The UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (UCL PALS) is proud to announce that a dedicated group of professional services staff has successfully completed, and all passed, a British Sign Language (BSL) Level 1 course. This intensive 24-week course, which ran from 17th January 2024 to 3rd July 2024, was a testament to the commitment of UCL PALS staff to improving accessibility and inclusivity within the division.

The BSL Level 1 course was initially organised by Ania Gasiorek, with coordination taken over by Richard Jardine following Ania's departure from UCL PALS. Participants attended 2-hour sessions every Wednesday.

Under the expert guidance of Marcel Hirshman from WealdBSL, participants learned a wide range of essential BSL skills. The curriculum covered:

  • Basic vocabulary, including simple words, numbers, and spelling;
  • Conversational topics such as weather, transport, hobbies, work, directions, food and drink, and home and garden;
  • Fundamental aspects of BSL, including hand placement and sentence structure.

The course concluded with an assessment, and participants who passed received a certified qualification from the exam board. We are pleased to say that the whole PALS group passed the assessment!

Professor Peter Fonagy OBE FMedSci FAcSS FBA, Head of UCL PALS, said: "UCL PALS remains committed to working towards  a fully inclusive and accessible environment, and we look forward to many more initiatives like this in the future."

Professor Kearsy Cormier, Director of the UCL Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL), added: "Huge congrats to the PALS Professional Services team for their completion of BSL level 1!  It’s amazing how much progress the team made in such a short time. We already have progressed to having some informal meetings and social events with DCAL staff and PALS PS team members without interpreters - this takes real commitment. I hope others within PALS will follow their lead and consider learning BSL too - even just learning some basics helps so much to remove barriers and promote inclusion."

John Draper, UCL PALS Divisional Head of Administration, who took part in the course, expressed his enthusiasm: "I thoroughly enjoyed the BSL course and found it incredibly rewarding, Marcel was an outstanding teacher. I strongly recommend him and would encourage others to take part in such courses. At UCL PALS, we take accessibility very seriously, and I’m delighted that members of the PALS Professional Services Team made such a massive commitment to learning BSL as it's a valuable step towards ensuring an inclusive environment for all.”

Course instructor Marcel Hirshman praised the group’s efforts: "Teaching the class BSL Level 1 has been a pleasure. It’s been lovely watching them grow from knowing no sign language into competent level able to engage basic conversations using sign language. Their enthusiasm has shown through from day one till the end although they were nervous for the exams - who isn’t! They all did very well and hopefully they will progress further.”

UCL PALS Staff Complete British Sign Language (BSL) Level 1 Course 2

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