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Mr Johnson explained that the course had originally started as a National Lottery community project in 2019. The course material was all online and designed to be visual and interactive with videos and quizzes, he said. The response to the course from across the country had been "unbelievable", Mr Johnson said. "We had a target of 3,000 subscribers originally, but last month we reached 31,000." The trust boss said he believed the increase in popularity of the course was at last partially thanks to the "increase in media exposure" of the deaf community. "It's grown thanks to people like Rose Ayling-Ellis on Strictly, but also you can see sign language being used on telly more and more," he said. In 2021, Rose Ayling-Ellis was the first ever deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, and the former EastEnders star also appeared last year in a bilingual thriller called Reunion, which used both BSL and spoken English. According to Mr Johnson, BSL had "become a second language" for many of those who had taken part in the course and who worked in the education sector. "Instead of teaching German or French, they want to teach BSL. It's a language people can engage with," he said. "We know that time can often be an issue, which is why this online course is available all year round," Mr Johnson added.
