Summary of consultation responses

SECTION 3 – ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES TO CONSULTATION QUESTIONS

Purpose of the proposed Bill
The proposed Bill would encourage the use of BSL in Scottish public life and raise awareness of the language among the hearing population by requiring—

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  The Scottish Government to create a designated, or lead, Minister for BSL.
  

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  The Scottish Ministers to develop a Scottish Government BSL strategic plan detailing what action the Government is taking and plans to take to promote BSL within areas of its responsibility.
  

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  “Relevant public authorities” to produce action plans to be published by these authorities and submitted to the Scottish Ministers.
  

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  The Scottish Ministers to report to the Scottish Parliament at least twice in a Parliamentary session on the content of their strategic plan and on the performance of the public authorities in terms of their BSL action plans. (In practice, during the first half of a parliamentary session, Scottish Ministers would prepare and publish their strategic plan and guidance, which would be laid before the Scottish Parliament. In the second half of the parliamentary session, the Scottish Ministers would report to the Scottish Parliament on how they were performing in relation to the strategic plan; the report would include details of the relevant authorities’ plans and performance).
  

Question 1 – General aim of the proposed Bill

Question 1
Do you support the general aim of the proposed BSL Bill? Please indicate “yes/no/undecided” and explain the reasons for your response.
One hundred and fifty-two respondents answered this question, including 42 organisations and 110 individuals. Of those, 148 (97%) were supportive of the aims of the proposed Bill and two (1.5%) were opposed. The remaining two (1.5%) respondents had either mixed or other views.
There was a general overlap in responses to this question and Question 2, which sought views on the need for legislation – these two sections of the summary should be considered together.
Reasons for supporting the aims of the proposal related to benefits (direct and indirect) – such as assisting in the promotion of inclusion, the importance of the cultural aspects of BSL, increasing access to services where interpreters were required, and improving communication and the need for learning BSL to be more easily available. Where these issues are addressed in substantive responses to other questions in the consultation, they are not expanded on at length here.

Recognition of BSL as an indigenous language

A strong theme throughout a significant number of responses was that BSL should be recognised as an indigenous language: in support of this contention, Deaf Action provided examples of countries which had formalised recognition of their indigenous sign language within their legal structures and referred to UN instruments such as the Declaration on the Rights of the Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which recognised the need for linguistic protection. The organisation “Signature” argued that: “BSL, the language of Deaf people, is the fourth indigenous language of Scotland”.

In addition, it was argued that learning BSL—

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  could provide a second language to emphasise meanings;
  
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  improve general communication skills;
  
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  should be seen as significant as learning a foreign language;
  
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  in the context of the shortage of interpreters, might make people more aware of possible job opportunities for people using BSL.
  

Cultural aspects of the language

Twenty-two organisations referred to the cultural aspects of BSL, indicating a wish to see it as a language in its own right similar to Gaelic. The Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD), for example, believed that the general aim should be extended to include the promotion of the cultural aspects of BSL and the Deaf community’s history similar to Gaelic language and speakers.

A significant number of individual respondents (76, in addition to those signatories to the petition), while not answering the question specifically, provided a general comment that they supported the general aim of the proposed Bill, but would like to see the aim extended “to include [amongst other things] a better awareness not only of the language among the hearing population, but also an awareness of the rich culture and history of the Deaf Community in Scotland”.
Accessing services and information

Respondents highlighted that implementation of the proposal, by increasing awareness of BSL, might lead to improved communication and consequently access to services and information. Capability Scotland, for example, referred to examples of areas in which, they believed, BSL users appeared to be discriminated against, including housing, health, social care, justice and legal services. Further, Inclusion Scotland stated that: “It is common for service users who are BSL users to have negative experiences of services or not to get access to information that is crucial to them accessing essential services due to their communications requirements … [which can put up barriers] to independent living, but can also breach Deaf people’s Article 8 right to a private life”.

Three organisations (British Deaf Association Scotland, Self Directed Support Scotland and Inclusion Scotland) cited further evidence of communication barriers that could be experienced in accessing services—

“Recent research from a consortium of seven organisations including the BDA shows that Deaf people have problems when they go to hospital or the GP. Out of 305 Deaf people, 84% of respondents reported they did not have access to a sign language interpreter. 68% asked for [an interpreter] for an appointment with the GP, but did not get one. Even with one, 36% made a complaint because they could not understand the interpreter”.

A note of caution was sounded by Capability Scotland who felt that, while failure to meet the communication needs of BSL users could put them at a disadvantage in relation to accessing goods and services which, “in some cases, were likely to constitute a violation of the Equality Act 2010”, it was essential that steps were taken to implement the duties of that Act before new legislation was introduced and that proper consideration should be given to potential overlap between the proposed Bill and existing equality law.

Rights of the child

In providing their explanation for supporting the general aims of the proposed Bill, the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) and Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP) referred, amongst other things, to Article 29(a) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: “the development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values”. In addition, SCCYP referred to Articles 30 and 31, on the rights of linguistic minorities.