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7 Tips for Better BSL Access in Scottish Public Services

These tips help Scottish public services improve accessibility for Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users and meet the aims of the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015.
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    Tip 1 – Engage and involve your local Deaf community. Empower them and listen to their views. Make decisions together that directly affect them and their daily lives.

    Tip 2 – Create BSL resources. Employ Deaf BSL presenters. Send out the BSL resources with any written English information at the same time. Make sure that your service has a budget for this.

    Tip 3 – Promote your BSL resources widely to the Deaf community…Ask BDA Scotland for support. Add your BSL resources on to BSL (Scotland) Act 2015 Facebook group.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1470165406637765

    You can contact Deaf clubs through:

    http://bslscotlandact2015.scot/plans/

    Tip 4 – Make your website easy to navigate for your BSL resources. Use one-click access on your home page. Include a BSL emblem for easier navigation.

    Tip 5 – Book qualified and registered BSL/English interpreters in advance.

    Check with your service for booking as they may have a contract with a BSL/English interpreting agency. Ask Deaf BSL users if they have any preferred BSL/English interpreters.

    For further information, please visit:

    Tip 6 – Contact Deaf BSL users through Contact Scotland BSL, Scottish Government funded online video interpreting services. Deaf BSL users can contact your service the same way.

    For further information, please visit:

    https://contactscotland-bsl.org

    Tip 7 – Use Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) Services only if face-to-face interpreting is not available. Make sure that a WiFi connection is strong in order to have clear picture quality.

    For further information and support, please visit:

    https://bslscotlandact2015.scot

    https://bda.org.uk/ehrf/

    https://bda.org.uk

    Contact

    Helen Morgans-Wenhold

    Email: helen.morgans-wenhold@bda.org.uk

    SMS / FaceTime: 07885 367674

    James Barnes-Miller

    Email: james.barnes-miller@bda.org.uk

    SMS / FaceTime: 07814 675589