Debate contribution: Sign Language Bill: Further Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 20 April 2026.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

20 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Sign Language Bill: Further Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5493840

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Today is a good day for the deaf community. I declare an interest, as I am a Member with a hearing impairment and a member of the deaf community. Until the amendments were made, I was not going to be a member of the deaf community, so I am delighted that we did that at the previous stage. Today, from the OLC, we have better defined and tidied-up legislation that includes the group of people that I belong to. I am absolutely delighted to say that I will support all the Minister's amendments. I have no issue with any of them; in fact, I went to the extent of having my name added to some of the amendments, as I agree with the tidying up. Some of the amendments are fantastic and make the Bill completely clearer to read and easier to understand. I wish that, as an individual Member, I had not had to table amendments at Consideration Stage. I wish that the Department had listened a bit more. We now have clause 12, which defines members of the deaf community as:

"(a) individuals who rely for communication on British Sign Language or Irish Sign Language, (b) deaf or deafblind people"

— I know that there are some changes there —

"who will benefit from using British Sign Language or Irish Sign Language",

like me, and

"(c) children of deaf or deafblind people".

To be honest, it is wonderful. Today is a good day for the deaf community. What I will say, to reiterate what Mrs Cameron said, is that this is only the start of the work. There is a lot more to be done. The deaf community has an intrinsic role to play. That will not just mean deaf people taking part in helping to write the guidance and potential regulations; we also need to accept that they are professionals. They know about the deaf community and about BSL and ISL and should, therefore, be funded appropriately to take part, moving away from tokenism to being an integral part of how the Bill will go forward when it becomes an Act. I am delighted that we have got to this stage. I am delighted that the House saw fit to agree the amendments at Consideration Stage. At Further Consideration Stage, we have a Bill that is workable, and I thank the Minister and all the officials for tidying up the wording of the amendments before us now. Those in the deaf community, of whom I have met quite a few, including the BDA recently, have spoken about the importance of recognising the whole of the deaf community — that all of us matter and that all our needs will be taken forward. That is why, in whatever my position may be in the future, I hope to help the Minister and the Department in devising and bringing forward guidance. We have to remember that 26,000 people in Northern Ireland are sitting on a waiting list for up to seven years for an audiology appointment. That will be their first test to see whether they have damage to their hearing. Ten years ago, when I went to my first appointment and finally got to see an audiologist after many years, I was told that my hearing had gone down by over 40%. That is now closer to 50%. I will have to rely on sign language as I go forward in life and get older. As I get older, I would have missed out under the Bill if I was a child, because I would not have had it. It came along only when I was in my 30s. After speaking to Caroline Doherty of the BDA, I believe that there is a growing number of people who, through illness, age or trauma, are losing their hearing and will need access to sign language, particularly to engage with public services and to not be isolated and left lonely. We have seen some TV programmes that have talked about that. We have a huge opportunity here. I thank the Minister and the Department, because the Bill builds in a requirement for deaf people to be engaged with as the process moves forward. As I will say again at Final Stage, we need to ensure that deaf people can take part. That means ensuring that there is transport and payment, if necessary, so that those people face no barriers when taking part in the legislation or the regulations. I believe that a celebratory event sponsored by the Minister and the Department is coming up on 28 April. I wish everyone well with that. I have written to the Minister's private office about the potential of a play coming to Stormont about Francis Maginn, who was one of the first people to push sign language. I would love to see that coming forward, if possible, from the Minister and the Department, because that would be another step towards the delivery of BSL and ISL across Northern Ireland. Having met the BDA and Caroline, I was delighted to hear that Northern Ireland already leads the way across the United Kingdom and these islands in the work that has been done by those in the Bill Office who have been involved in the development of the Bill and by the staff in the Committee and the Department and all the organisations and groups. I consulted many people in the deaf community on my amendments, including friends, family and others, to ensure that what I was bringing forward was wanted. In fact, when I met Caroline last Friday, she confirmed that she knew from her previous work with older people in the deaf community that that was a vital provision to add to the Bill. Northern Ireland is doing something wonderful, and I thank the Department for Communities for bringing that forward. I know that it is a difficult time, given the legislative programme that we have for the end of the mandate. Like the Chair of the Committee, I am keen for areas in the explanatory and financial memorandum to be updated to ensure that we have all the best guidance sitting in the background, so that whoever the Minister for Communities is — it may be the same Minister — has clear intentional guidance so that, when they take forward the issues in the Sign Language Bill, which will become the Sign Language Act, they know what to follow. Often, the first language of a number of people in the deaf community is not written English, so, to be clear, today we have Further Consideration Stage, with the last of the amendments. I am delighted that it looks as though there will be unanimous agreement on them. The next stage is Final Stage, and that is it in the Assembly. The Minister will bring that forward soon, which is fantastic. Hopefully, just after that, the King will sign off on it, and it will become an Act. Members of the deaf community have been asking me, "Why are there so many stages? We've already agreed all of this". It is coming. We are almost there. It is fantastic and inclusive legislation. It is good that the Assembly will be included because quite a lot of the regulations will have to be brought back to the House to be agreed, which means that the deaf community will be consulted through the Assembly. I say, "Thank you very much" to all those who have been involved. I now feel that I am part of the deaf community; that I am not excluded from that community; that my hearing impairments are considered; and that my communications and those of other people like me — there are thousands of us in Northern Ireland — will be considered when we need to depend on sign language for communication.

1,311 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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