Put British Sign Language In Our Hands: Provide free BSL classes to hearing parents of deaf children

There are over 50,000 deaf children across the UK, and over 90% of them were born to hearing parents with no knowledge of British Sign Language (BSL).

Access to language in early years is essential for a child’s development and wellbeing. Yet support with learning sign language is limited, patchy and expensive. Many hearing parents aren’t pointed towards BSL tuition and, where classes are offered, they are often expensive, inappropriate or inaccessible. 

This means, due to systemic barriers, many deaf children do not have full access to language during the critical window between age 0 to 5 years old. This is known as ‘language deprivation’, and it can mean they never develop fluent language skills. It’s a problem that’s been faced by generations of deaf people - and it needs to end. 

With the right access to language, there's no limit to what a deaf child can achieve. Every deaf child deserves the language to share their hopes, dreams, fears and ideas. That’s why we want British Sign Language in the hands of families who need it most.

Watch this petition in British Sign Language (BSL)