Raising awareness about the inclusion of sign languages has been on the agenda of the European Commission for quite some time, and although the language policy of Member States is their exclusive competence, the European Commission encourages recognition of sign languages and supports their dissemination by financing projects aimed at making communication easier for the deaf. Thanks to the Lifelong Learning Programme and Erasmus+ Programme, the EU has co-funded projects such as Spread the Sign, Deaf history, Deaf Port, DESIGNS programme or EU Digital Framework for Sign Languages and financially supports the recognition of sign languages via the European Union of the Deaf, a non-profit and non-governmental organisation.
The contribution of local initiatives is beyond doubt crucial to the dissemination of sign languages. A good example of this comes from the Escolapias Sotillo school in Logroño, La Rioja, and their project about Spanish Sign Languages. On the National Day of Spanish Sign Languages (14 June), they published this video, in which first-year secondary school students (aged 12to 13) perform a song using signs.
The KCI Team recently talked about this initiative with Julia Velasco, the Spanish Language teacher behind this idea. She believes in the importance of non-verbal forms of communication and has carried out many different activities over the years. “The most important thing about communication”, she says, “is that it helps to develop critical thinking. I want my students to realise that the texts and audios we receive on our mobile phones are not the only way we can communicate with others. Using our bodies, hands and signs can also be an effective way of exchanging ideas and thoughts”.
The video they made was the result of a year’s worth of preparation, during which students learnt not only the signs corresponding to the song, but also many things about sign languages in general. “Our students are aware that each country has its own national sign language and that an International Sign Language (IS) also exists. They know about the profession of sign language interpreters, as they see them working when they watch the news”, Julia explains. “Some colleagues with knowledge of sign language supported the students’ learning process and provided them with video tutorials. In addition, the help of two brothers with deaf parents was also fundamental. Thanks to them, children could learn more signs other than the ones included in the song”.
Besides discovering and practising a new, inclusive form of communication, this project also led to other positive outcomes, such as fostering socialisation and teamwork among students and promoting EU values. “This experience has been so rewarding for me, as a teacher and as an educator”, Julia says. She is also her school’s coordinator for the European Parliament Ambassador School Programme (EPAS), and she is honoured that her project caught our attention. “My students were excited to know that their video made it all the way to the European Union – she adds – I hope that this will further strengthen their trust and respect towards this institution”.
Julia is already thinking about new ideas to ensure the continuity of this project: “For next year, I would like to include sign language in the Spanish Languages Week that my school organises, in which everybody needs to exchange greetings in all the official languages of Spain”. As a long-term goal, she would like to have some subjects taught (at least partially) in sign language.
The school in La Rioja is not the only school raising awareness about sign language. The philosophy of the Luis Fortich School in Valencia is that all students, both hearing and deaf, grow up with equal opportunities. It is a model of social integration, since both hearing and deaf children share the same classrooms. Similar initiatives can be observed in Italy as well, through the project “Liberiamo il segno“” (Free the Sign), initiated by the elementary school “L.Ceci”in Montegiorgio, aimed at spreading the word about Italian Sign Language. The main mission of the project is to introduce the teaching of sign language not only in specialised schools for support teachers, but in schools of all kinds, with the aim of fostering true inclusion of the deaf both in the school environment and in everyday life.
Apart from the National Days celebrating National Sign Languages, 23 September is recognised worldwide as International Sign Language Day. This day celebrates all kinds of sign languages, including International Sign (IS).
What few people know is that sign language is also rich and varied and that there are numerous sign languages. As is the case with spoken languages, each community has its own sign language. In Italy, we find Italian Sign Language (LIS), in the USA, American Sign Language (ASL), and in the United Kingdom, British Sign Language (BSL), etc. Each of these has strong ties to its own culture. As in spoken languages, sign languages also have their own language families. Two sign languages may have similarities with each other but are never completely the same. For example, Austrian Sign Language or Dutch Sign Language are more readily understood by someone who knows German Sign Language than by someone who knows Italian Sign Language. By contrast, British Sign Language is very different from any other European sign language and is only similar to Australian Sign Language. For this reason and in order to achieve a higher level of inclusivity, IS was born and is being disseminated.
