British Sign Language

British sign language (BSL) is the sign language used in Great Britain. BSL is the first or preferred language of nearly 70,000 Deaf or hearing-impaired people in the United Kingdom. It is a language of space and movement using the hands, body, face and head. Many thousands of hearing people also use BSL: more people use BSL than speak Welsh or Gaelic.

Although the United States and Britain share a spoken language, British Sign Language is separate and distinct from American Sign Language. One example of their differences is that ASL uses a single-handed alphabet while BSL uses two hands for their fingerspelling system. The Makaton system was developed by borrowing signs from British Sign Language.

See also: Makaton UK topics