What is BSL?

BSL stands for British Sign Language and is the preferred language for communicating among the deaf community in the UK. It is estimated that over 150,000 people use BSL - this includes those who have learnt it as part of their work or to communicate better with others in their life who use it. Around 87,000 of these people are hearing impaired. BSL uses different grammar and syntax to English unlike SSE which is Sign Supported English which is using BSL signs in the same order as in English as it has the same grammatical rules.

Where can I learn BSL?

The quickest and easiest way to start learning is through an online course. You can learn BSL on a range of different websites but some of the most prominent are:

British Sign

For £3 it gives you a flexible 20hr CPD certified course that teaches you the basics of BSL including finger spelling, colours and greetings.

Signature

A range of courses starting from £9.99 it teaches the basics of BSL using clips, practice and quizzes.

What is this Website?

Welcome to Practice BSL. Here we have lots of different word and phrase generators to help you practice your BSL. We don't teach any of the signs but each one has a link to BSL dictionary so you can check if you are correct. We suggest turning on your webcam so you can see if you are doing it correctly - you can always turn it off later with the little camera icon in the corner if it's unhelpful. All the pages load in dark mode but you can easily switch to light mode by pressing the sun icon in the top right and back into dark using the moon.