Dorothy "Dot" Miles (19 August 1931 – 30 January 1993, née Squire) was a Welsh poet and activist in the deaf community. Throughout her life, she composed her poems in English, British Sign Language, and American Sign Language. Her work laid the foundations for modern sign language poetry in the United States and the United Kingdom. She is regarded as the pioneer of BSL poetry and her work influenced many contemporary Deaf poets. From 1957 to 1977, Miles lived as an expatriate in the United States. In 1967, she joined the National Theatre of the Deaf. She then returned to the United Kingdom, where she became a key member of the British Deaf Community. By the early 1990s, Miles was experiencing manic depression. In 1993, Miles committed suicide by falling from a second-floor window. Biography Miles (née Squire) was born 19 August 1931 in Holywell, Flintshire, North Wales, daughter of James and Amy Squire (née Brick). She was the youngest of five surviving children. In 1939 she contracted cerebrospinal meningitis, which left her deaf. She was educated at the Royal School for the Deaf and the Mary Hare School. In 1957, at the age of 25, she went to the United States to take up a place at Gallaudet College, sponsored in part by the British Deaf and Dumb Association. During her time at the college she became the first member of a junior class to be a member of the Gallaudet Phi Alpha Pi honour society, was in the 1961 edition of "Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities", edited the student magazines and won prizes for both her prose writing and poetry and for acting. Some of her work was published in The Silent Muse, an anthology of selected writings by deaf authors of the last 100 years. She also wrote the Bison's song. She married a fellow student, Robert Thomas Miles, in September 1958. They separated in 1959. She graduated in 1961 receiving a BA with distinction. She worked in the United States as a teacher and counsellor for deaf adults. In 1967, she joined the newly founded National Theatre of the Deaf and began to create sign language poetry that deaf people – as well as hearing people – could appreciate. In 1975, Miles left the NTD to work with the campus service for the deaf at California State University, Northridge. She returned to live in