BSL (British Sign Language)

The Scottish Government wants to make Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users* to live, work and visit. This means that people whose first or preferred language is BSL will be fully involved in daily and public life in Scotland, as active, healthy citizens, and will be able to make informed choices about every aspect of their lives.

The BSL (Scotland) Act 2015 requires public bodies in Scotland to publish plans every six years, showing how they will promote, and facilitate the promotion of the use and understanding BSL in Scotland. These plans will take account of local circumstances and consider how best to respond to BSL users' needs within local communities, organisations or services.

This is our second Ayrshire Shared BSL Local Plan developed in partnership with Ayrshire College; East, North and South Ayrshire Councils; East, North and South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnerships and NHS Ayrshire & Arran.

This BSL Local Plan sets out the priorities identified through consultation with BSL users living, working and studying in Ayrshire.  The priorities included within this Plan cover:

• Delivering actions to support the implementation of the BSL National Plan
• BSL Accessibility
• Children, Young People and their Families
• Access to Employment
• Health and Wellbeing
• Celebrating BSL Culture
• BSL Data
• Democratic Participation

It describes the strategic aims the partners will take between 2024 and 2030 to enable BSL users to be involved in daily and public life in Scotland, as active, healthy citizens, and will be able to make informed choices about every aspect of their lives.  The partners will develop a co-produced operational plan (Aim 2) to deliver on the strategic aims.

* Wherever we refer to 'BSL users*' we mean D/deaf and/or Deafblind people (those who receive the language in a tactile form due to sight loss) whose first or preferred language is British Sign Language.

Contact Scotland BSL

Contact Scotland BSL is Scotland's British Sign Language Interpreting Video Relay Service (VRS). Contact Scotland BSL is  free and can be used as a first step when contacting us.

You can download the Contact Scotland BSL App on your smartphone or tablet and you can then access an interpreter who will contact us, or any other public service for you, and then interpret for you both.

To find out more about the service visit Contact Scotland BSL.

Other Services

Ayrshire Hearing Impairment Service - a Youtube channel with videos to help you learn BSL for various topics

British Deaf Association (Scotland) - services for deaf people 

Sensory team - Health and Social Care Partnership