EU recognition of sign language

So, on the 17th of June 1988 the European Parliament asked all the members of the EU to recognise Sign Language as the language of their Deaf communities. The European Parliament [...] calls on the Commission to make a proposal to the Council concerning official recognition of the sign language used by deaf people in each Member State.
— European Parliament Resolution on Sign Languages 1988

After this many EU countries began to recognise Sign Language(s);
Austria- Sept 2005, Austrian Parliament recognised Austrian Sign Language as an independent language.
Belgium- French Belgium Sign Language was recognised in 2003 and Flemish Sign in 2006.
Czech Republic- 1998, Sign Language Law recognise sign language as a human language.
Ireland- No recognition yet, but many are calling for it to become the third official language of the country.


Many countries that do not recognise sign language do so because of several reasons:
1, The reason Italy gives is that Sign Language is grammarless, however for something to be classified it must have grammar, which must sign languages have even if it not the same as spoken.
2, There are many variations of it within a country, so it would be hard to recognise them all.
But these are just excuses, all countries should recognise Sign Language as it is a part of them and people in their countries use it to communicate so should be given the same legal recognition as other minority languages.

Results from the BSL Campaign

As it is the last day of deaf awareness week I though I would share the campaign results. This was the campaign I posted about a couple of weeks ago, it was to see how many people (hearing and deaf) in the UK wanted to learn/interested in learning BSL in school and we could over 2 000 responses from people aged 8-25.

Here are the results;
91% wanted to learn more BSL
92% thought schools should offer a BSL GCSE
97% thought BSL should be taught in schools.

What was really surprising was that 67% of people were hearing while 33% were deaf.

A break down of the individual countries views;
76% were from England, 90% of these wanted BSL to be taught at school, maybe even a GCSE
11% from Scotland, 90% wanted BSL in schools, taught as a National 4/5
9% from Wales, 4 out of 5 wanted learn more
and 4% Northern Irish, 90% wanted to learn more

To sign the petition go to buzz.org.uk/righttosign

Differences between sign languages

Okay, we are almost at the end of the week, and today I will be going over the 14 main sign language families; what’s included in them, their possible origins and if I can find them the alphabets.

Books and Films

Here is a list of books and films with deaf characters; I will update it when I find new ones.

How to learn sign language

There are many different ways you can learn sign language but it is always best if you practice with a friend;

Deafness, the facts (or at least some of them)

Here are some interesting facts about deafness

The origins of sign langauge

Sign language is complicated. There are hundreds of different variations and words can have completely different meanings depending on where you come from.
But what is even more complicated is the origins, and that is what I am going to attempt to show today.

Deaf Awareness

In the UK Deaf Awareness week starts the 15th of May, so I've decided to give a bit of history about sign language, some basic signs in BSL and some other information about deafness and being deaf over this coming week. I hope you enjoy.
#Righttosign