The International Day of Sign Language 2020 which was first proposed by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) in 2017 and then went on to be launched by the United Nations (UN) in 2018 to encourage and strengthen the inclusion of people with disabilities all over the world.
This year the UN is issuing a Global Leaders Challenge which aims to promote the use of sign language by local, national and global leaders.
Just like any other language, Sign Language is a fully-fledged natural language. Amazingly there are 300 different types of sign language being used all over the world. There is even an international sign language used informally when travelling or socialising.
We in the UK use British Sign Language (BSL) as well as Irish Sign Language (ISL). Just like other languages, BSL can come with different dialects depending on the region the person is from. British Sign Language (BSL) is taught in from level 1 to 6.
There is also a version of sign language called Makaton, which is a type of sign language that is used with speech and symbols. Makaton is used to support communication skills for people who have cognitive impairments.
Interesting Facts about Sign Language
• There are 300 different types of Sign Language used across the world
• There is also an International Sign Language which is used when travelling
• There approximately 72million deaf people in the world, 80% are in developing countries
• British Sign Language is different from American Sign Language
• In certain parts of the world with a high population of deaf people, both deaf and hearing use sign language
We encourage everyone to learn sign language. And also think it should be a part of the national school curriculum, allowing children to take the language on as a GCSE subject.
As people are becoming more deaf aware, we can see a positive change in the UK and more people are eager to learn British Sign Language. We look forward to the future of sign language being more openly available to learn and use for everyone in the world.
To show our support and to encourage you to learn, we have set up a special International Day of Sign Language discount code for our Online BSL Course, you can sign up today and get £20 off. We will keep the offer running until the end of the month. To get £20 off, visit our dedicated site www.learnbsl.online and just type in the coupon code IDOSL2020 at checkout. If you prefer to learn with a teacher, you can join our next free BSL Level 1 lesson, which is taught live via webinar, checkout the next available class here.
