures would no longer apply if the Bill passes the final Commons stage before 25 March.

The full Q&A session is available to watch back with BSL interpretation and captions on the BDA’s Facebook page.

Photo: British Deaf Association/Facebook.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

---

Update: This piece was amended on 22 February after a new time for the committee was given.