Welcome to British Sign Language and Deaf Studies

British Sign Language and Deaf Studies is a relatively new and innovative area of research and learning, having been first introduced at UCLan in 1993.  The experienced BSL and Deaf Studies team offer a wide range of single and combined honour degrees, along with graduate diplomas and postgraduate level courses.

If you are interested in learning about deafness, the deaf community and British Sign Language, then have a look at the courses we offer. The wide selection of BSL and Deaf Studies modules cover diverse issues relating to deaf people, their language, history, education and culture.  Other areas of interest and research include: Deaf politics, interpreting, legislation and the empowerment of deaf people.

Signs2Go: A European Collaborative Project

The BSL and Deaf Studies team at UCLan has been involved in an exciting European Project: Signs2Go. This project has been a collaboration with partners in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Italy. Together, we made a website where sign language users in all our countries can learn BSL.  The main aim is for international sign language users to learn BSL as a foreign sign language.  The website would be excellent for teaching BSL to UK people too; either non-signing deaf people who wish to learn BSL, deaf immigrants, deaf people who want to improve their BSL skills.  The course content will also be useful to hearing students already studying BSL at higher levels.

You watch clips from ‘Wicked’; a programme for Deaf people.  This is real BSL, as it is used today in everyday situations. The clips are the explained in BSL, by a BSL Teacher – so that more difficult vocabulary, grammar and cultural information can be identified. You learn as you watch - then you go to the exercises to check your progress. The website was developed with EU funding. The Signs2Go team is looking for partners who want to use the Signs2Go platform to add additional sign languages, and/or to further exploit the software platform for sign bilingual e-learning. If you are interested: contact us! http://www.signs2go.eu