1.

INTRODUCTION
In this project, I am going to introduce the Catalan Sign Language (CSL) and give
some information about its history, how it works and its signs; and second, I am going
to compare it to a more popular one which is the American Sign Language (ASL). In
this way, I can see what makes ASL the most important sign language, in my opinion,
and also what differences and similarities I can find with the CSL.

My hypothesis is that the American Sign Language is better known than the Catalan
Sign Language; therefore, American deaf people are more integrated into their society
than Catalan deaf people. Sign language (SL) is part of the deaf’s identity and their
means of communication. If sign language is considered a proper language, why not
treat it like one?

In my opinion, the deaf would be integrated into their societies if people accepted who
they are and made some effort to let them be. The integration should come from both
sides and as well as hearing people, the deaf should have to part with some of their
cultural identities. However, their language carries their story the same as any other
language in the world and forcing them to part with their way of communication is equal
to erasing their background which makes them be who they are.

Another reason why I am willing to work on this project is to find out about the
similarities and differences between CSL and ASL and see if CSL can aim at being the
second most developed one after ASL, in case this one is the first most developed.

I chose this topic because I thought that it was something interesting which not many
people know about, especially here in Spain or Catalonia.

I used to watch a TV program called “Switched at Birth” that tells the story of two teen
girls who discover that they were accidentally switched at birth. One of them grew up in
a wealthy family with two parents and a brother, while the other, who lost her hearing
as a child due to a case of meningitis, grew up with a single mother in a poor
neighbourhood. From the moment they discover the existence of each other, they start
living together and each of them introduces her daily life to the other and that is how
the deaf community was set forth to the spectators. I am not going to spoil this TV
show to anyone, in case someone wants to watch it, but I have to say that along the
story one will see more deaf characters and how the hearing characters change their
ways to adjust to the need of deaf people which was what amazed me about this show.

1
We would usually find disabled people doing their best to adapt themselves to the rest
of the members of their society but not this time, nor in this TV program. That got me
thinking and made me take an interest in this community and for some time, I could not
stop watching the show and I also started searching for information about the deaf
community on YouTube and the internet and how they communicate among them. That
is when I came across ASL and a huge amount of videos teaching how to learn it. They
are not professional videos but at least, I managed to learn basic words and the
alphabet moving my hand and most importantly, I have managed to maintain the
interest in it to this day that I am trying to learn more, and raise awareness about this
topic that is kept in the shadows.

This project is about the Sign language (SL) that deaf communities use to
communicate with each other. I will explain everything that is related to Sign language
so that one can understand the main issue I am bringing forward. Basically, I will clarify
the origins of this form of communication, the reason why it was created, who
supported it, and so on.

Afterwards, I will focus mainly on two different Sign Languages which are the American
Sign Language and the Catalan Sign language. I have chosen these two languages
because the first one is quite well known whereas the second one is not very popular.

Finally, I am looking forward to working with people related to this field to see how they
live their lives and how they are integrated into their society and also see if they face
any difficulties. That way, I can have a clear vision of the real situation of the deaf in
both countries and say if my hypothesis is right or wrong.

I want to find out about the differences and the improvements that made ASL be as
successful as it is today in America. What is more, I will suggest new ideas to complete
CSL here in Catalonia in order to improve its popularity so that it can become as well-
known as the American one. Hopefully, I can glean as much information as I need to
achieve the goals that I have put forward.

2. DEAF CULTURE
The definition of the noun deaf in the Cambridge Dictionary is:  Unable to hear either
completely or partly. However, many people believe that being deaf means to be
disabled or unable to communicate with other hearing people. They think deaf people
are limited in what they can learn at school and in the kinds of jobs they can perform.
They see deaf people as isolated and unable to connect with the world and this may be

2
the reason why many people look to medicine to find a “cure” for hearing loss. They
believe that helping deaf people to understand will grant them a better life or just make
them like the rest of the people in society which they think is the best option.

We have never stopped to learn about how they live their lives as deaf people without
being changed to what society defines as ‘acceptable’. This is where my interest about
this situation started and I wanted to see the same picture of those people but from a
different angle, an angle where I can learn how they communicate with others who are
also deaf or hard of hearing1.

