A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

In Italy, the social attitude toward LIS has changed in the past thirty years. In the 1980s, Deaf people still limited their use of signs to closed environments. Indeed, the domain of LIS was spread in unofficial occasions, like daily life experiences. Signs barely appeared in classroom and in public occasions: the consequences were the marginalization of Deaf signers from public contexts, as conferences or public lectures. Furthermore, the lack of knowledge about this deficit and common misconception, like the fact that Deaf people are also mutes, contributed to the exclusion of Deaf signers from society (for further information, see SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 3.3).

            At the European level, the perceptions and conceptions about acoustic deficit started to change politically in the last decades thanks to the Rights of people with hearing impairments Statement promoted by the United Nations Educational Scientific And Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on 5 July 1971, and by the first document of the World Health Organisation (WHO), called ICIDH (International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicap), spread in 1980. These two documents introduced a new definition of deficit, namely, the individual status of a person was no longer associated with his/her physical conditions only, but it started to be also considered at the social and relational level. In particular, the document distinguished between impairment, disability, and handicap. Impairment was defined as the lack or the anomaly of a psychologic, physiologic, or anatomic function. Disability was defined as limitations to the capacity to undertake typical human activities, limitations which are consequential to the impairment. Finally, handicap was defined a disadvantageous condition due to an impairment or a disability limiting the subject with respect to age, gender and socio-cultural factor. Many years later, the UNESCO’s Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (June 7-10, 1994) took place in Spain. It enhanced the necessity that ordinary schools should accommodate all children, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional or linguistic conditions. Simultaneously to the increasing of care about inclusive educational programs and conceptual redefinitions of disabilities, linguistic issues related to the recognition of sign languages drew the attention of various political institution and organisations. The establishment of the World Congresses of World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) played a fundamental international role in ensuring equal rights for deaf people around the world. The WFD was established in Rome on September 23, 1951. To date, every four years the WFD organised a World Congress about deaf-related topics to advance the human rights and promote sign languages worldwide. Since 1958, the WFD has a consultative status in the UNESCO. Thanks to this role, Resolutions promoted in the Congresses affected the international debate about Deaf people conditions. In collaboration with WFD, the promotion of European Parliament Resolutions on Sign Languages for Deaf People (June 17, 1988) and on Sign Languages (November 18, 1988) represented crucial steps toward the achievement of the awareness about Deaf rights and identity, fostering the official recognition of sign languages. Both Resolutions also called upon member states to ensure European funding programs in the field of education and employment, including training of sign language tutors and interpreters. Later on, the European Council in Strasburg drew the European Charter for Regional and Minority languages (November 5, 1992) for the protection and promotion of languages used by traditional minorities. To date, many years after the proclamation of the European Charter, the Law (482/1999) for preserving the status of minority languages has been approved in Italy granting every year special funds to support dialects and other linguistic minorities. However, the concept of minority language is strictly related to the existence of communities using the language in a specific territory. Therefore, LIS is not included among linguistic minorities because it is not associated to a specific local territory, rather it is spread all over the country.

            In 2006, the United Nations (UN) promoted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilitieswhich represented a fundamental point towards the achievement of equal opportunities for people with deficits in that it granted them the fundamental human rights and freedom. The general principles of the Convention are: i) respect for inner dignity, individual autonomy and personal independence of people, ii) non-discrimination, iii) full participation and inclusion into society, iv) respect for the differences and in particular for people with deficit as part of human differences, v) equal opportunities, vi) accessibility, vii) equal opportunities between men and women, and viii) respect for the developing of the capacity in people with disabilities who have not yet come of age. The Convention also includes specific dispositions concerning the protection of deaf people, supporting the importance of the recognition of their linguistic and cultural identity. After the promulgation of the Convention, the Italian Parliament opened an internal discussion in 2009. The Parliament, through the Law n. 18 (March 3, 2009) authorized the ratification of the Convention and, finally, on June 14, 2009 the Convention entered into force. The approval of the Convention forced the Italian legislator to promote an internal legislation according to the principles of the law. Nonetheless, this law made no mention to LIS. In fact, only in March 2011, a special committee of the Italian Parliament proposed the Deaf People’s Rights and Recognition of Italian Sign Language (n. 37/S) bill for the recognition of LIS. The bill was discussed and approved by the Senate Chamber, but the discussion was never concluded. The bill considers deafness from two different perspectives: pathological, which describes deafness simply as an auditory deficit, and sociocultural which perceives deafness as a cultural and socio-linguistic condition. Although the bill recognized the linguistic status of LIS, it still did not include LIS among other minority languages. The exclusion of the sign language from the status of minority languages could lead to serious consequences, especially concerning the financial funding necessary for language policy and planning (SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 3.2). Indeed, the bill established that all funding had to be locally found, and that the State Administration was not responsible for it. Despite the indifference of some political institutions at the national level, the bill represented an important step towards achieving greater awareness of the essential needs of the Italian Deaf Community.

            It is important to mention that not all deaf people are signers and support the recognition of LIS. Many deaf people support the acquisition of spoken Italian fighting against the spread of signs. In Italy, one of the main opposing groups to sign language is the association FIADDA (SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 3.2). Among others, a reason for their opposition is the fear of a further marginalization of Deaf people, caused by the spread of the sign language. The consequences of this split among deaf people contribute to slow down the process of the recognition of LIS.

            After further unsuccessful attempts, in October 2017 the Senate Chamber approved the Decree Law n. 302 (Legge quadro sui diritti di cittadinanza delle persone sorde, e con disabilità uditiva in genere e sordocieche) and others (n. 1019; n. 1151, n. 1789; n. 1907), which includes dispositions regarding: i) the importance of removing communication barriers, ii) the official recognition of LIS and tactile Italian Sign Language (LISt), and iii) the promotion of the social inclusion of deaf and deafblind people. Furthermore, the Decree Law declares the freedom to choose the best channel of communication (spoken or signed), promoting social integration in schools, universities, working environments and health services. It also grants accessibility to historical, artistic and cultural heritage and political participation. Moreover, the Draft Law establishes a unique national register for interpreters of LIS and LISt, since today this professional rule is still locally coordinated. However, like the previous Drafts, the effort to monitor the implementation of the Law, and to penalize its violations, is assigned to local administrations and it does not include additional expenses for the national Government. The consequence is that services are not granted to people with deficit, since very often local administrations are not able to fund projects of inclusions.       

            The Decree Law reopened a heated discussion among members of the Deaf community and their opponents, which has been ongoing on social media and in public spaces. Once again, the final decision depends on the Chamber of Deputies, which has not dealt with the issue yet.

            Although LIS has not been officially recognized yet, it is unofficially supported by local and national institutions. For example, LIS courses are often directly cosponsored by local administrations, and LIS interpretation is currently provided in court cases, where Deaf people are involved. Some funding comes from the budgets designated for local welfare, health or educational services. However, none of this can be considered as a systematic language planning (SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 3.2). Furthermore, some Italian regions have already locally recognized LIS supporting its dissemination in order to grant the free expression of identity and equal rights to Deaf people. So far, the regions which have officially promoted the recognition of LIS are: i) Valle d’Aosta (Resolution: ‘Iniziative per un intervento legislativo per il riconoscimento ufficiale della Lingua dei segni’ approved on November 9, 2006), ii) Calabria (n. 46, approved on November 23, 2007), iii) Sicilia (Regional Law n. 23, November 4, 2011), iv) Piemonte (Draft Law n. 86, October 29, 2010 and approved on July 24, 2012), v) Campania (Regional Draft Law n. 21/2012), vi) Abruzzo (Regional Law n. 17, March 17, 2014), vii) Lazio (Regional Law n. 6, May 28, 2015), viii) Lombardia (Regional Law n. 20, August 5, 2016), ix) Basilicata (Regional Law n. 30, November 20, 2017), x) Veneto (Regional Draft Law n. 220, February 1, 2017) unanimously approved on February 15, 2018.