International Day of Sign Languages: Theme, Importance, History, Significance & Facts

As a human our first very privilege points out to be the communicating capacity, however this communication would have been a great distortion if it wasn’t associated with signs and symbols and that is where even the mute Language gets a meaning.

So commemorating this language of signs every year 23 September is celebrated as the International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL), along with International Week of the Deaf marking a tribute to the World Federation of the Deaf that was established in the same week in the year 1951. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly strengthening the human rights of the deaf and other persons with disabilities.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has considered sign languages of equal status to that of spoken languages and thereby even makes it mandatory for the states to facilitate and promote mediums for sign languages. It’s to involve the participation of deaf in state procedures.

History of International Day of Sign Languages?

World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) initiated the observation of the International Day of Sign Languages. The United Nations’ Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda sponsored and 97 United Nations Member States co-sponsored the resolution A/RES/72/161 and it was adopted by consensus on 19 December 2017.

International Day of Sign Languages theme for 2020:

The theme for the International Day of Sign languages, 2020 is “Sign Languages Are for Everyone” as Covid-19 has restricted a lot of communication channels for the world and being a natural mode of communication.

Sign languages have made its distinction from the in growing digital communication.

Sign language Quotes

Sign language is the noblest gift God has given to deaf people. – George Veditz

Silence will always fall on deaf ears. – Anthony T. Hincks

Human eyes are the sign language of the brain. If you watch them carefully, you can see the truth played out, raw and unguarded. – Tarryn Fisher

My cat speaks sign language with her tail. – Robert A. M. Stern

Sign language is the equal of speech, lending itself equally to the rigorous and the poetic, to philosophical analysis or to making love. – Oliver Sacks

The symbolic view of things is a consequence of long absorption in images. Is sign language the real language of Paradise? – Hugo Ball