Debate contribution: Sign Language Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 24 March 2026.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

24 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Sign Language Bill: Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5463298

Read the official Assembly record

Text

People who use sign language have waited years for this legislation. As the Bill proceeds through Consideration Stage, Further Consideration Stage and Final Stage, they will be able to see how much has been included in it. When it becomes law, the new Act will vastly improve the provision of sign language across all public services. There will be significant support for children who are born deaf or with significant hearing loss, and their lives will be greatly improved by the availability of sign language and sign language classes for them and their families. We have the opportunity to agree amendments that improve the intention of this vital legislation. The amendments were tabled after considerable consultation with the deaf community, and I am grateful for the work of the Committee for Communities, the Department for Communities and the many individuals and organisations that helped to finesse the Bill. Following ongoing consultation with the deaf community, I have tabled three amendments to extend the provision of sign language classes directly to the many adults who, like me, have lost their hearing in later life. Those three amendments are part of group 1, and they are amendment Nos 4, 5 and 22. None of my amendments should come as a surprise to the Minister, the Department or the members of the Communities Committee. I have raised issues with that section of the Bill several times, as the record of the Communities Committee and the subsequent Committee report confirm. While the Department kindly agreed to table a number of amendments suggested by the Communities Committee, I believe that an important consideration has not been included, and the Assembly now has the opportunity to include the needs of people who become deaf in later life. That includes people who become deaf due to age, illness and/or trauma. It includes serving military and police personnel and veterans whose hearing has been impacted by loud noises, such as explosions and noises at firing ranges. It includes people who work in industries where repeated loud noises have damaged their hearing, such as manufacturing, aviation, construction, the fitness industry, music, hospitality, waste management and recycling. It is important not to forget people who have been in receipt of chemotherapy or radiotherapy and those with some cancers, whose hearing can be damaged through the receipt of life-saving treatments. It includes older people who have age-related hearing loss — presbycusis — or who have had infections. Viral infections can lead to hearing loss, especially in older adults. People with illnesses, such as Ménière's disease, systemic illnesses and some cancers are included. Hearing loss, as others have said, leads to isolation and loneliness. It reduces opportunities and removes a person's ability to communicate and the ability of others to communicate with them. Some people have had to leave work, and others have had to stop socialising. The lack of access to two-way communication means having to forgo privacy, as we have to depend on family or friends to listen and clarify what a doctor or consultant says during an appointment. A growing number of older people live in residential care but are cut off from others because their lives have been reduced to isolation and loneliness because they cannot hear. Not having access to ways to learn to communicate with others or for others to learn to communicate with them leaves them forgotten, means that they receive less from public services and makes their older years unpleasant.

I appreciate that there has been some discussion about what actions should be included in the Bill and about the Department's need to prioritise sections. I believe that any legislation should not be limited to a specific time or budget but should provide a clear intention. My amendments give a clear intention to support adults with hearing loss and give the Minister the ability to charge for classes provided for adults with hearing loss. I believe that that adds and clarifies rather than detracts from the intention of the Bill. My first amendment — at amendment No 4 — is listed in group 1. To summarise, the amendment adds the availability of sign language classes:

"(a) taught by accredited teachers or other suitable persons, and (b) for people aged 25 and over who become deaf, and their close families and carers, to learn (or improve proficiency in) the Language."

It allows the Department, by negative resolution, to provide for a not-for-profit fee to be payable for those classes. I have listened to what the Minister has said today, and, if the amendment is passed, that can be changed at Further Consideration Stage to affirmative resolution. It is worth noting that the Bill in its current format only makes specific provision for sign language classes for people aged 24 and younger and their families, guardians and carers. While I agree that that is absolutely necessary, and it is important to include it in the Bill, there are a growing number of adults in Northern Ireland — one in six — who lose their hearing due to age, illness or trauma.

I thank the Minister for that. I do not agree, because there are currently 26,000 people on audiology waiting lists in health trusts across Northern Ireland. They have not even had their first hearing test. You said that we do not know how many people need it. There are no classes to test how many people in Northern Ireland would like to have sign language classes. I want to go to them, my partner wants to go to them, and the rest of my family wants to go to them, but there are none. Unless we have it included in the Bill, I do not think that there will be any classes. The growing number of adults in Northern Ireland who lose their hearing due to age, illness or trauma need to have a specific provision in the Bill, just as has been provided for children, to provide classes for that group. In this amendment, I have included the ability for the Department to provide classes for people who have lost their hearing and are becoming deaf. That means that, while they may have English and can read and have communicated throughout their whole life, they cannot hear other people speaking English to them, so they need those people to speak sign language to them. That is the part of the Sign Language Bill that is missing. The Department may, by regulation, bring in charges for the classes, should the Minister and the Department choose to do so. I used the wording that was proposed by the DUP in the then Deaths, Still-Births and Baby Loss Bill to enable the Department to regulate for fees, should the Minister wish to do so. It is not different or unusual for the Assembly, and it has been accepted before. My second amendment — amendment No 5 — is a consequential amendment that will only be put if amendment No 4 is made. My third amendment is amendment No 22. The current definition in the Sign Language Bill limits the deaf community to only those who normally use sign language. It does not take into account those who have lost hearing and those whose communication and subsequent isolation will be improved by using sign language. That needs to be changed, because a person with hearing loss — a person who is deaf — may have other options to use in order to convey what they want to say, but we need other people to learn sign language in order to communicate with us. That is the point. If you normally use sign language, but nobody else does, what is the point? Therefore, I wish to make a simple change to update the term "who normally use" to "who will benefit from using" sign language. It is more inclusive. I take Mr Durkan's point, however, and, if there is better language that can be brought forward to include all the people who will benefit from using sign language and for others to use sign language, and we can certainly use that. The amendment also reflects the ambition for the legislation to promote and increase usage of sign language. That is something that we all want and is intention of the Bill. On behalf of the Alliance Party, I welcome these amendments. We will be voting in favour of all the amendments in group 1. We will be voting for all the amendments in group 2, which will be the subject of the next debate. I thank every single member of the deaf community for their input and patience throughout this work. I thank the Communities Committee clerking team, who have worked incredibly hard on the Bill. I thank the Assembly's engagement staff, who delivered an innovative and inclusive Committee Stage, ensuring that BSL and ISL users were included and that interpretation was provided. I have heard from several deaf people about how impressed they have been by the online translations, the ability to attend and give evidence at the Committee and at outreach sessions, and the option to respond to online services in BSL or ISL, which is unique in these islands. The Assembly's website videos should be held up as an example of how to effectively engage the deaf community, because those of us who want to use sign language or have no choice but to use sign language are, at last, included. Assembly staff have helped to make the process inclusive, and they have all played an important role in helping us to get to this stage. I would like you, Mr Speaker, to pass on my thanks to the Assembly staff, because their work has been outstanding. Finally, I thank Paula Clarke, whose patience and kindness have helped me and others to start to learn and embrace sign language. That opportunity was provided through the Assembly. I also thank our BSL and ISL interpreters, who have been with us throughout the Bill's passage and have ensured that our investigation of sign language has not left anyone behind.

1,681 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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