Teach BSL in Schools

Students are taught a range of languages, such as French, German, and Spanish, however the language lacking from the school curriculum is British Sign Language (BSL).

There are 11 million deaf or hard of hearing people in the UK, and these people are much more likely to suffer from mental illnesses (up to 50%, compared with 25% of the general population).

So, I believe that adding a BSL course to the school curriculum would be a perfect way to uphold our responsibility to those who are hard of hearing; we must step up and take the simple solution to a problem affecting millions.

With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, quality of life for the hard of hearing has only worsened as these people lost the ability to lip read due to face masks and their silent world became even more silent. Even now, when regulations are much calmer, I still watched a deaf woman struggle to communicate with the worker at the pharmacy when she had an issue with her prescription.