This is intended to suggest some reading about how BSL came to be recognised by the British Government.  Feel free to suggest other source material. 

• In 1987/88 the British Deaf Association mounted a campaign calling for the official recognition of BSL. The campaign report (see below) included the text of the EC regulation for official recognition of sign languages, which was successfully debated at Strasbourg in June 1988.

BRITISH DEAF ASSOCIATION. BSL – Britain’s fourth language: the case for official recognition for British Sign Language. BDA, 1987.

The European Parliament gave its total support for the recognition of Sign Languages.  British Deaf News, 1988, Jul, 1.

• At the 3rd European Congress on Sign Language Research held in Hamburg in July 1989, delegates agreed a statement which lists the political action needed to alter the current situation.

Statement on the recognition of the national sign languages of the deaf. Prillwitz, S. and Vollhaber, T. Current trends in European sign language research. Signum Press, 1990. pp. 404-06.

• A written question on official recognition of BSL was put to the Prime Minister by Jack Ashley, MP and answered by the PM (John Major) on Tuesday 18 June 1991. The extract from Hansard is as follows:

“MR JACK ASHLEY: To ask the Prime Minister, what is Her Majesty’s Government’s policy towards the recommendation of the EEC resolution of June 1988; and if he will give official recognition to British Sign for the Deaf.

THE PRIME MINISTER: The Government has noted the terms of the resolution on sign languages for deaf people adopted by the European Parliament in June 1988. We fully recognise the right of deaf people to use their preferred method of communication, including British Sign Language, and have grant aided a variety of organisations concerned with the promotion and development of sign languages and other communication techniques.”

• Jack Ashley also tabled an Early Day Motion calling upon the Government to give official recognition to BSL and to remedy the current shortage of fully trained interpreters (EDM 943).

Sign Language. British Deaf News. 1991, Sep, 5.

• A motion for the recognition of BSL as an official UK language failed to be accepted at the Labour Party Conference in 1997 because of the complications of the voting system.

Labour fails to recognise Sign Language.  British Deaf News, 1998, Jan, 3.

• The European Parliament reiterated its support for the rights of deaf people to use sign language as their preferred language with a second resolution on sign languages.  Richard Howitt, MEP, announced the intention of asking the European Commission what had been done to implement the resolution.

Resolution on sign languages voted in European Parliament 10 years ago. EUD Update, 1998, May, 1.

• The CACDP and BDA asked the Government why BSL is not included in the European Charter for Minority Languages.

European recognition for Gaelic – what about BSL?  British Deaf News, 1998, Aug, 1.

No recognition for BSL in Euro Charter. CACDP Standard, 1998, 33, 1.

• BDA gave evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Disablement, as a first step in the BDA campaign to get BSL recognised as a minority language under the European Minority Languages Charter which the UK signed.

BDA takes campaign to Parliament. British Deaf News, 1999, Jun, 1.

• Federation of Deaf People organised a march to present a petition calling for official recognition of British Sign Language at No. 10, Downing Street, June 1999.

4,000 march for British Sign Language. British Deaf News, 1999, Aug, 1, 6-7.

It’s our right to choose. Disability Times. 1999, Aug/Sep, 5.

RNID News Review, 1999, 28 Aug-10 Sep, 36.

Sign of the times. Disability Now, 1999, Aug, 1. (photo only)

• UNISON (the UK’s largest trade union) supported a campaign for official recognition of BSL.

Unison joins campaign for BSL to be recognised. British Deaf News, 1999, Nov, 3.

• British Deaf Association sent a delegation to meet MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) with the aim of getting legislation through the Scottish Parliament in its next session.

British Deaf Association calls on Scottish Parliament to recognise sign language. British Deaf News, 1999, Dec, 7.

• On 16th of February 2000, the Scottish Parliament debated the official recognition of BSL.

Scots leading way on BSL. Disability Now, 2000, Mar, 1.

Historic Scottish Parliament BSL debate. Disability View, 2000, May/Jun, 37.
RNID News Review, 2000, 12-26 May, 21.

• BDA published its sign language policy, to form the basis of a campaign to raise the status of BSL.

BDA sign language policy: summary of feedback from consultants. British Deaf News, 2000, Apr, 14-15.

• Federation of Deaf People organises further marches in support of official recognition of BSL, summer 2000.

DAY, L. BSL recognition for Bristol! British Deaf news, 2000, Dec, 20.

