deafscotland First National BSL Summit

Monday 23 September 2019
Marriott Hotel Glasgow, 500 Argyle St, Glasgow, G3 8RR.

Vision: Building British Sign Language (BSL) and opportunities towards an inclusive communication nation. #BSLForAll

Information

The purpose of First National BSL Summit is to raise awareness about BSL. deafscotland will be hosting the event dedicated to raising awareness and understanding; promoting and supporting the development of one of Scotland’s richest languages.

Keynote speakers and workshops planned throughout the event will offer colleagues / organisations from Third, Public and Private Sectors BSL information and resources and provide ways for everyone to get involved in making “Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users to live, learn, work and visit”.

Co-Chairs

Donald M Richards

Donald works as part-time BSL Lecturer and has been in West Lothian College, Livingston since 2016. He is Deaf and educated orally but frequently uses British Sign Language (BSL) at home and work. Donald is a highly experienced BSL tutor in the educational sector where he has been working and teaching BSL classes throughout Scotland for over 35 years.

He previously worked in the hearing world as a cartographic draughtsman with the Greater London Council, Lambeth, London for five years, then spent nearly 28 years with TOTAL, the French multinational oil company in London and Aberdeen and BEAR Scotland for a short period before moving to Edinburgh.

Donald joined the then Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD) and has been Convenor of deafscotland since 2014.

Joseph Sheridan

Joseph was born Deaf and is a native of Glasgow. He is one of the most widely-recognisable faces within the Deaf community for the work he has done, as a BSL presenter, on flagship television programmes like Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Joseph is currently the Head of ITV SignPost, Scotland.

Joseph has worked for ITV for the past 19 years; he’s a highly experienced performer /presenter and has mentored Deaf people looking to pursue a career in Media both in front of and behind the camera. Joseph is passionate about promoting BSL in the wider community so that the richness of BSL as a visual language can be enjoyed by all.

In his role at SignPost Joseph recently presented a programme on Mental Health and Deaf people. For more information click here.

Keynote Speakers

Timings - Draft

Time	What is happening	Event
09.15am		Registration Refreshments
10.00am		Welcome Keynote speaker 1:
10:30am		Keynote Speaker 2:
11:15am		Workshops - Session One Choice of three
12.15pm		Lunch Break and Networking
1.15pm		Workshops - Session Two Choice of three
2.15pm		Afternoon Refreshment Break
2.30pm		Workshops - Session Three Choice of three
3.30pm - 4.00pm		Summary of the summit Close of summit