Requests for British Sign Language are at an all-time high according to language services specialist Prestige Network - reflecting the fact that nearly 15% of the population have some degree of deafness.
The announcement was made in the same week as delegates at the "Hearing the Future" conference on hearing research (organised by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf) were told that hearing loss costs the UK £13.5 billion in lost earnings each year.
Susan Tolman, PR Executive for Prestige Network, said: "Being deaf is about experiencing the world visually. There are now nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK and British Sign Language is just one way of improving the lives of deaf people and those who are hard of hearing.
"The service was launched just over two years ago as a direct result of requests from our existing language clients. It has expanded so much that we have exceeded 50 BSL bookings every month - and it’s growing all the time! We now have an extremely active list of clients who use our British Sign Language service on a regular basis.
"Few of us are aware of how taxing life can be when people have hearing difficulties. British Sign Language is the first or preferred language of around 70,000 people in the UK, and many people also combine signs from BSL with English in order to communicate - BSL can really help improve the lives of many deaf people."
Prestige Network is a Thatcham-based company which has been ranked as one of the top translation and interpretation providers in the country in a recent independent financial report published by Plimsoll Publishing, which provides financial analysis for industry sectors across the UK. It can translate into 170 languages, including some of the more unusual ones.
Prestige Network can be contacted on 0870 770 5260.
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Note to editors:
For more information, contact Susan Tolman (PR Executive) at Prestige Network on 0870 770 5260 or Shawn Khorassani (Business Development Director).