Celebrating British Sign Language

From a video premiere at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) to a social media campaign encouraging members of the public to learn simple phrases in British Sign Language (BSL), Exeter Deaf Academy have been busy celebrating the 12th anniversary of when BSL was recognised as an official British language.

Tuesday saw the students’ first event of BSL Celebration Week (16th-22nd March) as they experienced their very own movie-style premiere at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) Courtyard. Joined by their families, friends, Deaf Academy and RAMM staff, plus members of the public, the students showcased their starring roles in a BSL led tour of the museum in their 'Favourite Things' video project. The film will help encourage both Deaf and hearing children, young people and families to come and explore the galleries and collections to discover their own favourite things.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Lee and Heidi Robertson, who have both been involved in Deaf TV show BBC See Hear, inspired Deaf Academy students with stories of how they got to where they are today. Lee is also an engineer and has worked at the Science Museum whilst Heidi is also a photographer who originally grew up in Finland. These two deaf role models truly showed the students that Deaf people can do anything.

The Deaf Academy’s social media page was also a hive of activity throughout the week. In collaboration with Exeter businesses Deafinite Interpreters and SignUp BSL, each day a video was posted with a new simple phrase for people to learn how to sign. More Exeter businesses joined in the campaign with Shaun Durham, Owner of Crisp CPD, tweeting “We’ve all tried it out in the office” and Exeter Daily commenting "We had a go - they'll be easy to remember".

Those on Facebook and Twitter were also asked to send in their own suggestions of words and phrases they would like to learn using the hashtag #loveBSL. Again Exeter businesses got involved with @GolfAcademy2 requesting “Hello, have you played golf before”.

This video of BSL suggestions was posted the week after on Friday 27th March with Interserve commenting, “Thank you. It’s amazing. We are going to practice it in the office”.

To view all the #loveBSL videos and to give signing a try yourself, please visit www.exeterdeafacademy.ac.uk/BSL-celebration-2015