1) The juridical status of the Italian Sign Language

After the controversial debate aroused in Italy regarding the law proposal C. 4207 on the legal recognition of the Italian Sign Language (LIS), Dr Cristina Caselli, researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of CNR, answered to our question on the matter.

1) How the approval of the draft law C. 4207, without further modifications, is likely to harm the rights of deaf persons?

This law was born from the need to translate the principles of the UN Convention of December 13, 2006 – ratified by our country with law n. 18 of March 3, 2009 – which, in several dispositions, recognizes the protection of sign languages and promotes them on the basis of the particular cultural and linguistic identity of deaf persons. The ratification of the UN Convention and the following introduction into the Italian jurisprudence – recognition of the sign language included – should have been sufficient in order to provide a valid legal ground to pass the law proposal C 4207, in the version approved by the Senate on March 23, 2011.

During the debate in the Social Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, the draft has been deeply modified, attaching excessive importance to medical and rehabilitation aspects (which are of utmost importance) and relegating the sign language as a mere communication’s supportive “technique”, rather than a fully-formed natural language, expression of the human linguistic ability, that as such should be studied and respected together with the community to which it belongs.
If this law will be approved by the two Chambers, deaf people would be highly damaged by this reductive and obsolete interpretation of the Italian Sign Language, since it would bring into question its cognitive, communicative, social and cultural value. As the Director of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Rino Falcone, has written: “a language is able to modulate and represent psychological factors at the basis of communication and cognition. It is through a language as well that ideas, emotions and sensations are shared”.

2) In your opinion, which amendments could be put forward in order to make the law feasible to comply with the need of people that use sign language as the only way of expression?

Italian Sign Language has never been the only mean of expression for deaf persons, nor there have been such a request. All the deaf that use sign language are bilingual and know written and oral Italian either. Though the level of proficiency in each of the two languages depends on several factors, such as the age of learning, the frequency and the contexts of its use.
Starting from this point, in my opinion, the most important intervention should be direct to protect the right of deaf persons and their families to choose freely the bilingual path. In this framework, the law should recognize and promote the LIS together with the Italian language. In addition, on a scientific level, is essential that the government commit itself in advancing the research on deafness and the use of LIS in linguistic, sanitary, psychological, social and educational fields.

(The answers were collected in a written form)