'Dorothy Mills was a passionate advocate for Deaf rights'

MS for North Wales

As Chair of the Cross-Party Group (CPG) on Deaf Issues in the Senedd/Welsh Parliament, I met with a Trustee representative of charity Cambrian Educational Foundation For Deaf Children and the CPG’s Secretariat to discuss the current picture of support for the d/Deaf community in Wales, particularly children.

Members of the Foundation have noted the difficulties in engaging some others around d/Deaf issues and are particularly keen to understand the work of the CPG.

Cambrian provides support for Deaf Children across Wales. Applicants can request support in the purchase of equipment, funding residential courses, speech training courses and other opportunities that will develop their educational development.

It was good to see Dorothy "Dot" Miles, the Welsh Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) poet, honoured on Google’s homepage on what would have been her birthday, August 19th. Dot, who was born in Holywell, is widely considered to be a pioneer of sign language poetry and a pioneering figure in the Deaf community. Her contributions to the arts, particularly in the realm of sign language poetry, have been monumental.

She was a passionate advocate for Deaf rights and, through her work, broke down barriers between Deaf and hearing cultures.

While working at the British Deaf Association (BDA), she compiled the first teaching manual for BSL tutors and became involved in setting up the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP - now known as Signature Deaf).

This celebration of Dot’s achievements was a powerful acknowledgment of both her contributions and the importance of sign language and Deaf culture. It also acted as a reminder of the need for my British Sign Language (BSL) (Wales) Bill, which is moving forward following a vote in the Senedd in June. If the Welsh Government do not support this, Wales will be the only part of the UK left without specific BSL legislation.

The Bill’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the use of BSL in Wales; improve access to education, health and public services in BSL; and support the removal of barriers that exist for deaf people and their families in education, health, public services, support services and in the workplace; applying early intervention and prevention measures to reduce cost pressures on statutory services further up the line.

Congratulations to all the students who received their GCSE results last Thursday, whatever they achieved, and to all the staff who have worked exceedingly hard to get pupils to where they are today in difficult circumstances.

For my help, email Mark.Isherwood@senedd.wales or call 0300 200 7219.