BSL, or British Sign Language to give it the full title, is the name of the sign language which is used in England and the United Kingdom. It is the number one choice of communication for the (as yet) unknown number of the population of deaf people in the whole of the United kingdom. As an estimate, it is believed that there are anything between 70,000 to a quarter of a million deaf people in the United Kingdom, but that is just a guess. More realistic figures would suggest that there are nearer to the lower amount than there is to the higher amount.
British Sign Language is a type of spatial sign language as the movement it uses of the hands, face, body and head makes use of the space around the person who is signing. Also forgotten about are the many thousands of people who are not deaf but also use British Sign language every day. These peole could be interpreters, relatives and friends of the deaf who need to communicate with them and any other people who use it as they are in contact and need to communicate with members of the deaf population.
Although many countries such as England and the America share the same and speak the English language as the prominent spoken language of their respective countries, British Sign Language is different to other sign languages such as American Sign Language (also known as ASL). The finger spelling aspect (where the signer spells out each individual word) of British Sign Language is different to finger spelling in American Sign Language as British Sign Language users will use two hands to spell words where as American Sign Language users just use one hand.
Even more confusing is that even though England and Northern Ireland are both part of the United Kingdom, the respective countries use different types of sign language. Northern Ireland Sign Language (otherwise known as NISL)is based on British Sign Language so it would not be entirely impossible to communicate between the two different variations of sign language.
