Tessa Padden

Tessa is the deaf child of deaf Irish parents who lived in England for over 50 years. She is trilingual in British Sign Language (BSL), Irish Sign Language (ISL) and English. She is a Registered Sign Language Interpreter (RSLI) and Registered Sign Language Translator (RSLT) with the NRCPD, working between ISL, BSL and International Sign. She is an experienced BSL teacher, teacher trainer, translator, television presenter and interpreter. She has taught and trained BSL teachers and sign language interpreters all over the world and for institutions including Durham University, Bristol University, Wolverhampton University, City University London, Queen’s University Belfast, The British Deaf Association, The Royal National Institute for Deaf People, The National Deaf Children’s Society, The Irish Deaf Society and Deaf Action (Scotland).

Tessa was the founding Chair of IBSL and Chair of the BDA’s BSL Academy in 2006-2015. In 2011, she founded Signworld, an online learning resource to support sign language learners and teachers. She became one of the first deaf people in the UK to qualify as both a sign language translator (English/BSL) and a sign language interpreter (BSL/ASL).