The linguistic human rights of Sign language users
Temas
Detalles
Most of the literature on Deaf children focuses on their education, perhaps the most controversial and most frequently discussed area through the centuries. But in spite of Deaf people’s long struggle for equal human rights, particularly educational language rights, there is still little research on how most Deaf children are the victims of linguistic genocide every day, every moment, all over the world. Having a sign language accepted as a mother tongue already from birth is the most important human right for Deaf children because sign language is the only language they can acquire spontaneously and naturally without teaching, provided they have exposure to it. Still it is denied to them all over the world.
En: Phillipson, R. (ed.), Rights to language: Equity, power and education, pp. 203-213.