FW: BSL Recognition finally!

[Kearsy Cormier]

Wonderful news for the status of British Sign Language in the UK!!
-Kearsy
-- 
Kearsy Cormier, PhD
Lecturer in Linguistics
University of Bristol
Centre for Deaf Studies
8 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TN
Phone: +44 1 (0)117 954 6909
Kearsy.cormier at bristol.ac.uk
http://kearsy.com 

------ Forwarded Message
From: "A.Clark Denmark" <A.C.Denmark at bristol.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 10:19:24 -0000
To: all-cds <all-cds at bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: BSL REcognition finally!

UK, Tuesday 18th March 2003

HUGE STEP IN BSL RECOGNITION

The Federation of Deaf People (FDP) is delighted that the British
Government have finally recognised British Sign Language (BSL) as a
language in its own right.

At a meeting in Westminster this morning with representives from Deaf
organisations including FDP and the BDA, Secretary of State Andrew
Smith and the Minister for Disabled People, Maria Eagle announced the
recognition and their decision to give £1 million in funding to
support the move.

This goes to show that our four years of campaigning, lobbying and
BSL marches did have some impact and the Government HAS listened to
us!  However, there is still a lot of work to be done.  While we are
very pleased with this big step towards the full acceptance of our
language, it still has no legal status and needs to be strengthened
by law.

FDP Chair, Lesley Knight says:  "This is a great day for Deaf people,
but it is only the start.  We will be working closely with the BDA to
make sure it doesn't become a tokenism."

The FDP National Committee would like to give its huge thanks to all
the Deaf people and our allies who have worked hard to make this
possible.  This year's BSL March will still be held on 5th July in
London, to to celebrate today's announcement and to push for stronger
legislation which will allow us to step ahead even further in the
fight for Deaf rights.


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