British Deaf Association
Encyclopedia
British Deaf Association (BDA) is a deaf-led British charity that campaigns and advocates for deaf people who use British Sign Language
.
It was originally formed in 1890 by Francis Maginn
, who was deaf himself. He created the original organisation in 1890 after the 1880 Milan Congress on the Education of the Deaf excluded deaf people - deciding the only method of teaching in schools was to be the oralist method, with sign language not taught.
In 1889 a royal commission report supported the establishment of the Pure Oral System, leading to the establishment of the BDA by deaf people to campaign against the banning of their own language. It took until the 1970s before schools began to look again at accepting sign language.
The advent of sign language and its acceptance by the general public resulted in deaf leaders slowly coming back to the forefront starting with Jock Young as the first Deaf Chair in 1983 and subsequently it was in the mid-1990s before it had its first Deaf Chief Executive, Jeff McWhinney
.
In the 1990s the BDA became a deaf-led organisation and the campaigning for the recognition of sign language is to date the main focus of their work. Current Chair is Terry Riley, recently retired as the Editor of BBC's See Hear! programme.
British Sign Language
British Sign Language is the sign language used in the United Kingdom , and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the UK; there are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands,...
.
It was originally formed in 1890 by Francis Maginn
Francis Maginn
Francis Maginn , was a Church of Ireland missionary who worked to improve living standards for the deaf community by promoting sign language and was one of the co-founders of British Deaf Association.-Early life and education:...
, who was deaf himself. He created the original organisation in 1890 after the 1880 Milan Congress on the Education of the Deaf excluded deaf people - deciding the only method of teaching in schools was to be the oralist method, with sign language not taught.
In 1889 a royal commission report supported the establishment of the Pure Oral System, leading to the establishment of the BDA by deaf people to campaign against the banning of their own language. It took until the 1970s before schools began to look again at accepting sign language.
The advent of sign language and its acceptance by the general public resulted in deaf leaders slowly coming back to the forefront starting with Jock Young as the first Deaf Chair in 1983 and subsequently it was in the mid-1990s before it had its first Deaf Chief Executive, Jeff McWhinney
Jeff McWhinney
Jeff McWhinney is a leader in the UK deaf community.He was born in 1960, into a Deaf family in Belfast, both his brother and sister are Deaf. His family did not escape the pain of The Troubles in Northern Ireland when loyalists killed his cousin because she married a Roman Catholic...
.
In the 1990s the BDA became a deaf-led organisation and the campaigning for the recognition of sign language is to date the main focus of their work. Current Chair is Terry Riley, recently retired as the Editor of BBC's See Hear! programme.