Doing this previous research, just to throw some light on my concern, I learned about
how many deaf people across the globe find their own peacefulness by being deaf and
they would like to remain that way. Sociological studies on deaf people refer to this kind
of group as Deaf –with a capital D- since they are users of sign language and they
identify themselves with their linguistic-cultural community. Also, we cannot reject the
term deaf –with a small d- that is used generically for some kind of hearing loss and
has no other social connotations. It is clear that not every deaf person belongs to their
Deaf community, it depends on whether that person wants to join this community or
not.

Despite the fact that deaf people have many ways to communicate with others, the
most used ones are lip reading and Sign Language, and I am going to focus on Sign
Language as it has been said before. Nevertheless, I will also explain briefly the lip
reading method along with the deaf-blind manual just to clarify that Deaf people can
communicate in other ways not just Sign language.

2.1. Lip Reading

Lip reading is a technique to understand speech by visually interpreting the movements
of the lips and tongue, using facial expression and body language to help. It is used by
many deaf people who do not sign; especially those who were born hearing and have
either gradually or suddenly lost their hearing during their lives.

As you can imagine this method will not give them a precise definition of what is going
on around them. So, they gather information from the context or the topic of the
conversation. This helps them narrow down the possible vocabulary they might
consider in the conversation.

1
Hard of Hearing (HoH) is someone who does not hear well. This may be because they were
born with a hearing loss or they may have lost some or all of their hearing later in life.

3
2.2. Deafblind manual

This is a method of tactile communication for those who

have both hearing and sight loss. The deaf-blind manual
alphabet is a method of spelling out words onto a deaf-
blind person's hand. Each letter is denoted by a
particular sign or place on the hand. It is straightforward
to learn but is more complex to receive.

In this section, we can find manuals, such as the Braille

system in which there are arrangements of raised dots
representing each letter and number that they can
identify by touch. Also, we have Moon. Moon is similar
to Braille, it is less common but easier to learn. 1. This image is a graphical version of
the Deaf blind manual alphabet card

3. SIGN LANGUAGE (SL)

‘Sign languages are the languages of deaf communities. They are not communication systems
that have been invented ad hoc, but rather arise as natural languages when there is a large
enough group of signers. Historically, these situations have only arisen when deaf people have
formed associations and established a social network. They have also arisen thanks to the
existence of residential schools or normal schools for deaf children. In the western world, it is
only in the last two or three hundred years at most that these conditions have been established.’
Quer, 2005 (Josep, 2004-2005)

Sign Language or SL is the natural language of Deaf communities around the world. It
is one of the cases of minority languages which is perceived and articulated in a
different modality. As a living language, it constantly evolves and it has its own
characteristics which can differ from country to country. It interacts with other
languages, receives influences and incorporates new cultural and scientific concepts to
adapt to the knowledge of the society.

SL uses the gesture-spatial and visual perception modality but that does not mean it
has not got grammar. It has its own grammatical structure that is characterised by the
movement of one or two hands, their guidelines, their spatial location, and the non-
manual elements - such as lip movements - which can be verbal and oral, facial, lingual
as well as the movements of shoulders and head. These elements are very important
in order to give complete sense to what they are saying, some people believe that just
by moving your hands up and down you recreate what is known as SL, but, actually,

4
without the coordination and participation of the rest of your body, the message that
you are trying to send will not be clear enough - or will be very weak indeed.

Sign language does not have a strict structure because a handshape may vary
according to the other signs made before or after it, but these variations are arranged
in perceptual categories along its development. For a native signer, it is easy to make
sense of the connection between each word. However, for a non-native signer it can be
quite challenging, but thanks to the context and the level of knowledge he or she has of
the language, he/she can overcome this difficulty as well as someone who is learning a
language for the first time.

In the dactylology, each letter is

represented by a certain position of the
right hand while the left-hand remains
usually immobile.

Some of the misconceptions about sign

2. A unimanual alphabet published in the American
language can lead to receiving
this Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, 1886.
language as not a proper known language.
There is the fact that it is confused with actions of miming such as imitating actions or
objects. Nevertheless, it can be used as a linguistic system, as signs made with hands
are arbitrary.

It is also incorrect that SL is a ‘translation’ of oral languages although occasionally

some signs may have this origin and also in some special schools they may use this
method to teach children so they can become more familiar with the oral language in
case they are surrounded by non-Deaf.

