Interpreting Services

Forms of communication we use

• British Sign Language (BSL) – the most common form of sign language in the UK and Deaf community.
• Sign Support English (SSE) – borrows signs from BSL and follows English grammatical structure, often used within education settings.
• Lipspeaking – a person who has been trained to be easy to lip read. They’ll speak silently and repeat the spoken message together with facial expressions and gestures.
• Manual note-takers – provide high quality written notes.
• Deaf Relay – Intralingual interpreter – A Deaf professional who works specifically with Deaf people with specific or complex language needs in conjunction with a hearing BSL/English interpreter.
• Deaf Translator – A Deaf professional who translates documents into BSL and/or provides in-vision English to BSL translations.
• Deafblind communication* including:
  – Deafblind manual alphabet – spelling out words onto the person’s hands, letter by letter.
  – Block – spelling out words by using block capitals onto the person’s palms.
  – Visual frame – signing within the person’s field of vision so they can see signs.
  – Hands on – placing their hands over the hands of the signer so they can feel which signs are being used.

*Please note, this service cannot be offered remotely