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A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE (BSL)
This is not an exhaustive resource, it is only designed to give a brief overview of British Sign Language (BSL).
Please visit our Links page where we have included a range of organisations you can contact for more detailed information.
English and BSL are not the same, they are separate languages with different grammatical structure etc.
BSL is a visual/spatial language using hands, arms, body and facial expressions and there has been much linguistic research into BSL and other sign languages around the world. In 2003, the UK Government gave official recognition to BSL as a separate language and, in 2022, passed the BSL Act.
It is difficult to get an accurate figure for the number of deaf people who use BSL. According to the 'Help & Resources' page of the website for the British Deaf Association (March 2023),they believe there are estimated to be 151,000 people who use British Sign Language.
Each country has its own sign language in the same way that each country has their own spoken language. As with spoken languages, there are regional 'accents' in sign language too.
Within the UK, there is also another form of communication called "Sign Supported English" (SSE). Unlike BSL, Sign Supported English (SSE) follows the same word order as English and is usually used by people who lost their hearing later in their lives. These two styles of sign language are not mutually compatible, for example a person who uses SSE would not be able to access information in BSL unless they had previously learned this.
