3.1. Current legislation
Legal recognition of Catalan Sign Language was the result of a long process, which was in many ways comparable to the one followed for other sign languages, but also with some idiosyncrasies. It involved several legal initiatives in Catalonia, but also at the Spanish and European level.
European recommendations were the point of departure for legislation on Catalan Sign Language both at the national and regional level. The Council of Europe mentions sign languages in Recommendation 1492 (2001) in relation to national minorities’ rights. This recommendation asks for protection of the different sign languages used in Europe in a similar way to other regional or minority European languages. Later on, in 2003, Recommendation 1598 on the Protection of sign languages in the member states of the Council of Europe recognized the value of sign languages as an expression of the richness of the European culture, considering them as part of the linguistic and cultural European heritage. Moreover, Recommendation 1598 (2003) recognized sign languages as complete and natural communication systems and encouraged member states to formally recognize them in their territories, as well as to carry out other actions in order to promote and guarantee its use, such as training interpreters, offering free choice between two educational modalities (spoken or bilingual with sign language), offering education in sign language for adults, including training on sign language in secondary education, disseminating sign language in television, promoting didactic materials, and raising awareness among the population on sign language matters.
In Catalonia, LSC was mentioned for the first time in a legal text under the label llenguatge de signes. The Catalan parliament passed a “Nonbinding resolution on the promotion and dissemination of sign language knowledge” (Proposició no de llei sobre la promoció i la difusió del coneixement del llenguatge de signes, June 30, 1994) that was proposed by the Committee for the Study of the Difficulties in the Use of Sign Language in 1993. The aim of this resolution was to defend an educational system with sign-spoken bilingual options, to promote SL research and teaching, to raise awareness of SL among hearing families with deaf children, and to recognize SL interpreting as a vocational training program. However, among all these objectives, just a few proposals were implemented, which did not fulfill the expectations of the Catalan Deaf community.
A new step towards the legal recognition of LSC was made in 2006. LSC was mentioned in article 50.6 of the Catalan Autonomy Law (Estatut d’Autonomia de Catalunya). The need of protecting and promoting LSC and granting the rights of its users was highlighted in this text in the following way: “The public authorities shall guarantee the use of the Catalan Sign Language and conditions of equality for deaf people who choose to use this language, which shall be the subject of education, protection, and respect.”
One year later, in June 2007, LSC was recognized at the national level in the Spanish bill 27/2007 along with Spanish Sign Language (LSE). This text was entitled “Bill by which Spanish Sign Languages are recognized and means of support for spoken communication by deaf people are regulated” (Proyecto de Ley por la que se reconocen las lenguas de signos españolas y se regulan los medios de apoyo a la comunicación oral de las personas sordas). However, this bill was written from a special-needs perspective as part of a bigger framework, which is primarily related to accessibility for all deaf people, including both signers and non-signers. Thus, although LSC and LSE are recognized in this law as languages of the Spanish territory, they do not achieve the status of official languages. Notwithstanding, this law established a base for a future regulation of the language by the Catalan government.
Finally, in 2010, the full-fledged legal recognition of LSC was achieved when the Catalan parliament passed the Act 17/2010, of the 3rd of June, on Catalan Sign Language (Llei 17/2010, del 3 de juny, de la llengua de signes catalana). This law was written with a different perspective compared to the Spanish one. It focused mainly in the linguistic and cultural nature of LSC, recognizing it as part of the Catalan cultural heritage. This text not only recognized the language, but it also recognized the basic rights of its users (Deaf and deaf-blind signers) by regulating the use of LSC in the different spheres of their life.
Moreover, it also established the institutions that would be in charge of normalizing the language: i) the Catalan Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Institut d’Estudis Catalans) is the academic institution in charge of the standardization of LSC, ii) a designated agency in the Catalan government (Direcció General de Política Lingüística) is in charge of the application of language policies that ensure the rights of its users, and iii) the Social Council of Catalan Sign Language (Consell Social de la Llengua de Signes Catalana) is in charge of advising and controlling those policies.