A Grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

It is hard to provide concrete numbers for every group of sign language users in the Netherlands, not just because various sources provide different numbers, but also because these sources have differences in categorizing degrees of hearing loss. Below, we provide characteristics and, when available, numbers of the different subgroups within the sign language community.

Early onset deaf people

Prawiro-Atmodjo et al. (2016) looked into the exact number of people who were born deaf or became deaf in their first three years of life. Based on a study of Korver et al. (2011 in: Prawiro-Atmodjo et al. 2016), which included data from children born in 2003, 2004 and 2005, combined with literature about the prevalence of deafness in more recent years and studies on the prevalence of early deafness abroad, they conclude that, at the time, there must have been between 11,900 and 20,400 early onset deaf people in the Netherlands.

As for current indications of prevalence of hearing loss among newborns, numbers from the national neonatal screening from 2011-2018 show that, on average, 0.07% of the children who underwent this screening turned out to have a hearing loss of at least 40 dB in two ears (and 0.1% in one or two ears). In 2018, more than 99% of all newborns were screened.

Regarding deaf people with a cochlear implant, it is known that up until 2019, 7,610 people received one or two implants in the Netherlands. However, the actual number of people currently wearing a cochlear implant is probably lower, since not everyone continues using it. Also note that this number does not only consists of early onset deaf people, but includes deafblind, sudden and late deafened people as well.

As for elderly deaf sign language users, it is worth mentioning that the Netherlands has a special home for elderly deaf people who identify as part of the sign language community: the Gelderhorst. This home is unique in the world, and includes 117 independent apartments, 60 apartments inside a care home, and a nursing home. It is a cherished part of the Dutch deaf community (van Veen 2013).

People who are born deaf or become deaf early in life are the most likely candidates to become sign language users, but the exact current number of (near-)native deaf sign language users is unknown. The European Union for the Deaf mentions that there are 15,000 deaf NGT users in the Netherlands but we believe this estimate to be on the high side. Following the line of reasoning from Johnston (2004, 2006[2], who provides several good arguments to assume that the number of (early onset) deaf people is often lower than previously assumed, and, specifically, that the number of deaf sign language users is again considerably lower than the number of (early onset) deaf people, we estimate that the number of deaf NGT users is certainly smaller than the group of 11,900-20,400 early onset deaf people mentioned above. Johnston (2004) writes about Australia in particular, but uses data from other (developed, by lack of a better term) countries as well. Most of the factors he discusses also apply to the Netherlands – e.g. health care development, rate of children receiving a cochlear implant, educational system. He reacts to other scholars’ comments in Johnston (2006). Based on all the sources we consulted (see also Information on Data and Consultants), we would estimate the number of deaf NGT signers to be at most 10,000 people.

Hard of hearing people

As mentioned in the section Early onset deaf people, 0.1% of the newborns have a hearing loss of at least 40 dB in one or two ears. Exact numbers on what percentage of the Dutch population is hard of hearing, however, are hard to come by. The National Hearing Foundation reports that, in 2003, there were about 1.5 million people with a hearing loss (varying from very mild to very severe) in the Netherlands. They also provide (old) numbers from registrations from general practitioners in the Netherlands, and imply that only people with a certain degree of hearing loss are registered there. The Institution of Public Health & Health Care indeed reports two lower numbers of people with general hearing loss in the Netherlands: (i) in 2018, 761,600 people were registered by general practitioners as having a hearing loss (this number includes people who were already registered before 2018.) (ii) in 2016, 4.5% of the Dutch population of 19 years and older reported to have a hearing loss – note that 4.5% of a population of 17 million people is 765,000 people. 

The majority of hard of hearing people in the Netherlands has become hard of hearing as a consequence of ageing or exposure to noise, and these people are usually not involved with the sign language community. Younger people, or people with severe hearing loss, however, may be(come) part of the sign language community. Factors that play a role here are, among others, the degree of hearing loss, the age of onset of hearing loss, their type of primary education (mainstream school or school for hard of hearing children), and their social circle. There is also a group of hard of hearing people which uses SSD, mostly with people close to them.

Sudden and late deafened people

Most people who become deaf late in life have no intention of getting involved with the sign language community. However, there are organizations which specifically aim at providing communication courses to individuals experiencing sudden or late deafness, and offer courses in SSD or NGT. By gaining access to signs or sign language, some sudden or late deafened people may get involved with the sign language community.

According to an (old) report of the ‘Committee Recognition NGT a population examination between 1986 and 1990 showed that, at that time, 1,000 people were sudden deaf, and 6,000 had gone deaf as a consequence of age (CBS/NIMAWO 1986/1988, 1990 in: Commissie Erkenning Nederlandse Gebarentaal 1997). To the best of our knowledge, no recent numbers are available.

Deafblind people

The majority of deafblind people in the Netherlands became deafblind at a later age (i.e., they have acquired deafblindness rather than congenital deafblindness), and their use of signs depends on various factors, such as the degree of hearing loss, the age at which they became deaf, whether the hearing loss followed the loss of sight or vice versa, etcetera. Deafblind people who use (tactile) NGT are usually perceived as a sub-community within the sign language community (Balder et al. 2000).

Concerning the number of deafblind people in the Netherlands, available estimations have a wide range: whereas the earlier-mentioned Committee Recognition NGT estimated this number at 5,000 in 1997 (of whom a subgroup overlaps with the number of deaf-born children) and van den Dungen (1999 in: Radstake 2002) at 5,900, more recently, Marleen Janssen, Professor of Deafblindness at the University of Groningen, estimates the number to be around 50,000 (Drullman 2019), and Platform DeafblindConnect at over 80,000 people. According to Janssen, this number of 50,000 is composed of the following groups: 2,000 people who were born deafblind, about 8,000 people who became deafblind at a young age, and 40,000 people who became deafblind as a consequence of aging. Bartiméus, an organization specializing in low vision and blindness, states that this latter group comprises at least 70,000 people – although most of these people would not call themselves ‘deafblind’, but would speak of having “impairments in vision and hearing”.  Two reasons to explain the discrepancies between the numbers reported here are firstly, the differences in definitions of deafblindness that the studies apply, and secondly, the scarcity of research into deafblind people in the Netherlands. Research on the use and properties of tactile NGT is, unfortunately, also scarce.