Edinburgh student offers free sign language lessons online during lockdown

An Edinburgh University student is offering free online sign language lessons during the lockdown.

Holly McConnell, a second-year PE student at Edinburgh University, said she initially thought about giving online PE lessons.

But those have already been covered by Joe Wicks, ‘the nation’s PE teacher’ and so Holly decided to share her skills in BSL instead.

As both Holly’s parents are Deaf, BSL is her first language, and she has taught others in the past in a bid to spread knowledge of the language.

“I’ve been campaigning for BSL to be taught in schools for a while,” said 18-year-old Holly, who event sent Nicola Sturgeon a letter about the issue when she was at school.

Subscribers have flocked to Holly’s YouTube channel, and her first video on the alphabet has been viewed thousands of times.

“The support from people has been overwhelming,” she said.

“I didn’t expect so many people to be interested, it’s just mind-blowing.”

She wants to use her bilingual skill to raise awareness about BSL and the Deaf community.

“It’s about making Deaf people feel more included in society,” she said.

“I want to spread awareness, I’m fed up of seeing my parents getting excluded.”

Holly has previously made an effort to teach BSL to classmates studying PE.

“How can a PE teacher have a Deaf pupil in their class without BSL?” she said.

She has also previously uploaded BSL translations, including of a speech about the coronavirus pandemic made by Boris Johnson.

Future lessons will cover topics such as numbers, greetings, sports and food and drink.

“The support I’m getting is amazing,” she said.

“It’s great to see so many people wanting to make a difference to Deaf people’s lives.”