A Barking Dog That Never Bites?: The British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill

This article describes and analyses the pathway to the British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill and the strategies used to reach it. Data collection has been done by means of interviews with key players, analysis of official documents, and participant observation. The article discusses the bill in relation to the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 and posits that, although the bill will raise awareness, it also has significant weaknesses. These include the absence of enforceable rights, the representative imbalance during the negotiation process, the perception of BSL as a tool to access public services, the question who is benefiting from recognition, and most of all the absence of educational linguistic rights and cultural rights.