 thumb|250px|the bsl fingerspelling alphabet. british sign language (bsl) is the sign language used in the united kingdom (uk), and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the uk; there are 125,000ipsos mori gp patient survey 2009/10 deaf adults in the uk who use bsl plus an estimated 20,000 children. in 2011, 15,000 people, living in england and wales, reported themselves using bsl as their main language.2011 census: quick statistics for england and wales, march 2011, accessed 17 february 2013. the language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head. many thousands of people who are not deaf also use bsl, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the british deaf community. ==history== records exist of a sign language existing within deaf communities in britain as far back as 1570. british sign language has evolved, as all languages do, from these origins by modification, invention and importation.deaf people and linguistic research ,professor bencie woll ,director of the deafness, cognition and language research centre based at university college london. british science association. accessed october 2010.kyle & woll (1985).sign language: the study of deaf people and their language cambridge university press, p. 263 thomas braidwood, an edinburgh teacher, founded 'braidwood's academy for the deaf and dumb' in 1760 which is recognised as the first school for the deaf in britain. his pupils were the sons of the well-to-do. his early use of a form of sign language, the combined system, was the first codification of what was to become british sign language. joseph watson was trained as a teacher of the deaf under thomas braidwood and he eventually left in 1792 to become the headmaster of the first public school for the deaf in britain, the london asylum for the deaf and dumb in bermondsey. in 1815, an american protestant minister, thomas hopkins gallaudet, travelled to europe to research teaching of the deaf. he was rebuffed by both the braidwood schools who refused to teach him their methods. gallaudet then travelled to paris and learned the educational methods of
BANZSL_Sign_Language_family British_Sign_Language Deaf_culture_in_the_United_Kingdom Languages_of_Scotland Languages_of_Wales Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom