BSL vlog: Nadia Nadarajah: How we can pass on the legacy of BSL in the deaf community

(English transcript below video)

This is going to be a tough video, but I feel it’s important to bring up all of the different viewpoints that I’m noticing across society. Thank you to John Archibald who brought up the documentary by Rose (Ayling Ellis) which aired last Monday. He watched it on BBC I player and was so glad he watched it, it had so many views.

I took a look at all the comments about the video and noticed that most of the comments were from the same age category. I want to say (to the older age category) that you are lucky. Those of you who were born in the 60s, 70s, 80s had the era of bustling deaf clubs.

I know people back then may have left tough oral schools, but at least when they left school they had close knit friends and they all had each other. I find that lovely. You would know exactly where to go for social gatherings, you were so lucky!

Sports and clubs were incredibly well attended, people kept in touch and it was a really close community with a rich quality to the sign language that was always used in gatherings. It didn’t matter if people left oral school with stilted signs or little awareness of signs, by meeting up often their use and knowledge of BSL improved and became so strong.

Compare this age group now to the younger generation. Deaf clubs have closed. Deaf schools are closing down. Deaf people are scattered in small groups across the country. You all know that most deaf children are born to hearing parents.

Rose’s parents – both hearing – were one of these who looked for help to support their deaf daughter but were met with comments like ‘you shouldn’t use sign language’ which as a result causes language deprivation. Even now I hear deaf friends who say they only finally found their ‘deaf identity’ after the age of 16-18 years of age.

I have questions for you all and I’m also questioning myself. Think back to the part of the documentary where Rose sits in a pub with three other deaf friends – who I know very well – they’re all chatting, discussing things and getting things off their chest in BSL. They say how they value regular meetings with their deaf friends in pubs and so on, to destress and decompress after the stress of being in a hearing world. I’m the same as I do this myself.

But for the younger generation, where do they go to see other deaf adults chatting? Where are they? Compare this to my time – I have a deaf brother – just two of us who are deaf in my family. My parents gave us access to everything, speech and sign. My Mother’s philosophy was by giving us access to both languages, we could grow up and choose which was most suitable for us.

I chose BSL as my preferred language. My brother does sign but he is strongly oral, this is his choice. But as he is still deaf, I can see his still needs access so for work he will request interpreters and for viewing films and so on he will need captions.

I feel sad that the older deaf generation who grew up with a strong deaf, signing community, regularly attending events and so on are now labelling a young deaf person as being ‘not deaf.’ Do you have the right to say that?! I don’t think so.

This is why I mention my brother. If you saw him talk, perhaps you would also say ‘he’s not deaf!’ Oral deaf people still need help, access and support. They can’t be fully 100% in the hearing world without this support. It frustrates me when people throw remarks such as ‘you’re not deaf’ to other deaf people who may use speech.

You have to remember that this is television. Rose is attempting to tackle really challenging topics in the huge media industry. I’ve been part of the media world for a long time, I have been asked to use speech but I refuse as BSL is my language.

I have had many challenges about this and it took me a long time to finally feel accepted by the media world. Rose wants to initiate change now so she adapts to their communication (speech) but uses this to introduce the media world to sign language, using interpreters and so on. It is very hard.

It makes it difficult when people complain – which you are entitled to do – but it makes it difficult for us deaf actors and those who work in media to keep opening doors and changing mindsets around deafness. It’s a very slow process. I’ve been in the media world for over 15 years now and it’s important that we all support each other.

Yvonne Cobb (See Hear Presenter and Yumma Food host) has even achieved prime time cooking slots on television, yet it’s been a long slow process.

It’s natural for people to judge and offer their thoughts about things but I’m concerned about how we pass on a legacy of beautiful BSL stories to future generations. How do we share these stories if there’s such a generational gap? I often watch older deaf people tell the most wonderful stories which I enjoy and hope to pass on. That is my main concern.

But we have to remember the number of sign language users is a lot less compared to years ago. The number of deaf people hasn’t changed but most deaf children now are being brought up orally and sign language is used less.

There are many times where oral deaf people discover the BSL world and they join our community – they are always welcome in our community, we share our love for sign and they are welcome to be members of it too. It happens when deaf people experience an identity crisis and they find part of their deaf identity in the BSL signing community.

I am really sad to see the generational age gap. There’s no passing on of stories. I was lucky to be born in the 70s. I remember the deaf clubs, the deaf schools, I attended a PHU where the deaf children used vibrant sign language. We had deaf teachers too, it was wonderful! These are all disappearing, so what’s left for the younger generation? Are they the lucky ones, I don’t think so.

Another issue the documentary raised for me was values within a family. I was lucky that my family used sign, especially my Mother and other members of my family did try too. But with Rose, we see part of the documentary where she asks a deaf man who is oral – do you wish you learnt to sign and he answered yes. He said, where do I go as I rely on family, they protect me and give me a safe space.  There are lots of questions we must be asking to consider future deaf generations.

Remember as we get older and eventually pass away, how do our stories live on? How do we pass on a legacy to the deaf community? How to preserve BSL and ensure it continues? It’s very hard and we have to do a lot of thinking to find solutions for this.

Thank you.

by Nadia Nadarajah