United Kingdom
The quota is written. The catalogue is not.
Emergency calls already work in BSL here — proof that a law with a budget behind it delivers. Most screens have not caught up. We have no partner in the UK yet. That is what this page is for.
This page in BSL
A Deaf creator from the United Kingdom signs this page, credited by name. Recording begins when we have a local creator — that is one of the things we are looking for.
Where the United Kingdom stands
Closer than it looks.
In plain words
Here is who lives here and what reaches them. Some of it already works. Where a number is missing, we say so instead of guessing.
Every figure carries its source and says what it measures — surveys that ask people and clinics that test people produce different numbers, and we will not blur them together. Send us a better source and we will use it.
- Deaf and hard of hearing
- 18 million · about 1 in 3 SourceTwo different measures. The 18 million includes mild and age-related loss; the BSL-signing community is a small fraction of it, and the two must never be merged.RNID, 2024
- Blind and low vision
- 2 million with sight loss SourceRegistration is a much narrower measure than living with sight loss, which is why both numbers are given.RNIB, 2023
- Functionally illiterate
- 18% of adults in England SourceEngland only. The other UK nations use older and differing surveys (Scotland 26.7% in 2009, Wales 12% in 2010, Northern Ireland 17.4% in 2012) and the source explicitly discourages comparing them.National Literacy Trust, 2024
- Sign language
- British Sign Language (BSL) · ISO 639-3: bfi
- People who sign it
- 22,000–151,000 SourceNo consensus figure exists. The broadest 'any BSL ability' extrapolations reach 1.5 million, which measures something else entirely.ONS Census 2021; British Deaf Association, 2024
- Interpreters
- 876 registered · 240 trainees SourceThe NRCPD register, cited in 2024 written evidence to a parliamentary committee that states plainly there are insufficient numbers to meet demand. Only about 26 people a year reach full registration, against 743 passing basic Level 2 BSL — roughly 3 in 1,000 candidates.NRCPD register, via written evidence to the UK Parliament Work and Pensions Committee, 2024
Irish Sign Language (ISG) is used in Northern Ireland alongside BSL, and both are recognised there.
The gap, in one number
There are not enough interpreters. There were never going to be.
Interpreters are skilled professionals and there will never be enough of them to cover every film, lesson, clinic visit and news bulletin. That is not a criticism of interpreters — it is arithmetic.
Recorded sign language does not replace an interpreter in a hospital room. It covers the enormous amount of content no interpreter was ever going to be booked for — so the interpreters go where only a person will do.
1 : 99
One qualified interpreter for every 99 Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
87,000 Deaf BSL users ÷ 876 registered interpreters. We show the arithmetic because the two numbers come from different places.
Promised, and delivered
Compliant isn't the same as understood.
The United Kingdom has already written much of this into law. The distance between the promise and the ordinary day is where we work.
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And it works
They are. 999 BSL has run free, 24 hours a day, since June 2022, and carried around 20,000 calls last year.
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The law says
Major on-demand services must meet subtitling, audio description and signing quotas.
Media Act 2024; Ofcom Tier 1 accessibility code consultation
In practice
The quotas exist and the services are designated, but the signing percentage is a number nobody currently has the supply to meet. The code is still being finalised.
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The law says
BSL is recognised as a language, and government must report on its use of it.
In practice
The Act creates a duty to report, not a duty to provide. Recognition raised the floor for argument; it did not put BSL on the screens.
An ordinary day
Today, and when this works.
Not emergencies. Ordinary days, in this country, as they are now — and as they are somewhere else already.
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The evening news
Today
Broadcast channels carry signing targets and mostly meet them. On-demand catalogues — where most people now watch — have carried almost none.
When this works
The catalogue signed too, not just the bulletin. The quota already says so; the supply has to exist for it to be met.
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School
Today
Deaf children are mostly taught in mainstream classrooms, with support that varies by council. BSL is now an option at GCSE, which is new.
When this works
Lessons available in BSL, made once and reused, so a child's access does not depend on which council they live in.
