At the start of the academic year 2021/22, the GCU Law Clinic volunteers started learning British Sign Language(BSL) to make our services more accessible.

Claire McFadzean, Academic Director of the Clinic, had always planned on volunteers being able to sign within the clinic. During the pandemic, the Law Clinic have moved their services online. The online BSL training course offered by British Sign meant our students could participate from home, making the Clinic more inclusive. Claire and the then student director Lucy Mackay, pushed for the volunteers to take advantage of this opportunity.

Learning BSL was not only fun and engaging but a great life skill to have. The videos were really easy to understand and follow and there were plenty of resources provided in the course. Students have started to create short videos signing a message about the clinic. Ananda, Taylor and Magda are some of the students who have completed the course and their videos are shown below.

We know we have a lot to learn and we are really keen to keep getting better. Everyone deserves access to justice, and we hope this project contributes to that.