Meet the Partners

Message from
Minister for Disabled People - Anne McGuire

Sign On-Line is a vital project which helps address the communication barriers that thousands of Deaf BSL users face day-to-day. Even in my short teaching career, I learned how valuable it is to share best practise and teaching resources. By supporting BSL training, more and more BSL tutors can improve their teaching skills and in turn, train up their students to higher levels. And so the virtuous cycle goes on.

The Government is committed to improving the rights and participation of Deaf BSL users and recognised BSL as a language in its own right two years ago. We underpinned that by investing £1.5m in promoting awareness of BSL and increasing access to training for BSL tutors through projects such as this, which in their own way will have a meaningful impact on the local community and its citizens

Anne McGuire MP
Minister for Disabled People

www.annemcguiremp.org.uk

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The Council for the
Advancement of Communication with Deaf People

Hello!

My name is Jacqueline Swinbourne. I am from CACDP. I am the Sign Monitor for the Sign On-Line project. I look at all the video clips, meet with the university project workers to discuss their materials, support them in their filming and so on.

CACDP is an awarding body / exam board for BSL (and other) qualifications. We are recognised by government and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has accredited all our qualifications. We have 4 BSL qualifications from Level 1 to Level 4.

We work closely with centres running BSL training courses and assessment programmes. We work with teachers, assessors, examiners and verifiers.

Why do we support this project?

CACDP wants to support teachers and assessors of BSL. We want to provide them with up to date information about innovative ways of teaching; about how to design a curriculum for their teaching.

We want them to know about the linguistics of BSL, to know about the language.

Many BSL teachers run courses leading to our qualifications. We have lots of teachers and assessors all over the country. They ask us for advice and support.

Well here is some information for you, on this website!

CACDP helped to set up the Sign On-Line project. Our Chief Executive Miranda Pickersgill brought together the partner organisations and co-ordinated the project.

Miranda is on the Steering Group and is keen to support all the work of the partners in the project.

If you want to know more about CACDP, have a look at our website:

Team Portraits:

Miranda Pickersgill Chief Executive

Jacqueline Swinbourne    Sign Monitor    (BSL Qualification    Officer    Level 3 & 4 NVQ)

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The City Literary Institute

The City Lit Centre for Deaf People is an Adult Education Centre based in Covent Garden and provides a wide range of courses for Deaf, deafened and hearing impaired people.

The Sign Language Programme area offers courses from Level 1 in BSL to Level 4 NVQ in BSL for both Deaf and hearing people.

The Signing Teacher Training Programme offers training for BSL tutors which includes City & Guilds 7307/1, 7407 Stage 1 and 2, Level 1 and 2 in BSL Teaching Materials workshops and short Basic Linguistics of BSL course.

All the tutors in these programme areas are Deaf and fluent BSL users.

www.citylit.ac.uk

Team Portrait:

Melinda Napier Head of Communication and Training Programme

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City University / UCL

City University - London

Department of Language & Communication Science

City University is comprised of several departments. The Department of Language and Communication Science (LCS) is the largest teaching, research and clinical department in the UK , providing courses in speech and language therapy and opportunities for a range of professionals working in communication disability.

It offers a four-year BSc in Speech & Language Therapy and, at Postgraduate level, the MSc in Human Communication and the Diploma in Speech & Language Therapy as well as research programmes leading to PhD degrees.

University College London

DCAL Research Centre

The Department of Human Communication Science is home to Deaf Studies, Cognition and Language (DCAL) research centre funded by the ESRC. DCAL is led by Professor Bencie Woll, the UK's first Chair in Sign Language and Deaf Studies.

The centre provides a focus for deafness research studies, comprising five research themes, including the linguistics of British Sign Language, signed and spoken language processing, face-to-face communication, language development in deaf children, atypical sign language and the deaf individual and the community. The team consists of both deaf and hearing researchers working together.

DCAL places research with deaf people at the core of linguistic and psychological research, creating new tools for assessing sign language development, describing the role of the face and gesture in language, and developing our understanding of how language is processed by the brain.

Over the first five years DCAL will establish a team of 20-25 researchers, research students and support staff.

You can find out more about us at:

Team Portraits:

Prof Bencie Woll Chair in Sign Language & Deaf Studies

Frances Elton Sign Language & Deaf Studies Lecturer

Sheila Cragg Interpreter & Translation Consultant

Rachel Sutton-Spence Linguistics Consultant & Translator

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The Royal Association for Deaf people

The Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) is one of the oldest UK charities for Deaf people, founded in 1841. Our patron is Her Majesty The Queen. RAD has 10 centres for Deaf people in London, Essex and the South East.

We provide a wide variety of services which are delivered in British Sign Language including:

• Information, advice and advocacy
• Family support groups & youth clubs
• Job clubs and employment advice
• Support for Deaf people with additional needs
• Language and communication support through the RAD Interpreting Service
• Religious and cultural activities

In addition we offer training and education in British Sign Language and also Deaf Awareness/Equality training.

What is RAD’s role in the Sign On-line project?
RAD is keen to support tutors of BSL and we are delighted to have had the opportunity to be involved in this innovative project. RAD is the Web Development partner, and we are responsible for the design and production of the Sign On-line website.

Team Portraits:

Linda Isaac Head of Information

Lyndon Borrow Web Developer & Designer

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University of Central Lancashire

Deaf Studies is a relatively new and innovative area of research and learning. The development of the subject reflects the growing interest in this academic field. Student will study a wide range of issues relating to this unique linguistic minority group, their history, education, culture, community and language. On all programmes students will study British Sign Language (BSL).

In addition, students will develop skills and expertise, which will serve and benefit both Deaf and hearing communities. Although Deaf Studies focuses primarily on the situation in the United Kingdom, many of the issues to be explored are of international importance to Deaf people; e.g. bilingualism, education policy, legislation, Deaf politics, professionalism and the empowerment of Deaf people.

The subject is supported by the contribution of other disciplines such as history, linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and sociology making it multi-disciplinary in nature.

For more information on UCLAN, have a look at our website:

Team Portraits:

Stephen Morey Sign On-line Project Manager	Graham Turner Senior Lecturer & Research Coordinator	Helen Reed Project Officer	Gavin Lilley BSL Video Presenter
Gary Quinn BSL Video Presenter	Nicola Nunn BSL Video Presenter	Jason Vessey BSL Video Presenter	Helen Phillips BSL Video Presenter

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University of Wolverhampton

The University has been involved with the Deaf Community since 1992.

Within the Sign Languages Department there is a Deaf Studies and Interpreting degree.

Each year, over 50 deaf and partially deaf students enrol in a variety of degrees supported by the Communication Support Unit.

The professional team at the University includes deaf and hearing lecturers, deaf and hearing filmmakers and deaf and hearing web designers.

The University aims to promote British Sign Language in all areas of society.

Team Portraits:

Kristiaan Dekesel Steering group member & Principal Lecturer, Department of Sign Languages	Joan Fleming Deaf Studies Lecturer & Scriptwriter / Researcher	Becky Fenton Interpreting Lecturer & Scriptwriter / Researcher	Colin Hough Technical adviser
Chris Greensill Studio Coordinator	Avril Langard BSL Video Presenter	Kate Fowler BSL Video Presenter	Daryl Jackson BSL Video Presenter & TV Sign monitor

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