Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Recognise ISL Today! - Templates for Letters to TDs and An Taoiseach
Find your local TD using this website:
www.oireachtas.ie/members-
Anyone else who’s reading, make sure to send one off to your local TD and the Taoiseach today to get ISL recognised!!
LETTER TO YOUR LOCAL TD
______________
Your Address
Date
Dear Deputy (your local TD’s name),
I am writing to ask you, as my local TD, to lobby the Taoiseach to officially recognise Irish Sign Language as the third official language of Ireland and afford it the same status as Irish and English.
Irish Sign Language (ISL) is the first language of approximately 5,000 Irish Deaf people and their families, with an estimated 50,000 friends, relatives and colleagues of Deaf people also using the language on a regular basis.
Irish Sign Language is an indigenous language, naturally developed by Irish Deaf people and has been used in Ireland for hundreds of years. It has it’s own grammar and structure different to Irish and English and is processed, like other languages in the speech centre of the brain.
Using Irish Sign Languages allows Deaf people to communicate and access knowledge, education and information, as many Deaf people have difficulty accessing the other two official languages of this country. I believe that by the Government of this country neglecting to recognise an indigenous language used by a group of its citizens, our basic human rights are being breached.
Over 45 countries internationally have officially recognised their countries sign languages and in this respect Ireland is lagging behind. In fact, ISL has been officially recognised in Northern Ireland along with British Sign Language for four years, it could be argued that this breaches the Good Friday Agreement.
The recognition of ISL is not only a disability issue, as Deaf ISL users consider themselves a cultural and linguistic minority. It is also an equality and language issue. The Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children, Education and Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs, have all claimed that the recognition of ISL does not fall under their remit so we are asking An Taoiseach to please appoint a Minister or designate a department to take specific responsibility for this and liaise with the Deaf community on the best way forward, be this through a Constitutional referendum or an alternative method which sees ISL being afforded similar rights to Irish and English under the Official Languages Act.
Yours sincerely,
Sign:
Print Name:
LETER TO AN TAOISEACH:
__________________
Your address:
Date:
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merion St,
Dublin 2.
Dear Taoiseach,
I am writing to ask you to officially recognise Irish Sign Language as the third official language of Ireland and afford it the same status as Irish and English.
Irish Sign Language (ISL) is the first language of approximately 5,000 Irish Deaf people and their families, with an estimated 50,000 friends, relatives and colleagues of Deaf people also using the language on a regular basis.
Irish Sign Language is an indigenous language, naturally developed by Irish Deaf people and has been used in Ireland for hundreds of years. It has it’s own grammar and structure different to Irish and English and is processed, like other languages in the speech centre of the brain.
Using Irish Sign Languages allows Deaf people to communicate and access knowledge, education and information, as many Deaf people have difficulty accessing the other two official languages of this country. I believe that by the Government of this country neglecting to recognise an indigenous language used by a group of its citizens, our basic human rights are being breached.
Over 45 countries internationally have officially recognised their countries sign languages and in this respect Ireland is lagging behind. In fact, ISL has been officially recognised in Northern Ireland along with British Sign Language for four years, it could be argued that this breaches the Good Friday Agreement.
The recognition of ISL is not only a disability issue, as Deaf ISL users consider themselves a cultural and linguistic minority. It is also an equality and language issue. The Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children, Education and Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs, have all claimed that the recognition of ISL does not fall under their remit so we are asking An Taoiseach to please appoint a Minister or designate a department to take specific responsibility for this and liaise with the Deaf community on the best way forward, be this through a Constitutional referendum or an alternative legislative method which sees ISL being afforded similar rights to Irish and English under the Official Languages Act.
Yours sincerely,
Signed:
Sunday, September 14, 2008
2003 Special Olympics: Deaf people’s group criticises facilities at Games
Thursday, June 26, 2003 :A DEAF people’s group has harshly criticised the organisers of the Special Olympics for not doing enough to cater for their needs in the opening ceremony.
The Irish Deaf Society said the provision of a designated box area with a sign language interpreter for the duration of the ceremony was only agreed at short notice and was really a half-measure.
The society’s administrator, Cormac Leonard, said he was hoping mistakes made by the organising committee would be corrected in time for the closing ceremony on Sunday night.
Special Olympics spokesperson, Julian Davis, said they had all major speeches signed on the screen behind the stage. Signing of the music and any other words spoken was available within two of the corporate boxes if needed. A fax and mobile number was given out for anyone who wanted to have sign interpretation throughout the entire three-hour event. Mr Davis said six people availed of the service.
The Irish Deaf Society had accepted the arrangement as a good solution but complained that it segregated them from the rest of the 75,000 spectators.
Mr Davis said they had tried to cater for everybody but it was not possible to have a perfect solution for every situation.
Mr Davis said he had originally thought that they could have 100% signing on the stage and that this would be satisfactory but that proved not to be the case.
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2003/06/26/story915562675.asp
Monday, September 1, 2008
Interpreting for the IDS Thailand Trek
At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, here's an article from the Fingal Independent about the Irish Deaf Society Thailand trek on which I was one of the interpreters. (Oh, also, i didn't tell them i was a 'deaf interpreter'!)There are also lots of other accounts of the Trek in the most recent Irish Deaf News.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Free ISL DVDs!
Finding it difficult to keep abreast of new ISL terminology and vocabulary?
Then you could do a lot worse than visiting the Irish Deaf Society and getting some of their FREE DVDs in ISL.
The ones produced by DALEP, a sub-project of the IDS, are mostly aimed at Deaf people but are available to all.
The IDS also produce information DVDs on all kinds of subjects and they are a great resource for learners of ISL as well as interpreters honing their craft. (And they're a lovely bunch of people too! And I'm not just saying that cause I used to work there.)
ISL AWARENESS WEEK
