Sign Language Week 2025 - British Sign Language: A Timeline
Written by Emily Helliwell on .
A fulltime from the beginning of sign language in the UK to present day.
| 1428 | Princess Joanna of Scotland is born. Daughter of James I, she communicates with her peers using sign language interpreters. |
| 1576 | Thomas Tilsye and Ursula Russel marry at St Martin’s Church, Leicestershire. The register indicates that Thomas, a deaf man, used signs to ‘express his mind’ |
| 1602 | Richard Carew’s ‘Survey of Cornwall’ includes a detailed description of a deaf servant called Edward Bone who communicates in ‘passionate gestures’. |
| 1644 | John Bulwer publishes ‘Chirologia: Or the Natural Language of the Hand’. |
| 1720 | Daniel Defoe publishes ‘The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr Campbell, Deaf and Dumb’ which includes a two-handed manual alphabet. |
| 1760 | Thomas Braidwood’s Academy for the Deaf opens in Edinburgh as the first deaf school in the U.K. |
| 1792 | The London Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb Poor opens in Bermondsey as the first public deaf school in the U.K. |
| 1844 | Alexandra, Princess of Wales, is born. She is Britain’s most famous deaf royal. |
| 1866 | Charles Dickens published Doctor Marigold’s Prescription about a signing deaf girl who marries a deaf man and has a hearing baby. |
| 1880 | The Milan Conference encourages sign language to be banned in schools, with oralism preferred. |
| 1890 | The British Deaf and Dumb Association (now the British Deaf Association) is founded. |
| 1893 | The Elementary Education (Deaf and Blind Children) Act is passed. This Act accepts the Milan Conferences recommendations and enforces oralism. |
| 1911 | The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) is founded. |
| 1931 | Dorothy ‘Dot’ Miles is born. A pioneer in BSL poetry, her birthday was celebrated as a Google Doodle in 2024. |
| 1944 | The National Deaf Children’s Society is formed. |
| 1975 | Mary Brennan’s ‘American Annals of the Deaf’ makes the first recorded reference to BSL being the language of Britain’s Deaf Community. |
| 1977-79 | Research projects into BSL are set up in universities in Bristol, Edinburgh, and Newcastle. |
| 1981 | The first episode of See Hear is broadcast. |
| 1995 | Bencie Woll becomes the first Professor of Sign Language and Deaf Studies in the UK, at City University London. |
| 1995 | The Disability Discrimination Act is passed. |
| 1999 | Rachel Sutton-Spence and Bencie Woll publish Linguistics of British Sign Language, still regarded as the definitive work on British Sign Language Linguistics. |
| 2002 | Deafinitely Theatre is founded as the UK’s first bilingual theatre company working in BSL and spoken English. |
| 2003 | BSL is officially recognised by the Blair Government. |
| 2008 | UCL’s BSL Corpus Project launches. |
| 2008 | The British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust (BSLBT) is established. |
| 2010 | The 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf, held in Vancouver, passes a resolution that rejects the recommendations of the Milan Conference held 130 years prior. |
| 2015 | The SignBSL app launches on the App Store and Google Play Store. |
| 2015 | The British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill is passed. |
| 2020 | Lynn Stewart-Taylor begins the #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign on Twitter in response to the Government’s failure to provide BSL interpreters for televised Covid-19 briefings. |
| 2021 | Rose Ayling-Ellis wins Strictly Come Dancing’s 19th series. Their first deaf contestant, she uses BSL throughout her time on the show. |
| 2022 | The British Sign Language (BSL) Act 2022 recognises BSL as an official language of England, Scotland, and Wales. |
| 2023 | A GCSE in BSL is announced by the Department of Education. |
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