British Sign Language and American Sign Language are two completely different languages. This must make the lives of deaf people in both countries and how they perceive and understand the world a contrasting experience when compared to hearing people. Obviously there is a close link between language, culture and politics...I wonder if any academic studies have been undertaken on this particular subject.
The concept of people in America using a different language is totally bizarre though; how different the world would be if this fact also applied to spoken language. Of course, in the early years after independence, the U.S. Congress held a vote to determine the official language of the new country and English only just beat German by a few votes.