I'm deaf and feel excluded from Senedd elections
Amy Warrington, a 25-year-old deaf woman from Wales, feels excluded from the Senedd elections because only one of the six main parties released a full-length British Sign Language (BSL) version of their manifesto. Plaid Cymru is the only party to provide a full-length BSL accessible manifesto alongside their Welsh and English versions.
Ahead of Thursday's Senedd election vote, deaf individuals in Wales feel excluded due to a lack of British Sign Language (BSL) manifestos from most parties. Amy Warrington, 25, from Penygroes, Gwynedd, says the lack of BSL manifestos makes her feel overlooked. Only Plaid Cymru released a full-length BSL manifesto alongside their Welsh and English versions. The Welsh Conservatives published a nine-minute BSL summary of their manifesto, but nearly two months after their main manifestos. Welsh Labour released a BSL manifesto on May 3, five days before the election, after BBC Wales requested one on April 24. The Wales Green Party, Welsh Liberal Democrats, and Reform UK did not publish BSL manifestos. The BSL (Wales) Bill, passed recently, aims to promote BSL in Wales. Deaf community members argue that BSL manifestos are essential for true accessibility and inclusion in politics.
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