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BT launches sign language broadband campaign
[March 22, 2006]

BT launches sign language broadband campaign


(DMEurope Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)DMEUROPE-22 March 2006-BT launches sign language broadband campaign (C)2006 DMeurope.com (http://www.dmeurope.com) & DME Ltd. All rights reserved.

UK telco BT has launched a campaign in British Sign Language (BSL) to raise awareness of the benefits of broadband technology for the hearing impaired. The campaign, being run to commemorate the third anniversary of BSL, is reportedly the first commercial internet campaign run in BSL.



An estimated 50,000 people in the UK use BSL as their first language and many more as a second language. Through telecommunications technologies, BT hopes to erase the restrictions on the language, specifically the requirement that people must be face-to-face to communicate in BSL.

The development of broadband technology, web cams and video streaming allow BSL users to communicate via the internet. Many BSL users, BT said, are not aware of the benefits of the new technology, as BT's broadband guides are available only in written English. As BSL is not directly translatable to written English, the BT BSL campaign will be able to better communicate the benefits of the technology to BSL users.


The BSL guide has been created for BT by Sign Post, a UK supplier of BSL on-screen services for internet and television. BT hopes that the campaign can demonstrate the benefits of telecommunications technologies to the hearing impaired and end the isolation they have experienced under audio-based telecommunications.

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