Finding BSL, Finding Myself- Celebrating BSL Day by Reflecting

Next week, on the 28th April, is BSL day in the UK. 

Since Sign Language Week last month, on social media I've seen people celebrating, teaching, learning and sharing their experiences with BSL. The sense of community surrounding BSL and deafness has been so heartwarming. 

I wanted to reflect on my own experiences, and explain why sign language has been so important for me.

(TW for descriptions of past negative feelings about deafness) 

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I started learning BSL in my late teens. By this point I'd already gone deaf some years before after being hard of hearing in younger childhood. I had just about managed my GCSEs on lipreading, but my A-Level results were disappointing and, frankly, left me very surprised that I even got in to university. By this point I was already determined to 'pick some sign up', as my new hearing aids were giving me nothing but grief and I yearned to be more active in my friendship groups. So when I got to uni and disliked my chosen course from the off, only to find that the BSL & Deaf Studies course was being run just down the road- I was delighted. 

My first time in the Deaf Studies building, I saw two people having a fluent conversation in BSL and for the first time it felt like that could maybe be me one day. I trudged nervously down to the Course Leader's office, trying not to look like I was openly staring (although I have since come to realise that dealing with stares is basically just par for the course as a deaf signer). 

When the Course Leader asked me why I wanted to join the course, my reasons were plain and simple. 

1. I wanted to learn BSL. 

2. I wanted to stop hating my own deafness. 

Within a few short minutes I had been transferred over to BSL & Deaf Studies. There are very few moments in your life that you know you'll remember, but for me, I hope I remember that feeling of light in the darkness forever and ever. 

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Within the first week of lectures I had started to learn BSL, my first reason. By the end of induction day alone, I had already started on the second. 

Simply being around other d/Deaf people for the first time in my life and seeing so many interactions in sign language was revolutionary for little Adèle. 

Looking back on those early days, the main thing I remember is excitement. Excitement at finally feeling seen, finally feeling like part of a community and, (most of all) excitement at having a language for the very first time in my life that I could fully access. I was finally starting to realise that I wasn't the 'problem'- I'd just never been given the right access.

Things started to make sense in a way they never had before. I stopped feeling like I had to work twice as hard just to keep up.

As time went on, BSL became so much more than something I was learning in a classroom. It became part of how I understood myself. It gave me access not just to communication, but to culture, humour, identity and connection in a way I hadn’t been able to experience before. The more fluent I became, the more my confidence grew alongside it. Situations that once felt anxiety-inducing became manageable, and eventually, enjoyable. Conversations no longer felt like something I had to fight to be part of. 

Now, as a Registered Sign Language Translator, my relationship with BSL has come full circle in a way I could never have imagined back then.

What started as a very personal need has grown into something much bigger. I now have the privilege of using BSL to bridge communication between Deaf and hearing people, supporting access in spaces where it might not otherwise exist. 

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BSL Day feels like a good moment to reflect on all of this. Not just on how far I’ve come, but on how much further there is to go, both for myself and in terms of wider awareness and accessibility across the UK.

If there’s one thing I’d want people to take away, it’s this: learning BSL is never “just” learning a language. It’s enriched by culture, community, identity- and so, so much more. 

I just wish I'd found it sooner, but I'm very glad I found it at all. 

Happy BSL day 🤟 

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Adèle Vaughan

ASV Sign Services