My experience at the BSL Rally.  Deaf Arts UK, 2000, 13, 12-13 (Deaf children talk about their performances in Trafalgar Square.)

• British Deaf Association launched a poster campaign calling for the official recognition of BSL, Autumn 2000.

The BDA shows the finger to the Government. British Deaf News, 2000, Nov, 16.

Poster hands out strong message. Disability Now, 2000, Nov, 4.

• The London Borough of Barnet recognised BSL as an official Community Language.

Barnet recognises BSL. CACDP Standard, 2000, 42, 9.

• The UK Council on Deafness organised a submission to the Disability Rights Commission calling for the official recognition of BSL: 25 out of 37 members signed the submission; 3 members specifically said they were unable to sign the submission – DELTA, the Ewing Foundation, and the RNID.

Deaf organisations join forces for official recognition. British Deaf News, 2000, Dec, 14.

BSL submission. Bulletin (UKCOD), 2001, Spring, 1.

• The Disability Rights Commission published its advice to the Government on recognition of BSL.

See DRC website at: www.drc-gb.org

Sign language campaigners step up pressure on the Government. British Deaf News, 2001, Feb, 15.

• BDA leaders met Margaret Hodge, Minister for Disabled people, to press for immediate action on BSL recognition.

BDA update: BSL recognition. British Deaf News, 2001, May, 21.

• Police arrested protestors as a splinter group at a Wolverhampton rally in support of BSL recognition blocked city centre traffic.

Six arrested in Wolverhampton protest. British Deaf News, 2001, May, 6-7.

Delegation of representatives from deaf organisations meets Maria Eagle, Minister for Disabled people, on 31 January 2002.  Magazine (BATOD), 2002, Apr, 46.

• Letter to Maria Eagle, drawing parallels with the Cornish language, September 2002.

BSL rec update. Information Bulletin (FDP), 2002, 6(2), 3.

• Malcolm Bruce took up ‘recognition of sign languages’ challenge

British Deaf News, 2003, Jan, 13.

• On 19 December 2002, MEPs voted in support of a Conservative proposal, which gave sign language its first recognition as a minority language.

British Deaf News, 2003, Feb, 13.

• On 18 March 2003 the Government made a formal statement that it recognised that BSL is a language in its own right (quoting an estimated 70,000 people whose preferred language it is), and promising to invest £1 million in a programme of initiatives to support this statement.

British Deaf News, 2003, Apr, 5-7. (with text of statement); May, 26.

CACDP Standard, 2003, 52, 1-2.

WFD News. 2003, 16(2), 38. (with text of statement)

• British Deaf News published results of its survey of city councils’ recognition of BSL

BSL recognition: city councils. British Deaf news, 2003, Jun, 12-13.

Articles:

ATHERTON, M. Welsh today, B.S.L. tomorrow? Deaf Worlds, 1999, 15(1), 11-15.

DARBY, A. and REDHEAD, C. Social work with deaf people. Deaf Worlds, 2000, 16(3), 69-73. (p. 73 refers to what recognition of BSL implies.)

BOWMAN, C. Official recognition of BSL: some insights from the Welsh Language Act 1993. Deaf Worlds, 2001, 17(1), 7-13.

KRAUSNEKER, V. Sign languages and the minority language policy of the European Union. In METZGER, M. Bilingualism and identity in deaf communities. 2000, Gallaudet University Press. pp. 142-158. (RNID Library location: UTB TNX)

KRAUSNEKER, V. Sign languages of Europe – future chances. In LEESON, L. Looking forward: EUD in the 3rd millenium…. 2001, Douglas McLean. pp. 64-73. (RNID Library location: Conf Coll/1998)

The status of sign languages in the European Union in 2001, and Overview of country-by-country analysis. EUD Update, 2001, 4(10), 1-30. (pp. 25-26 cover progress in the UK, including legislation to improve status of BSL).

AQUILINE C-A. Sign language recognition. WFD News, 2003, 1692), 7. (Lists countries that have recognised sign language with an indication of what ‘official recognition’ is in each country.)

TURNER, G. Government recognition and £1 million boost for British Sign Language. Deaf Worlds, 2003, 19(1), S74-S78.

