Edinburgh Napier University

  Design is inseparable from heritage in its capacity to invoke the material presence of the past, but as this pa- per argues, it is critical design’s future-making capacity that offers critical heritage a much-needed speculative representational frame. This paper reflects upon the design challenges of an inter-lingual and inter-modal Deaf Heritage project, and the development of collaborative methods designed to render visible the potential futures of British Sign Language (BSL) and Deaf culture in Scotland’s public life. Informed by critical heritage and critical design, workshops asked participants to engage in speculative activities, such as crafting model Deaf Museums, playing Heritage Bingo and designing BSL souvenirs for the Deaf museum gift shop. We argue that critical design provides new ways of imagining the precarity of Deaf heritage and the capacity of heritage professionals to influence a more equal future for Scotland’s Deaf communities.