International Day of Sign Languages 2023: Date, history, significance and all you need to know
International Day of Sign Languages is an annual event that promotes the linguistic and cultural diversity of deaf communities around the world.
It is an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of sign languages in the lives of deaf communities and the need to protect them as an essential part of human diversity. Millions of people around the world use sign language as their primary means of communication.
They are complex visual-gestural communication systems with their own grammar and syntax. This day promotes the linguistic rights of deaf people and aims to increase awareness, inclusion and acceptance of deaf people in society. Read on to know more about the day.
When is the International Day of Sign Languages 2023?
The International Day of Sign Languages will be celebrated globally on Saturday, September 23.
International Day of Sign Languages history
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), a federation of 135 national federations of the deaf, proposed the idea for the day on behalf of the estimated 70 million deaf people around the world. The Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, along with 97 other UN Member States, sponsored Resolution A/RES/72/161, which was unanimously adopted on December 19, 2017. The date of September 23 was chosen to honour the day in 1951 when the WFD was established. On that day, an advocacy group was founded, and one of its main objectives was to preserve sign languages and deaf culture as a prerequisite for the fulfilment of the human rights of deaf people.
In 2018, as part of the International Week of the Deaf, the International Day of Sign Languages was observed for the first time. The International Week of the Deaf, which was first observed in September 1958, has developed into an international movement of deaf unity and coordinated lobbying to bring attention to the problems that deaf people deal with on a daily basis.
Significance of International Day of Sign Languages
The International Day of Sign Languages provides a unique opportunity to support and preserve the cultural diversity and linguistic uniqueness of all sign language users, including Deaf people. Together, deaf communities, governments and civil society groups continue to create, promote and recognise national sign languages as an integral part of the dynamic and diverse linguistic landscapes of their respective nations.
According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are over 70 million deaf people in the world. More than 80% of them live in underdeveloped countries. They collectively use more than 300 different sign languages. In order to raise public awareness of the value of sign languages in the full realisation of the human rights of deaf people, the United Nations General Assembly has designated 23 September as the International Day of Sign Languages.