The History of British Sign Language

In 2013 DCAL, along with the British Deaf History society and UCL’s Action on Hearing Loss Library, hosted an exhibition on the history of BSL.

The exhibition was open to everyone and contained rare books, pamphlets and the early films that chronicle the origins and history of sign language in Britain. The displays were amazing to everyone whatever their existing knowledge about sign language and Deaf culture.

The exhibition’s online catalogue is now available and you can find out about

•           The earliest sources of British Sign Language

•           The history of fingerspelling and the beginnings of deaf education

•           How BSL and Deaf culture changes and continues to change in the 21st century

•           Which sign languages are related to BSL

•           The influences of religion, education and royal patronage on BSL

View the online catalogue

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