MAKATON V BSL (All bets are off!)

As ongoing concerns are being raised by worried parents of deaf, and other children with special and sensory needs in education, ATR expressed such concern to the three involved parties concerned.

(1)  Contacted the Pride Of Britain Organisers.

(2) The Makaton Website.

(3)  The BDA/RNID and allied BSL areas.

The response it has to be said was pretty dire.  RNID and BDA responded with personal attacks on ATR, and blocked online, any further engagement.

Pride Of Britain failed to respond at all, unaware their support and coverage of sign use was used on X, Facebook, and on BSL sites, to suggest media supported its attack on Makaton, which they defined  as a 'stolen' format deaf people 'owned'. Nobody owns languages.

The Daily Mirror has yet to respond.

Enclosed below was the only response to the attack, from Makaton web team, we can but hope the BDA gets its house in order, and tells its members and BSL supporters it is bad news,  BSL users and supporters are seen attacking vital educational support to assist disabled children. One can only surmise the point being made very badly, is the reluctance to endorse BSL in education, which has nothing to do with the use of Makaton.  This is BSL bullying, from a very online savvy area prepared to attack anyone and everything to get what they want, even our children's education.

ATR. 

We're aware of some negative comments circulating on social media regarding the use of Makaton and the suggestion that it constitutes cultural appropriation of the Deaf community's language. This isn't a new concern raised by just a small number of the Deaf community; however, it's something we've been eager to address and educate people about. We've been actively engaging in dialogue on this matter, working closely with the British Deaf Association over the past six months to foster a mutual understanding of the importance of both British Sign Language (BSL) and Makaton. We've been striving to clearly delineate which audiences and communities each form of communication serves and the terms we use to describe each communication method. Additionally, we've been collaborating on joint statements to provide clarity to our communities on this issue.

It's our policy not to engage directly with negative comments on social media, as doing so often exacerbates the situation and draws more attention to it. It's worth noting that the recent resurgence of interest in this issue may have been sparked by a question on BBC's Pointless on Monday, which referred to Makaton as a "language" – a term we're actively moving away from in favour of the more appropriate and up to date terminology.

We hope this explanation clarifies our stance on the matter. Rest assured, we're actively monitoring the situation across social media channels.

Best wishes,

The Makaton Help Desk

We can but hope the 'negative comments of BSL users' is taken to task, and, that the BDA takes any notice, so far they have endorsed these attacks on another charity..