George Beale was born on 1849 at Croxteth Path near Liverpool (British Deaf Mute 1894, p.116-7, from which much of this is culled).  His father worked for the Earl of Sefton .  George lost his hearing aged two “having caught fever” before he had acquired any spoken English .  At eight he attended the School for the Deaf  in Oxford Street Liverpool, and was we are told by the BDM taught by the ‘silent method’, as this would have been before the German or Oral method became established in Britain.  Feeling his education inadequate, he ‘cultivated the society of books’  (ibid).  Working at his self-education like this

he might, with perfect truth, be held up as a fine example of the successful pursuit of knowledge under greater difficulties to the rising generation of his own class. (ibid)

He became a lithographer after leaving school, his work preventing him from close involvement with the Liverpool Adult Deaf and Dumb Society until after he finished his apprenticeship and his father retired to Liverpool.  Once he had the time for it, he quickly became elected to the society’s committee, and became a lay helper when they opened missions in Widnes and Warrington.

He married in about 1891, to a lady called Emma who was also deaf (from the age of 6).  She was 22 years younger than him.  They had three children (all hearing) and George died in 1928.

Now originally I had linked George Beale with the quotation in the heading, but I now see (thanks to the person who contacted me) that this was an error, and to Rachel for the comment below.

Henry Blenkarne Beale was born in 1845 in London, the son of a doctor.  He was aged seven when he was sent to Merchant Taylor’s School, and there he caught scarlet fever which left him totally deaf (Ephphatha 1898) p.89.  He had a ‘desultory’ education then at home from an elder sister for about five years, but he educated himself in his father’s library we are told, reading Shakespeare and Milton.  Henry began engraving, was apperenticed to W.J. Linton, and eventually moved to Canada where he remained for twenty years in business at first with a brother, then with a Mr. F. Brigden.  He married a “deaf-mute lady”, Miss Susan Martin, and they had six (hearing) children.   He returned to England after twenty years (ibid).

In 1893 he was on the staff of The British Deaf Mute (see Volume 3 p.22).

H.B. Beale tells us here about his feelings over using the term ‘Deaf and Dumb’.  He supports the use of the term ‘dumb’ in opposition to the Oralists;

I have nothing to say against Oralism in its proper place, i.e. amongst those who have once heard, or even for some phenomenally sharp born mutes who can master articulation in a fair degree; but, for the majority, it seems to me to be like a dog standing on its hind legs.  It is wonderful to see a dog doing it, but dogs only do it at the command of their masters, and when left free to choose, always prefer to walk on four legs. You would not call such a dog a biped because he walked on two legs occasionally; and if a man, deaf from birth, uses speech on compulsion to two or three persons, and uses manualism and signs to all the rest, why not call him dumb? (Beale 1897)

I attach the short item to the link in the reference below.

Henry Beale wrote a lot of poetry, some being published in the British Deaf Times.  He died in Gloucestershire in 1921.

Beale “Dumb” British Deaf Monthly, 1897, 6(70), 231-232.

Peeps into the Deaf World p.394-5

The Poetry of Mr. H.B. Beale, Ephphatha 1898 vol.3 p.89-90

[Post revised, 28/1/2016]

This picture requires further research but we assume it is dated to between 30 October 1912 – 29 March 1919, the period when Lord Pentland was governor of Madras (not India as the caption states).  You can read a little about Lady Pentland on Wikipedia.  Thanks to those who have commented.  If you know more please email us or comment, and I will see if I can find more information on the school.

 

Playing tennis at the Northampton Private Deaf School probably circa 1920.

Here is another view.

 

Pedro de Ponce de Leon was a Benedictine monk who lived in the San Salvador de Ona Monastery near Burgos, where he took his vows in 1526 (Werner, 1932).  (Most records perpetuate the mistake of dating his birth to 1520.)  Of noble lineage himself (the Ponce de Leon family  produced a number of notable people in Spanish history) he became a pioneer teacher of the deaf when he came across two aristocratic deaf boys in the care of the monastery.

Werner (1932, p. 223) says that

Pedro Ponce cannot be depicted as such an encyclopedic genius, as he is usually made out to be. It is equally incorrect to assert that from the very beginning he aimed at teaching the deaf-mutes to speak. The course of history and his own technique show that chance played a large part and that although this monk undoubtedly possessed a great deal of altruism and didactic skill, his knowledge of deaf-mutism was in many ways inaccurate, which nevertheless did not prevent him from being successful.

