British Sign Language (BSL) classes should be available to members of Glasgow City Council according to councillors who are campaigning to support those with hearing impairments.
The importance of sign language has been in the spotlight over the past year, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon having a BSL interpreter for all her briefings during the Covid pandemic.
As it stands there are just 50 BSL interpreters for the whole of Scotland, and while the council is committed to providing training for workers in key sectors, it was not clear if councillors could be provided with help learning to sign.
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Earlier this week members of the general purposes committee asked if councillors and council staff could have the opportunity to attend a BSL class to help them communicate more effectively with their constituents.
On Tuesday a report was brought before committee which demonstrated how the council’s action plan to promote and support BSL users was moving forward.
It comes after the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 and the British Sign Language National Plan 2017 – 2023 required public bodies in Scotland to publish local action plans in 2018 and on a six yearly basis thereafter.
A master plan was developed in consultation with BSL users and focuses around key themes identified by the Scottish Government, service users, services and partners.
They included family support, early learning and childcare, school education, training, work and social security, health and mental health and well-being services.
This week Labour councillor Gary Gray asked if there was a BSL course available for members of the committee and other councillors who wanted to learn sign language.
He said: “As a minister, I have worked with a couple of BSL signers at funerals and one of the ladies had said to me that there was a lack of people that can do sign language and I thought that was encouraging for someone like myself to make the effort to be able to communicate more.”
A council officer informed him that before covid, courses in BSL were run by City of Glasgow College and that he would double check what classes were still available to help those who wanted to learn sign language.
The council will also look into the number of people working for the council who are registered as deaf to see what extra facilities they can provide to help them.
Councillor James Scanlon said: “Employment for people with disabilities is huge and the lack of interpreters is massive and has been for many years.
“It’s not an easy thing to do to learn how to be an interpreter. There are three stages and a lot of people drop out of the second one.
“If we could source a sign language course from somewhere that would be great.”
Chairwoman councillor Christina Cannon added: “I think members of the committee would be interested in a course so they can communicate with their constituents.”
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