Barcamp Blackpool 2 & d/Deaf Awareness Week.

It’s been a very long time since I last blogged about BSL, so let me first apologise for my absence. The last six months have been pretty hectic, but as Deaf Awareness Week draws to a close I thought an update was in order.

I learned of Deaf Awareness Week via Twitter. I follow @DeafStuffUK (also known as Green Onion) and their tweets this week informed me of various celebrities backing the campaign to raise awareness for the d/Deaf communities in the UK as well as highlighting news articles, theatre performances and signed/captioned television programmes.

For me, Twitter is a fantastic way to become a part of the deaf community, whether that’s local, or nationally. I follow a few accounts that solely tweet about BSL and other deaf related articles, for example @RNID, as well as individuals who tweet their day to day life and the occasional BSL tweet inbetween. I definitely fall into the second category.

So, with it being Deaf Awareness Week, and also Barcamp Blackpool 2, I decided to combine two of my favourite things and do my BSL talk at Barcamp (again!).

This session would be the 4th time I’ve presented BSL at a Barcamp, which as I’ve explained before on the blog is a technical un-conference and every time I’ve presented, I’ve had a fantastic and receptive audience.

For me, bringing BSL to Barcamp is about exposing a group of people to something they might not find elsewhere and so far the feedback has been positive.

For this session I went with the basics and we did the alphabet, how to introduce yourself, compliments, work, where you live, pets/animals and hobbies. I was pleased to see a mix of people, many who haven’t already seen my talk and a few that have. It was also interesting to have a friend who signs in the audience for my talk, to be able to check signs and refer to her for the answer to any questions I was unsure of.

I received a fantastic tweet today from the father of an 11 year old boy who attended my talk, telling me that his son signed to him on the train home from Barcamp as it was so loud. That tweet made me smile from ear to ear, as that’s exactly what Deaf Awareness Week is about and for me, what Barcamp is about too. Taking a subject you’re passionate about, and sharing that passion with others.

I think my BSL talk is going into retirement for the moment, until I begin my Level 2 qualification towards the end of this year at least, but I’m sure that once I’ve learned some new signs, I’ll be back out there teaching you how to sign them too.

Tags: #bcblackpool, Barcamp, Blackpool, bsl, deaf awareness week