One brother died quite young.  The boys were taught to read and speak to a fair degree by Ponce, although the chronicler and relation of the boys Baltasar de Zúñiga said of one, “Although his speech was somewhat clumsy, the subtlety of his argument compensated for this drawback.” (Werner, p.225)

Pedro went on to teach ten to twelves others to acquire some limited vocabulary, though with less success than the first two.  Someone asked Pedro de Ponce how he went about teaching, and he put the question to don Pedro his pupil.  Ambrosio de Morales quotes don Pedro;

You see, when I was young and as ignorant as a stone, I began to learn to write and first of all I wrote the names of object which my teacher showed me.  Then I wrote all the Spanish words in a book which was provided me for this purpose.  Then, with God’s help, I began to spell out and speak as loudly as I could, although a great deal of spittle came from my mouth.  Afterwards I began to read stories so that in ten years I had read stories from all over the world.  Later I learned Latin.  This all happened by God’s great grace without which nothing can succeed. (Werner p,227)

Werner goes on to surmise what may be the realities of the case;  Pedro de Ponce was interested in botany & natural history, but this could well mean he was a ‘clever gardener and grower’;  the boys attached themselves to him because he was kind, not because he showed any particular interest in deafness;  he only attempted to teach them speech when they were already able to write (Werner p.228-9).  It seems he was accidentally lucky, and Werner points out that he cannot “have known Aristotle’s dictum concerning the impossibility of teaching deaf-mutes or otherwise he would not have gone about his task so sanguinely” (ibid).  While he was a great man, a blind allegiance to Aristotle in the Middle Ages and later meant many people relied on what he said rather than on their own observations.

Ponce was unaware of the possibility of lipreading, but built on spontaneous sounds the boys produced, and did it seems use a hand alphabet and gesture (ibid p.232). The hand alphabet was, Werner speculates, possibly the same as that used later by Ramírez de Carrión and Bonet.

One of his pupils who was a success although not in speaking, was Brother Gaspar de Burgos, who became sacristan at the church of San Juan in Burgos “to the astonishment of those who associated with him and knew his secret” (ibid p.240).

Despite some success in teaching, Pedro de Ponce did not pass on his teaching to others like Juan Pablo de Bonet.  Nonetheless, he remains an important figure for Deaf education in the early modern period.

You can read Werner’s full account of de Ponce and his methods in a typed translation in the library:

Werner, Hans, History of the Problem of Deaf-Mutism until the 17th Century.  translated by C.K. Bonning in a typed bound manuscript in the library RNID YA 17.

Click onto the image for a better view.

 

 

Gerrit van Asch (1837-1908) was born in Holland.  He was trained in the ‘German’ or ‘Oral’ method by David Hirsch, Principal of the Rotterdam Deaf School and was one of his first assistants.  Hirsch (1813-95), who had been inspired in his teaching by Friedrich Moritz Hill (1805-75), founded the Rotterdam School in 1853 (Stevens, 1921, p.42).

Moritz Hill’s guidelines can be summarised in the sentence: ‘Teaching of spoken language is in everything.’  He wanted deaf children to be introduced to language by the ‘natural method’ – that is in the same way as hearing children learn to speak, by constant daily use, associated with proper objects and actions.  Therefore, speech in his opinion had tp be taught before reading and writing aand had to be used from the very beginning as the basis for teaching and communication.  Natural gestures were not discouraged but needed to be replaced by speech as soon as possible. (Markides 1983)

Gerrit van Asch came to Manchester and opend a school there in 1858 or 1859, tutoring the child of a wealthy Jewish merchant.  This marked the revival of teaching speech to Deaf children in Britain, and can be regarded as the first oral school in Britain (Stevens, p.43).

In 1862 van Asch opened a private school for deaf children in London, and in 1880 he was taken to New Zealand by their government to open an oral school there, the Sumner School for the Deaf (see Markides p.17, Stevens p.43).  He remained there until he retired in 1906 (Stevens).

I am guessing these pictures are from circa 1900 though they are to be found in the 1921 book by Stevens.

Andreas Markides, The speech of hearing-impaired children. 1983. RNID UTC BTT

Stevens, J.E., Course of Lessons for Deaf Children, Wellington, 1921.  RNID Historical Books, RNID WTH BVR L

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc03Cycl-t1-body1-d3-d19-d16.html

http://www.vanasch.school.nz/history-timeline.php

[Page updated 1/12/2015]

 

 

In 1819 John England published A treatise on the education of the deaf and dumb.  England says (p.vi) “It is not necessary, in this address, to enter into a detail explaining all the means by which I acquired the art of communicating instruction to the Deaf and Dumb: suffice it, therefore, to state in this place, that I have derived my information more from the local situations, and adventitious circumstances in which I was placed in my younger years, than to any systematic instruction received from other teachers.”  That is a pity as it would be very interesting to know how he became involved in teaching Deaf children.

