New sign language laws will 'change lives'

New sign language laws in Northern Ireland will "truly change lives", according to a report.

Assembly members on the communities committee were commenting on proposed new sign language laws.

Under the laws, all public bodies in Northern Ireland will be expected to offer services in sign language to members of the deaf community.

There must also be an increase in the number of sign language interpreters and more education in schools from the early years.

Plans for a sign language bill for Northern Ireland have been in the pipeline for a number of years.

The Sign Language Bill (Northern Ireland) 2025 was subsequently introduced in the assembly by Communities Minister Gordon Lyons in February 2025.

Its aim is to make information and services, including from government departments and public bodies, accessible to people from the deaf community.

But the bill had to be scrutinised by members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) on the Communities Committee before it could be voted on in the assembly.

That scrutiny is now complete, so the bill can now have its final stages in the assembly before becoming law.

The bill would give official and equal recognition of British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL) as languages of Northern Ireland and promote the use and understanding of sign languages.

It means that public bodies will have to, by law, "take reasonable steps to ensure that the sorts of information and services provided by it are as accessible to individuals in the deaf community as to those individuals who are not in the deaf community".

The bill also includes a commitment to "promoting the use and understanding of sign languages, including greater access to sign language education for deaf children and their families".

The Department for Communities estimated that at least 5,000 people in Northern Ireland use either British Sign Language (BSL) or Irish Sign Language (ISL) as their preferred way to communicate.

MLAs on the communities committee have scrutinised the proposed bill and received evidence on it from a range of groups and organisations, including deaf school pupils.

They told members of the committee that not being able to use sign language was tiring when they had to lip read, and they wanted to see deaf people represented more in the media and in politics.

The committee's report into the bill, published on Thursday, said that the services introduced under the bill - like more translators and interpreters - would cost about £3m a year.

In a statement the chair of the communities committee, Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew, said that the committee had "ensured the final legislation is more inclusive and fit for purpose".

"This bill belongs to the deaf community," he said.

"We have scrutinised, supported and advised the department on its original bill and together we have produced legislation that can truly change lives."