WATCH: Sign Language Bill 'wall coming down’ - Avril Scott, Hands That Talk
Hands That Talk offers a broad range of support to Deaf community
“It feels like a wall coming down” was Avril Scott’s telling description of the Sign Language Bill (NI) 2025.
Passed on April 24, 2026, by the Assembly, the Bill recognises and promotes Irish Sign Language (ISL) and British Sign Language (BSL). It also places duties on public bodies to take reasonable steps to ensure the information and services they provide are fully accessible for deaf people.
In addition, the Bill will include ensuring the provision of free Sign Language classes to deaf children and their families.
Ms Scott is chairperson of the board of trustees of Hands That Talk, the Dungiven-based, deaf-led, cross-community charity established in 2000 to improve the quality of life for the Deaf community and those with hearing loss in the North West.
Hands That Talk members, husband and wife Eamon and Pauline Doherty, and Ms Scott, along with Sign Language interpreter Ciaran Doherty, the organisation’s information and engagement officer, spoke to The County Derry Post about the positive impact the new legislation will have.
“The Sign Language Bill is so positive for us,” said Ms Scott. “Things should get better, not instantly obviously.
“We have been working and campaigning for more than 20 years to get The Sign Language Bill. We have been meeting and working with the Deaf community to try and engage with the government to do that,” she added.
“We were making progress. We were doing really well with the Sign Language Partnership [a collaborative body established in 2004, involving deaf support organisations, users of ISL and BSL, and government representatives to co-design, promote, and enhance access to, and understanding of, both languages] when the Assembly collapsed. That knocked us back a bit but when the Assembly was set up again, we got back our momentum, then covid hit us, which took another two years or so and slowed things down.
“In the last couple of years there has been a massive effort by the Deaf community and Government - the Department for Communities has been amazing - and the Sign Language Partnership Group working hard to get the Bill, which will become law at the beginning of June.
“The Deaf community themselves are really feeling re-energised and positive and they are feeling more included as a result of this. Some older Deaf people might think it’s a bit late for them but it is fantastic that the legacy of the Bill will now be passed on for future generations. It is really something.
“A lot of Deaf people my age felt we had been left behind in education, now the next generations coming through won’t feel like that because they will be getting equal service to education, equal service to everything, those barriers we faced, hopefully, will be lessened,” said Ms Scott, who added that wider society would benefit from seeing the equality of ISL and BSL users with the hearing community.
“We are looking forward to seeing things improve especially for the younger generation coming through now,” said Ms Scott.
“The Bill will build capacity and skills in the Deaf community. Deaf people can get jobs, not just doing Deaf things, but employment in any sector of society on an equal par. It is going to be a slow process but I am really looking forward to seeing the positive impact of that.
“It will be accepted that Sign Language is a natural language like spoken languages, that will encourage more hearing people to want to learn Sign Language and engage with Deaf Community, which will have a very positive effect.
“The wall has come down, that's what it feels like,” smiled Ms Scott.
Recalling the origins of Hands That Talk, Pauline Doherty recalled a young woman called Siobhan, who lived in the building which today houses the organisation, and went to school in Derry - a PHU (Partial Hearing Unit) because there was no deaf school in Derry.
“All of the teachers were hearing at that time even though it was a Partial Hearing Unit and they thought ‘This girl is profoundly deaf, so how are we going to communicate with her?’ It was a constant fight to get them to access Sign Language,” said Ms Doherty.
“All the services here were oral, so in order to get access to Sign Language and the right education, Deaf people would have had to go to [Cabra in] Dublin or Jordanstown [outside Belfast],” she added.
“At that time there was a teacher here, Dorothy, one of the founding members of Hands That Talk. Siobhan was one of her former students. The pair met in a shop in the town and Dorothy thought, ‘This is one of my past pupils and I can’t communicate with her. She lives in Dungiven and I’m sure a lot of people in the town are the same’.
“So Dorothy decided to set up something whereby local Deaf people could have an opportunity to meet and interact with hearing people and hearing people could learn Sign Language. This was in the year 2000.
“She then decided to find out who the local Deaf people were, engaged with them and set up a meeting to see if she could get something started. Myself and Eamon got an invite to come along and see what was happening. At that time we were in a wee building up beside the Castle.
“A lot of people got together and a lot of hearing people saw us signing together and we were mixing with them. We had a wee bit of momentum, so we decided to set up a proper club. We didn’t know where it was going to go but we just wanted to get together and share our language. From that we set up a deaf club,” said Ms Doherty.
Since its inception Hands That Talk has moved premises several times because the group kept expanding, eventually ending up in its present home on Dungiven Main Street.
“Hands That Talk is a really thriving hub now,” said Ms Doherty. “We provide Sign Language Classes and Deaf awareness sessions. We also do a lot of outreach work.
“We run the Deaf Club every Friday fortnight. We have Deaf people coming from wide and far. We have bingo. We sometimes bring in a presenter to talk about different topics that are interesting. We play cards and pool and darts, all the usual sort of things as well. We also have deaf cinema with subtitles. In summertime quite often we would have a couple of barbecues, which are really popular,” said Ms Doherty.
“It gives people a place to come, a safe place, a welcoming place. We are like a big family. The best thing people get here is communication. We also offer a whole range of support. Everybody is very welcome,” smiled Avril Scott.