England, ‘Teacher to the Institution under the Patronage of the Northern Society for Educating the Deaf and Dumb, in Aberdeen’, set up a day school in Skene Street around 1818.  It was a rival of the Aberdeen Institution but was clearly unable to compete.

England praises Sicard but reserves most praise for Moret (p.36-7)

But of all the methods hitherto tried to infuse instruction into the minds of the deaf and dumb, none come up to the experiments of M. de Moret.

M. de Moret, by order of the French government, commenced his labours upon four deaf children in 1813, which he has continued up to the present day.  The experiments of M. de Moret are highly interesting to humanity.  He has acquired the art of infusing into the minds of his deaf pupils, by means of their eyes, a capability of giving utterance to their thoughts in an intelligible voice ; and without screams, to read in a natural tone, to write to verbal dictation ; and to originate and adapt ideas to things that are proper for them.  He has succeeded completely in adding to their natural stock of ideas, and in giving them an exact knowledge of language, and things abstracted from the senses.  He has enabled them to converse intelligibly with other men, without putting into requisition any outward signs, whereby to make themselves understood.  It is by an attention to the motion of the speaker’s lips in the light, and by touching in the dark, that they are enabled to comprehend his import : and, by these several means, he has given the deaf and dumb facilities of education by no means inferior to those enjoyed by persons who have their faculties perfect.  This unexampled success, which appears almost a phenomenon, evinces indubitably, that M. de Moret has arrived at the highest stage of perfection in the art of teaching the deaf and dumb, which has hitherto been attained.

Just after this England says,

I have at present two pupils, the one blind and the other deaf and dumb ; and, strange-as it may appear, they can communicate their ideas to each other by signs and feeling, so as the one can comprehend what the other wants to infuse. The dumb pupil instructs the blind by the sense of feeling, and makes the
latter understand him by touching different parts of his body : and the blind pupil conveys his meaning to the deaf and dumb by signs and outward motions.

If he had only two pupils, clearly this ‘pamphlet’, as he calls it, was an attempt to recruit more, for he goes on to point out potential numbers of Deaf children in Aberdeen.

You can see the book in our collection, or read the full book online via the Charles Baker collection at Gallaudet.

If you know more about John England or his school, do post a comment.

Apologies for the lack of posts over September – holidays intervened and we had a surfeit of posts from the summer exhibition.

We have a number of old glass photographic plates in the collection.  This one here is from the studio of Veysey who has featured in a previous post, and is of the Stoke School that has also been covered before.

The plate has two photographs, & has been annotated after processing with a red ink or paint.  You can read about the photographic plate process here.  The plate has a residue of the silver emulsion around the edges on the reverse side where the image formed.

 

Here is the reverse of the print, giving Veysey’s studio details.  Veysey later went into the Church of England as a vicar.

Another item I did not get around to posting during the exhibition.

Royalty and the deaf, with some striking facts about the deaf and dumb, their alphabet, and a few signs. Watford, H.Ash, 18–?

The author of this pamphlet, Harry Ash (1863-1934) was clearly following the pattern of the Deaf artist William Agnew (1846-1914) who painted a series of pictures showing Queen Victoria using finger spelling to communicate with a deaf woman on the Isle of Wight; the “Royal Condescension” paintings of 1883, 1889 and 1900.

In an autobiographical piece for The British Deaf Mute (Vol.4 (44) p.113-4, 1895) Ash describes how the education system changed while he was at the Old Kent Road School.

At sixteen I left the home paradise with three first prizes – for general proficiency, for religious knowledge, and for good fellowship, besides a prize for freehand drawing. Perhaps I should have written better English had there not been a complete change in the system of Instruction, from sign-manual to oral.

Click onto the images for a larger size.

 

The invited alphabet; or, Address of A to B; containing his friendly proposal for the amusement and instruction of good children by R.R. London, B.Tabart, 1809.

Who the author, R.R. was, is unknown, despite speculation.

The invited alphabet describes a manual alphabet suitable for use by deaf children though not specifically aimed at them.  “The art of spelling on the fingers has been dignified by the name Dactylology.”