In fact, SL generally does not have any linguistic relation to the spoken languages of
the lands in which they arise. The association between sign and oral language varies
depending on the country more than the spoken language. For example, the USA,
Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand all have English as their dominant language,
but American Sign Language used in the USA and most parts of Canada is derived
from French Sign Language (FSL)  whereas in the other three countries they are sign
dialects of British. Likewise, the sign languages of Spain and Mexico are very different,
despite the fact that Spanish is the national language in both countries.

It is true that there is an international sign system, known as Gestuno, but it is used
mainly at scientific congresses and meetings. These events require the presence of a
common language to engage everyone in the main activity. The World Federation of

5
the Deaf promoted the elaboration of a new kind of language as a pidgin which is
known as International Sign (IS). It consists of an agreed lexical group of signs but has
no grammar. In practice, each signer uses the grammar from their own sign language
so it varies considerably in each interactive context.

3.1. History of SL
Although sign language is a natural language among people with deafness, its origins
are very old and it has also been used by communities of listeners. However, at
present, there are no documentary references to the sign language before the 18 th
century and that has made this language prone to the lack of linguistic search.

The only record about historical sign languages was the manual alphabets found in the
19th century, which consisted of fingerspelling systems that were invented to transfer
words from spoken language (OL) to sign language. A Spanish Benedictine monk
named Pedro Ponce de León (1520–1584) is said to have developed the first manual
alphabet which would allow students to spell out, letter by letter, any word. This
alphabet was based on the simple hand gestures used by monks living in silence.

Knowing that this man was the first person to elaborate this important system for the
Deaf community kept me wondering and searching for a copy of his fingerspelling
system. Unfortunately, I could not find any evidence of its existence, maybe because
there is not a writing system for sign language - signs can be transcribed for research
purposes, but this is different to writing them - which makes it difficult to keep historical
information of this language.

Climbing the map we see how in Britain manual alphabets were also in use for a
number of purposes, such as secret communication, public speaking, or
communication by deaf people. In 1648, an English physician called John Bulwer wrote
five works exploring the body and human communication particularly by using the
gesture. He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people.

In France, everything started when Charles-Michel Épée founded the first school for
Deaf Children in Paris in 1760. In this institution, Épée did not use properly the French
sign language (FSL), instead, he developed a system called ‘methodical signs’ which
uses a special code based on FSL to teach his students how to read and write so that
they could learn the oral language (OL), French.

A few years later, as a result of the Milan Congress in 1880, in the second International
Congress on Education of the deaf, sign language was banned. There was a strong
European oralist who considered that SL was restraining the learning of OL. His point

6
of view led to the prohibition of SL and codes signed inside and outside the classroom.
Despite this, the children continued to sign secretly in their language, which continued
to contribute to the transmission of SL in Europe. If it had not been for those kids, sign
language would have been destroyed. In addition to this, the president of Gallaudet
College, the first institution of higher education for the deaf, decided to keep sign
language on the Gallaudet campus and this helped largely the survival of SL.

This oralist position dominated until the middle of the 20 th century and, even today,
among sectors of the population and some professionals, there is the myth that the SL
seriously harms the learning of the OL.

It was not until the 60s that the work of William C. Stokoe; Elementary School on the
American Sign Language showed that the SL was a natural language in the full sense
of the word and that it could be described and analysed in the same way as the spoken
languages. Since then, the study of the SL has been gaining more interest occupying
its rightful place within the different disciplines of Linguistics.

The work of William C. mentions only The American Sign Language (ASL); as a result,
it has been proven that the SL that more attention has received and the one that has a
stronger tradition in regard to research is ASL. Nevertheless, since the 80s linguistic
researchers have been incorporating a series of SL that are to be found not only in
Europe but throughout the world.

3.2. Major event in the deaf community in 1988

In March 1988 deaf students at Gallaudet University took part in a protest known as
‘The Week that the world heard
Gallaudet’ Gallaudet University was
established in Washington D.C in 1864
as the world’s first University for the Deaf
and hard of hearing. From that time until
1988, the president of the university had
never been Deaf. The person who was
leading the world’s oldest institution for
3. Students at Gallaudet University protesting on Capitol the Deaf never actually belonged to that
Hill.
community.

At that time, the president stepped down and the Board of Trustees (majority hearing)
looked for somebody to replace him. They settled on three candidates (two deaf, one

7
hearing) and ultimately chose the hearing candidate. The students at Gallaudet
University protested. They shut down the campus for days and marched on Capitol Hill.