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Calling for help
Today
A Deaf person can reach 999 in BSL, free, at any hour, through a video interpreter. Around 20,000 calls went through it last year.
When this works
This one already works. It is the proof that the rest is possible — a regulator set a date, providers paid for it, and people use it.
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Finding an interpreter
Today
About 1,500 registered interpreters serve 87,000 Deaf BSL users. Bookings are made days ahead, and the appointment that matters is rarely the one you can book.
When this works
Recorded BSL covers the programmes, lessons and notices no interpreter was ever going to be booked for, so interpreters go where only a person will do.
None of the right-hand column is hypothetical. Every part of it already works in some country — a signed news bulletin, an emergency line that answers without a voice, Deaf teachers in a Deaf school. Just not all of them in the same one.
An ordinary day, signed
This section matters most to people who do not read the written language, so it is first in the signing queue for this country.
What would change here, starting now
Months, not years.
Three things a local partner and a11y could put in front of people quickly — each one already built, just not here yet.
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Content people actually watch, in BSL
Deaf creators here sign films, lessons and public information, and are paid for it. The delivery layer already exists — what it needs is this country's sign language in it.
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One city, one service
A single public service — a clinic, a council channel, a cinema — made accessible end to end, with the receipts published. Elsewhere that has meant ordinances passing and budgets moving.
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A signed news digest
A regular summary in BSL, made by paid local Deaf creators. Small enough to start this year, and it is how a creator community starts earning.
These are descriptions of a first project, not work we have done here. We have no partner in the United Kingdom yet.
Who this gets built with
We would not be arriving to an empty room.
Deaf communities here have been organising, teaching and campaigning for decades. Anything we do belongs alongside them, not in front of them.
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British Deaf Association
Deaf-led
The national Deaf-led organisation, campaigning for BSL since 1890. It led the campaign that produced the BSL Act.
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RNID
The largest UK charity for people who are deaf or have hearing loss. Listed for completeness — it works across hearing loss broadly and is not a Deaf-led organisation.
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NRCPD
The regulator of sign language interpreters and other communication professionals. Its register is the honest ceiling on interpreter supply.
These organisations are not a11y partners — they are the people already doing this work here. If we come to this country, it should be alongside them.
People signing in BSL today
We are still finding Deaf creators publishing in BSL. Tell us who we should be following.
Start something
Looking for a partner.
No local partner yet. We are looking for a Deaf-led organisation, a broadcaster or an on-demand service to work with here.
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I sign BSL
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf creators come first here. If you sign, you are who we most want to hear from.
Go -
I know who you should talk to
Name them.Introduce us.
An association, a school, a broadcaster, a creator. A name and a reason is enough.
Go -
I work for a city or government
Mandate.Budget.Service.
You may already have the law and the money. What is missing is the service.
Go
Know your rights
What you are entitled to here.
In plain words
These are things the law already says you can ask for. If you have been refused any of them, that refusal was against the law — not a favour you were denied.
Written plainly, with the law behind each one linked as a receipt. This is the part of the page we would most like a local Deaf organisation to check and correct.
- Your language
Recognised by law as a language of England, Wales and Scotland, with reporting duties on government.
The British Sign Language Act 2022 requires ministers to report on their use of BSL in public communications. It creates a duty to report, not a duty to provide.
- On television
Broadcast channels carry signing quotas. On-demand catalogues are about to.
Ofcom's broadcast code sets subtitling, signing and audio description targets for qualifying channels. The Media Act 2024 extends quotas to major on-demand services: first 40% subtitled, 5% described and 2.5% signed, rising to 80%, 10% and 5% signed.
- In an emergency
Yes. 999 BSL connects Deaf callers to the emergency services in sign language, free, 24 hours a day.
Ofcom required every communications provider to offer it from 17 June 2022. Around 20,000 calls were made through the service in 2024.
What opens a full page
This page grows when three things are true.
- A local Deaf creator has recorded this page in British Sign Language — named and paid.
- There is at least one real, local fact with a source behind it.
- Someone owns keeping it current.
Until then it stays honest about what it is: the situation, and an open invitation. All countries · See a full country page