In 1975, there was even an initiative to create Gestuno, a kind of Esperanto, a lingua franca for the deaf, but it did not become widely accepted. However, the concept of a commonly understood sign language remained and has continued to develop. Interestingly enough, deaf people from different language backgrounds are much more easily able to communicate with each other than hearing people from different language backgrounds when they first come into contact.
In international contexts, IS is the most used form of sign language. It is a combination of the best-known and comprehensible signs from all sign languages. This too may vary based on the part of the globe we are talking about. In the EU context, the ‘western signs’ will prevail while in Asia, the speakers or interpreters might use different signs. It should be noted that in individual countries, IS cannot fully replace any national sign language and its legal recognition. However, IS interpretation is preferred and needed at European and international level. The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and the World Association of the Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) established an International Sign (IS) Interpreter Accreditation system in order to set, maintain and promote standards in International Sign Interpretation. AIIC established a Sign Language Network of conference sign language interpreters to bring together AIIC members across all the Association’s regions, and to act as a contact point in matters related to conference interpretation.
In the 27 EU Member States, there are currently 30 sign languages in use: one for each Member State, excluding Luxembourg, which uses its own variety of German Sign Language, and an extra sign language each for Belgium (French-Belgian and Flemish Sign Language), Estonia (Estonian and Russian Sign Language), Finland (Finnish and Finnish-Swedish Sign Language), and Spain (Spanish and Catalan Sign Language).
However, there has recently been an exponential increase in demand for IS interpreting at conferences and high-level meetings, and we are witnessing a rapidly changing landscape with more involvement of deaf signers in European Union and United Nations institutional events. The mobility of deaf people has increased, and therefore the demand for the provision of IS as an inclusive sign language has become a very topical subject.
DG SCIC actively responds to this increased demand and plays a key role in the promotion of sign languages. President Ursula von der Leyen insisted that the Commission press conferences be interpreted into IS, and DG SCIC has also requested IS interpreters for the DG’s own events. Furthermore, the European Commission funded a shared project with Heriot Watt University in Scotland – a booster course in IS. The booster course offered training on sign language interpreting at international conferences and high-level meetings for professionally qualified national sign language interpreters.
Due to the limited number of courses teaching IS conference interpreting, DG SCIC launched the IS Mentoring Scheme, through which experts in national sign languages were able to participate as mentees to learn how to work using IS in the setting of multilingual EU conferences. Furthermore, to help IS interpreters in their learning process, the Speech Repository database offers over 80 speeches recorded in IS for practising purposes.
We are witnessing an era in which the inclusion of the deaf is rapidly increasing and the inclusion of national sign languages is growing, as IS has played a key role in implementing new measures and launching new initiatives. After all, national sign languages are essential to IS and are the basis of the whole learning process. IS interpreters need to be first skilled in the national sign language before learning and working with IS. The spirit promoting inclusion shown by the Escolapias Sotillo school and local initiatives observed across the whole of Europe are all an integral part of this great teamwork to achieve a common goal – clear and efficient communication at all levels for all of us.
International Sign Interpreter | Knowledge Centre on Interpretation (europa.eu)
PROGETTO LIS “LIBERIAMO IL SEGNO” – ISC "G. CESTONI" MONTEGIORGIO (iscmontegiorgio.edu.it)
International Sign FINAL (efsli.org)
Sign Time: making the digital world barrier-free for the deaf (eif.org)
Linguaggio dei segni: una giornata per imparare ad ascoltare | Ambasciator
EMCI & AIIC SLN webinar on sign language conference interpreting (English) - YouTube
Sign Language Mentoring Scheme (europa.eu)
Lengua de signos en el IVAF-Luis Fortich gracias a la Diputación de València | Fesord CV
How does the EU promote sign languages? | Epthinktank | European Parliament