About the dialogue

More than 150,000 people in the UK are British Sign Language (BSL) users, 87,000 of whom are deaf and 21,000 use it as their main language. BSL users face daily exclusion, and AI-enabled BSL translation could transform how the BSL community interacts with government, business and participates in everyday life. However, done poorly and without genuine community input, it risks creating new barriers and even endangering the language itself. AI-enabled BSL translation raises ethical, cultural, and quality concerns. Current frameworks lack guidance for policy makers on the use of AI sign language tools, creating a strategic challenge for government to ensure the ethical and appropriate adoption of innovative solutions. Many government departments are committed to exploring the use of these technologies through their five-year BSL Plans but are doing so in a vacuum of information and guidance. 

RNID has a commitment to the integration of the outcomes of this work into a cross-government policy on the use of AI tools for translation, currently under development and being led by GCHQ, and into government procurement frameworks, via Crown Commercial Services. There is support from Minister Stephen Timms at the Cabinet Office and a commitment from NHS England to respond to the outcomes in relation to how it meets the Accessible Information Standard).

This is the first Sciencewise dialogue which will include BSL users and provides a valuable opportunity to demonstrate how these kinds of processes can be made more inclusive for BSL users on a wide range of science and technology topics. We believe that this is the first public dialogue in the world being conducted in BSL-first. With this, we will be sharing learning on innovative approaches to engaging this community in public dialogue processes.

This project is being led by RNID, partnering with Action Deafness, British Deaf Association, Deaf Plus, National Deaf Children’s Society, Royal Association for Deaf People and SignHealth. Thinks Insight are delivering the public dialogue with The Young Foundation acting as independent evaluators.

Members of the BSL community can register their interest to take part here. Watch the video in BSL below for more information.