Equal Accesibility for Sign Language under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Temas
Detalles
Achieving recognition of sign language as a protected and full language is a plight of Deaf sign language users. National recognition provides rights to access, advancement, and protection of the dominant means of communication for most Deaf individuals. Despite the positive implications of official recognition, many countries either refuse to recognize sign language, attempt to unify regional sign languages into one common, socially-constructed language, or simply manually code the majority spoken language. Regional and minority sign language users have no recourse as they find themselves excluded from official recognition as a domestic linguistic minority. Appealing to international human rights law likewise proves futile due to the inherent difficulties in classifying the Deaf as a linguistic minority. Shedding the linguistic minority framework, this Note will argue that classifying Deaf sign language users as disabled offers greater linguistic rights and protections than under a linguistic minority classification. Through the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, sign language users have greater rights and States have explicit obligations to recognize and protect minority sign languages.