January brought the exciting news that the BSL Bill was finally making its journey through parliament, meaning legal recognition of our language for the first time! The bill was an important first step in giving BSL users equal access to public services, and MSDP played an active part in the campaign.

The Rt Hon Rosie Cooper MP was responsible for taking the bill to parliament and used the deaf centre to speak to the Deaf community about the campaign. In January, MSDP were very pleased to welcome Rosie and Rose Ayling-Ellis to Liverpool Deaf Club to film an interview about the BSL Act.

We also reached out to our community members in Merseyside on social media and asked them to contact their local MP to ask them to support the bill. Our Community Engagement Manager, Janice, and Duty Officers, Adam and Mark, were also on hand to help.

What is the BSL Act?

On 28th April 2022 the BSL Bill became law, which is known as the BSL Act 2022. This meant that British Sign Language was recognised as an official language of the UK.  It also meant that from now on the government is required to promote the use of BSL in their public communications, and also facilitate the improvement of communication with BSL users by government departments.