Student protesters received support not only from the larger Deaf community but from
the hearing community as well. Five days later, the administration gave into their
demands. King Jordan was named the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University in
1988. For the first time, Deaf people had shown just how much they were capable of
doing and that they truly believed in themselves.

3.3. Learning of SL
To have a better idea of the processing of this language now that we know its origins I
will clear up the progress that a child follows being deaf from birth. Deaf as well as
hearing children learn sign language naturally if their parents and other people around
them use the language.

Research on children learning sign language began in the 1970s in the USA.
Researchers wanted to know if learning sign languages are different from learning
spoken languages, since many signs in ASL and other sign languages look like the
sign’s meaning in some way, for instance, the sign HOUSE is done by making the
shape of a roof and walls with both hands. The conclusion of different researchers on
this topic gave an explanation of the different learning stages that Deaf children go
through. I will explain them briefly to show how similar the development of both deaf
and hearing kids is.

STAGES

1. From the age of approximately 6 months, Deaf children start to "babble" on

their hands, imitating the signs they see around them.
2. Around 12 months, they produce their first sign at the same age that children
learning spoken languages produce their first word. Basically, Children who
learn spoken languages from speaking parents and children who learn sign
languages from signing parents seem to move through the same stages of
language development.
3. After 12 months, children add more and more new signs to their vocabulary.
The first signs they learn are words like FATHER, MOTHER, DOG, BATH,
HOT, EAT, and GOODBYE. They produce signs with incorrect handshapes in
the same way that speaking children make mistakes when they pronounce their
first words.

8
 4. Before 2 years of age, they begin to join their signs in two sign combinations,
such as WANT MILK or FIND BALL. The child's vocabulary begins to grow
more rapidly.
5. By two and half years of age, they start to build longer sentences and the
child begins to acquire more complex grammar. They begin to form questions
and make use of space in their signing.
6. By age five, most of the basic grammar of the languages are learned, although
it takes a few more years before all aspects of the language are learned
completely. Learning new vocabulary, however, continues throughout life.

Even though this investigation was done on deaf children, we have to keep in mind that
not all deaf were born actually deaf. There are a lot of people who were not introduced
to sign language at a young age. Nevertheless, learning sign language is always
available for everybody who is deaf, Hard of Hearing or even Hearing. It is just like
learning a second language.

I myself started learning sign language before starting this project. Although my sign
skills did not improve due the lack of practice I found the process enjoyable and
accessible for everyone. One can indeed download applications to learn this language,
learn on YouTube, hire a tutor or start a course online or in their town.

4. COMPARING
In the second part, I am going to go through all the information I can get to find the
answer of my thesis which I state again, is the following: American Sign Language is
more developed than Catalan Sign Language.

I will analyze different aspects of the two sign languages at the same time. For
example, if I talk about the origins of one SL I will do the same with the other before
moving to the next aspect of both languages. This way, it will be easier to appreciate
the differences and similarities of each language in order to draw the conclusions I
want to achieve.

4.1. Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

The Catalan sign language, also known as the CSL abbreviation, is used by
approximately 25,000 Catalan people, between signatory people and also listeners,
such as relatives, friends, teachers, interpreters and it is an option for anyone
interested in the subject.

9
As it has been said before, SL performs all the communicative functions with specific
linguistic structures and it is produced in gestural and visual mode. Although each SL
interacts with other languages, receives influences and incorporates new cultural
concepts each one has its own structure that differs from other SL and this is one of the
main differences we will see along with the coming topics in both Sign Languages.

Learning and using the sign language contributes to the fullest social integration of the
deaf. It is also a linguistic and cultural enrichment that widens the communicative
capacities of the entire citizenship, deaf signing, oral deaf and also listener. It is part of
the Catalan culture that we cannot deny, especially if it is a language because we all
know that every language has incorporated the history of its society and in each word
of its vocabulary we will appreciate this aspect. No matter what we do, every word, or
in this case every sign by itself will tell us what happened ages ago.

4.2. American Sign Language (ASL)

American Sign Language is a natural visual/gestural language developed over time by
deaf people contrary to common belief. ASL is not a visual code representing English.
It is a unique and distinct language; one that does not depend on speech or sound.
Until now, we can say that every SL considers itself a proper language that is a rule-
governed system using symbols to represent meaning.

