Our Teams

Deaf History Project

Here is the link for Deaf History BSL version on YouTube:

It is always sad when a project concludes but our Heritage Lottery funded the Deaf History Project has now come to an end, after 2 years and what a packed 2 years it has been.

We have collected a range of clips including interviews from the Deaf community in West Yorkshire and a number of donated film clips one of which was saved from the skip!

All the interviews will be in British Sign Language and some are subtitled/voiced for a non-BSL audience. We felt this was important so we could share with a wider audience what life was like for Deaf people.

The interviews covered education, work, social life and families, and recorded Deaf people’s experiences from the 1940’s to present day. This has created a unique record of the experiences of a significant community in Bradford who could not be included in previous oral history projects.

All the materials have been safely archived at the Yorkshire Film Archive in York –
Yorkshire Film Archive

The project was a great success and archiving this incredibly valuable historical artefact (footage) is crucial to a community that possesses little in the way of mainstream representation, but more importantly this footage captures a language that has since evolved. There is no other way to preserve a visual language other than in film.

You can view a selection of clips from the interviews and film footage online.

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