Martin Griffiths from the British Deaf Association, external has recently been delivering workshops to deaf clubs around Wales explaining the changes.
“There are some deaf signers who have good skills in English but many would prefer the information in BSL but would be able to use English as a second option,” he said.
“The majority of what we call typical or grassroots deaf BSL signers struggle with English.
“It feels as if the euphoria of this historic BSL (Wales) Bill passing through has perhaps been slightly deflated. People are thinking ‘here we go again, we’ve been left out’.
“What we found was that approximately eight out of 10 people who attended suggested that they weren’t going to register to vote or if they were registered they weren’t going to vote. This was very disappointing.”
According to data from the 2021 Office for National Statistics census, 891 people in Wales use BSL as their main form of communication – but organisations that work with the Deaf community estimate between 5,000 to 7,000 people are BSL signers in Wales.
A group that supports the Deaf community in Wales has explained why some deaf people are unable to rely on written manifestos.
“Deaf people face barriers to English due to a combination of factors – English being a second language in the same way as Welsh to English is,” said Alison Bryan of the BSL Wales Consortium.
“Language deprivation and the lack of early language exposure for a critical window during childhood which impacts language development for spoken languages.
“Deaf people consume information visually from birth so visual languages fit in with that.”
The Welsh Conservatives, who initiated the British Sign Language Bill in the Senedd, said they “worked with the British Deaf Association to deliver a BSL version of the manifesto” – although it was a nine-minute cutdown version.
Welsh Labour, who offered a BSL version of their Senedd election manifesto on request, said it “proudly supported the recent BSL Bill in the Senedd… and if re-elected, we would work towards its obligations”.
Plaid Cymru, the only party to create a full BSL manifesto, said: “No-one should face barriers to democratic participation.”
Reform UK did not make a BSL manifesto but said it would “continue to be committed to engaging with the deaf community, having voted in favour of the British Sign Language (Wales) Bill”.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Wales Green Party have also been asked to comment.