ASL is the shared language that unites deaf people in what is known as the Deaf
community of America. The Deaf community is not bound by geographic borders, but
rather by those who elect to, by their will; join the cultural identity of Deaf people. It is
difficult to give an accurate number of how many people are in the Deaf community, but
According to Ross E. Mitchell’s research done in February 2005 in the United States,
the number of people with severe hearing impairment and deaf people in the USA is
anywhere from 9 to 22 out of every 1000 people. Other researchers believe that
approximately 10 percent of the general population has some degree of hearing loss
and that 1 percent of that number represents deaf people, a total of about half a million
people in the Deaf community around the world.

4.3. CSL background

Henri Wittmann (born 1937) is a Canadian linguist from Quebec known for his work on
Quebec French. He suspects that CSL may be part of the French Sign Language
family, along with Spanish SL, Quebec SL, Irish SL, Flemish SL and surprisingly ASL.

10
Although this can be possible, the transmission to Catalonia would have happened
early and is not easy to demonstrate this relationship. Yet, this marks a possible
relationship between ASL and Catalan SL.

The Federation of Deaf People in Catalonia (FESOCA) is a non-governmental

organization (NGO) which represents the Catalan deaf
community and its affiliated associations, offering their
services to all of them. This federation was founded in 1979
when its fight for the legal recognition of CSL began.
The first step took place in 1994 when the Parliament of
Catalonia passed a bill on the promotion and diffusion of the
knowledge of the CSL. This motion law of CSL recognized
4. Logo of the non-
governmental organization Catalan Sign Language and urged the authorities to protect
(FESOCA)
and ensure its use.

Law 27/2007, of 23 October, which recognizes the languages of Spanish signs state law
recognized in article 1 Catalan sign language as the language of the deaf, hearing-impaired and
deaf-blind Catalonia.

16 years later, In May 2010 The Parliament of Catalonia passed another bill; the Law of
the Catalan Sign Language which recognizes the language system as the deaf and
deaf-blind people in Catalonia regulator of education and it guarantees its protection.
Also, the law guarantees the use of this language in public administrations. It states
that the Government shall recognize and publicize the Institute of Catalan Studies and
the academic institution must determine the rules and drive new research.

Law 17/2010, of 3 June of Catalan Sign Language Law, regulates the main aspects of the
development of the CSL, such as system language of deaf and people who use signs in
Catalonia.

In 2013 the Social Council of the Catalan Sign Language came into force, which is the
body of advice, consultation and participation in social language policy of the
Government with regard to the CSL, a body created in 2011.

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4.4. ASL background
Sign Language was introduced in the USA in 1864 by Gallaudet University in
Washington.
Information about deaf people in America came to light in the 19 th century and it
suggests that SL was brought by native signers to America.
This situation began to change in the early 1800s when
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet travelled abroad because he had
heard that successful methods of educating deaf children
were being used in Europe and he was eager to learn these
teaching methods. His objective was to bring them back to
America so that he could open a school for children who
were deaf. Until then, there had been no school or institution
for the deaf. 5. Portrait of Thomas Gallaudet,
who founded the first U.S. school
for the deaf.

Gallaudet moved on to the Royal Institution for the Deaf in

Paris. He studied French signs and methods of teaching deaf children using sign
language. When Gallaudet was ready to return to Hartford, he contracted with Laurent
Clerc, a graduate of the Royal Institution and one of the best teachers at the school in
Paris, to return with him to America. Clerc was the one who brought French Sign
Language to the United States to intermingle with existing sign languages. This
confirms the relationship that exists between ASL and French sign language and the
possible relationship that the first one can have with CSL. Gallaudet and Clerc
established the first permanent school for deaf children in the United States. The
school opened in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817.
The most important part about this is the fact that it helped to create, develop, and
nurture an enduring sense of community - the Deaf community.
American Sign Language, formed of a fusion between sign languages already in
existence including FSL, and did what most languages do: it evolved. Currently, it has
evolved into one of the richest sign languages in the world. All of this thanks to
Gallaudet, to early deaf pioneers, to the French signers, and for the conditions there in
the United States that have nurtured ASL.

After searching for the roots of both languages I can point out easily that ASL has a
specific cause for its creation and how it came across oceans to become one of the
most used languages in America. On the other hand, unfortunately, I could not find the

12
real story behind the initiation of the creation of SL in Catalonia besides the laws that
were imparted in the name of the deaf community. This leads me to understand that
Catalan sign language was born like any other SL, from the existence of deaf people
but its recognition was thanks to the needs of this community.
Is this one of the reasons that confirm my hypothesis? Probably, because, finding out
about the origins of this language is an important piece in this project but unfortunately
we lack this information.

