The Future of British Sign Language in an Inclusive Scotland

Event: The Future of British Sign Language in an Inclusive Scotland
Date: 15th November 2010
Time: 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Venue: The Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh
Catering: Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be provided (free of charge)
Support needs: BSL Interpreters, induction loop and infrared systems will be available

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Who should come?
Deaf and Hard of Hearing organisations and individuals, policymakers, civil servants, academics, public sector organisations and individuals with an interest and experience in this area.

Places are limited, so if you wish to attend please contact Donald Jarvie. Contact details are on the flyer.

BSL Tutors' Vision for Scotland

Event: Open meeting for BSL Tutors
Date: 27th November 2010
Time: 10.30am - 12.30pm
Venue: Tayside Deaf Association, 36 Roseangle, Dundee, DD1 4LY

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“What is the BSL Tutors’ Vision for Scotland?”
Are you –
· A BSL user?
· Teaching BSL in Scotland?
Do you want to –
· See the future for BSL teachers/tutors in Scotland?
· Share your comments/ideas/opinions with other BSL teachers/ tutors in Scotland?
… then you are most welcome to attend this meeting.

Public Engagement Challenge results

As you may know, EdSign34 was partly funded last year by a grant from the Edinburgh Beltane Beacon for Public Engagement as one of their Pilot Public Engagement Challenge Projects. There were seven entries, and the winner was announced last Wednesday at the Edinburgh Beltane Annual Gathering.

Sadly we didn't win, though we were a close runner-up. However, the overall winner was the BSL:UPTAKE project Knowledge Exchange Cafe, and we extend our congratulations to our friends there. They won £2000 of funding to run another event -- good news for the Deaf community!

You can read more about the winners here and here.

The Public Engagement Challenge Contestants

Ladies' Night

Fundraising event for St Vincent's Centre for the Deaf.

Event: Ladies' Night Shopping and Pamper Evening
Date: Friday 1st October 2010
Time: 7pm - 11pm
Venue: Jury's Inn Hotel, Jamaica St, Glasgow (1st floor)

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Vote now!

BSL Cafe, 21st August 2010

Event: BSL Cafe
Date: Saturday 21st August 2010
Time: 1pm - 6pm
Venue: Deaf Action, 49 Albany Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3QY

Bob Duncan from BSL:UPTAKE writes:

As well as learning more about how to use the Internet to research issues relating to Deaf people, you can find out more about the proposed BSL Bill for Scotland, and have your say in BSL on camera if you wish; meet the team who are running research into the education of D/deaf students in Scotland; learn more about Deaf Action's 175th anniversary celebrations; and meet many others who share your interests.

We do hope you can come along for a really interesting enjoyable day, help yourself to our free buffet - and go on to see more of the sights of Festival Edinburgh if you have the time. Please pass this information to anybody else who may be interested.

Further information and contact details are on the flyer below.

Download the flyer

Competition!

Can you help us think of a new name for our group?

The EdSign34 lecture series has now come to an end. We hope you have found it useful, interesting and encouraging -- please let us know by filling in our short feedback survey!

We are planning to continue on after the summer break, and we need a new name. As it will be 35 years since Mary Brennan's groundbreaking work that gave British Sign Language its name, we could just become EdSign35. But we thought we'd give you a chance to show us how creative you can be!

We're looking for a name that will be easy to remember, easy to search for online (so no funny spelling please!) and that has some kind of link to what our group is about. If you have an idea for a logo to go with your suggestion, that would be fantastic too.

You can add your suggestions in the comments below, or send them to us by email at EdSign34 (at) googlemail (dot) com. The winning entry will be announced here at the end of August, and there will be a small prize for the winner.

We're looking forward to seeing what you come up with!



To start you thinking, here are some of the words people used when we asked them to describe the EdSign34 series, visualised using Wordle.

Scottish Deaf Choirs' Festival: photos and video

The Scottish Deaf Choirs' Festival 2009 was held in London Road Church, Edinburgh on Sunday 1st November.

You can see some photos from the festival at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290187&id=61012449&l=4bd4c39bbf

There is also a selection of film clips below.

Scottish Deaf Choirs' Festival 2009

"Sing to the Lord, you saints... Praise his holy name"
Psalm 30 verse 4

Event: Scottish Deaf Choirs' Festival 2009
Theme: All Saints' Day
Date: Sunday 1st November 2009
Time: 3pm
Venue: London Road Church, Edinburgh, EH7 5PH

Join deaf and hearing people from all over Scotland to enjoy this unique blend of words, music and sign language!

UPDATE: You can see some photos and video clips from the festival at http://edsign34.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-clips-from-scottish-deaf-choirs.html