Dutch Sign Language gets legal recognition
The Dutch Parliament has unanimously approved a proposal to recognize Dutch Sign Language. The bill was proposed by the House and had a unanimous vote on September 22. The Senate unanimously voted for it on Tuesday, October 13.
Senator Boris Dittrich (D66) said it “is more than a legal recognition. It is also about dignity and identity, the recognition that the Dutch Sign Language is a fully-fledged language. For the large community of deaf and hard of hearing people in the Netherlands, the language is their mother tongue.”
The bill said the Dutch deaf community has tried for thirty years to have the language legally recognized.
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Here are several tweets celebrating the recognition.
[Tweets]
Congratulations to everyone in Holland. This is how you sign it.[signs it in their language] The Dutch word for DSL is Nederlandse Gebarentaal, or NGT for short.
https://www.eerstekamer.nl/nieuws/20201013/eerste_kamer_steunt_wettelijk
https://twitter.com/SLL_Radboud/status/1316022313603616776