Editing British Sign Language (section)

=== Late 19th – 21st century ===
Until the 1940s, sign language skills were passed between deaf people without a unified sign language system; many deaf people lived in residential institutions. Signing was actively discouraged in schools by punishment, and deaf education emphasised teaching deaf children to learn to [[lip reading|lip read]] and [[Fingerspelling|finger spell]], due to the prevailing belief across Europe established in the 1950s that signing was bad. From the 1970s there has been an increasing tolerance and instruction in BSL in schools. The language continues to evolve as older signs such as ''alms'' and ''pawnbroker'' have fallen out of use and new signs such as ''internet'' and ''laser'' have been coined. The evolution of the language and its changing level of acceptance meant that older users tend to use more finger spelling while younger ones make use of a wider range of signs.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gcy4MhmLhdkC Sign Language: The Study of Deaf People and Their Language], J. G. Kyle, B. Woll, G. Pullen, F. Maddix, Cambridge University Press, 1988. {{ISBN|0521357179}}
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[[Paddy Ladd]] initiated deaf programming on [[United Kingdom|British]] television in the 1980s and is credited with getting sign language on television and enabling deaf children to be educated in sign.<ref>{{cite news | first=Raekha | last=Prasad | title=Sound and Fury | date=2003-03-19 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/mar/19/guardiansocietysupplement5 | work=Guardian Unlimited | access-date=2008-01-30 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910210203/http://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/mar/19/guardiansocietysupplement5 | archive-date=2014-09-10 }}</ref>

BSL users campaigned [[Legal recognition of sign languages|to have BSL recognised]] on an official level. [[Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984]] mandates the provision of interpreters. On 18 March 2003 the UK government formally recognised that BSL is a language in its own right.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/library-rnid/2013/11/13/official-recognition-of-british-sign-language-1987-2003/ |title=Official recognition of British Sign Language 1987-2003 – suggested reading &#124; UCL UCL Ear Institute & Action on Hearing Loss Libraries |publisher=Blogs.ucl.ac.uk |access-date=2015-03-03}}</ref><ref>"Time to break the barriers". ''Chad'', 25 September 2013, p.21. Accessed 28 January 2022</ref> In 2021, [[Rosie Cooper]] introduced the British Sign Language Bill to recognise BSL as an official language, which was backed by the government.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2915|title=British Sign Language Bill|publisher=UK Parliament|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-backs-vital-british-sign-language-bill|title=Government backs vital British Sign Language Bill|publisher=UK Government|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref> After being dormant from June 2021, the bill began moving through Parliament on 28 January 2022, but during a meeting with stakeholders on 7 February, the language of the bill was revealed to have been pared down substantially, disappointing said stakeholders. The British Deaf Association stated that it was 'unhappy' with this removal of language from the bill.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://limpingchicken.com/2022/02/08/bsl-act-now-british-sign-language-bill-discussion-reveals-uk-government-changes/|title = BSL Act Now: British Sign Language Bill discussion reveals UK Government changes|date = 8 February 2022}}</ref>