4.5. Types of CSL

When I first started getting to learn about ASL I found out about the different Sign
languages used only in America which are more than two. However, when I tried to
search for the types of SL in Catalonia I found that it only uses one which is the CSL.
That is, Catalonia is monolingual in terms of sign language even though it has the
situation of bilingualism in the oral spoken language between Catalan and Spanish.

With CSL, all deaf people in Catalonia are taught to read and write the oral language.
They are all at the same level when it comes to the understanding of the OL not like in
America where you have to learn a specific kind of SL in order to learn the oral
language.

Sign language in Catalonia is so unique that it is difficult to find remarkable similarities

among other sign languages in Spain. Catalan Sign Language, Valencian Sign
Language (VSL) as well as the Spanish Sign Language (SSL) dialects used in eastern
Andalusia, Canary Islands, Galicia and Basque Country are the most distinctive
lexically. Only the Catalan and Valencian SL share less than 75% of their vocabulary
with the rest of the Spanish dialects which makes them seem almost different
languages from the Spanish Sign Language. This distinction is so remarkable that
some linguists consider both these and the SSL three variants of polymorphic sign
languages.  
      
This new information made me consider changing my hypothesis because I find it
strange that Spanish and Catalan Sign Languages are considered completely different
sign languages when they are so close to each other. What would make ASL and CSL
have something in common when they are apart from each other?
I have mentioned before that the geographic borders are not the key when it comes to
the origins of sign languages. But, still, I hoped that at least Catalan and Spanish
Signers could have something in common. Shortly, after writing this I remembered the
issue going on between Catalonia and Spain since the fall of Barcelona into the hands

13
of Spanish and French armies on September 11, 1714, and the end of their traditional
self-rule and national identity. This makes Catalonia eager to get its independence and
have nothing to do with Spain.
After pondering about it I understood that this can, actually, open doors for me to find
more similarities with the American SL. Since CSL has nothing to do with SSL, the
influence has to come from somewhere. Can ASL be this influence?

4.6. Types of ASL

As mentioned before unlike the Catalan sign language the American has three main
forms of Sign Language currently used in the United States: American Sign (ASL),
Pidgin Signed English (PSE) and Signed Exact English (SEE).
I am going to explain the last two since the first one has already been explained.

English Signed Pidgin (PSE) or Signed English

The PSE is probably the most widely used means of communication in the United
States between deaf and hearing people who work with them. It is directed especially
to those who become deaf later in life. Its vocabulary is extracted from ASL but follows
the English word order. It is easier to learn than ASL or SEE since one does not need
to include any terminations in English to master the structure or idioms of ASL.

Signature of Exact English (SEE)

SEE is based on the ASL signs and is expanded with words, prefixes, times and
endings to give a clear and complete visual presentation of English. It is often used in
teaching, so deaf kids can learn English grammar and syntax better. Learning this
system of signs based on English may be more comfortable for English speaking
parents. We can say that this signing system is basically English with your hands.

All these variations of SL are present in the United States. However, ASL is the
trendiest due to its encouragement to deaf people to create their own community and
be proud of their language. Nevertheless, everyone can choose the variation that suits
them better.  

4.7 Comparing SL grammar

Before starting this project I thought that the major difference that there could be
between those two languages it has to be in their structure and grammar, although sign
languages differ from each other because of the neutral special (the specific space
where the hands form the shapes of each word in front of the signer) and visual

14
movement of the hand. Nevertheless, I thought that because English grammar and
Catalan grammar are very different, the same could happen with their sign language.
After searching for information in dictionaries of both languages I proved myself wrong:
There are more similarities than differences between ASL and CSL.
In this case, I am not going to explain each grammatical category separately but rather
together and just mention the differences. I will explain them after introducing the
minimal meaningful unit of sign language that will make the exchange of information
possible.

Signs
Signs are the basic semantic units of sign languages that give a specific meaning to
what we say according to where the hand-shape is placed, much as words are the
basic semantic units of spoken languages.
Every sign is a composite of basic components such as the palm orientation, kind of
movement, location and the non-manual gestures. These components play a decisive
role while signing because if one of these parameters changes, a completely different
sign may be formed.

When a sign is used using only one hand, the hand used is determined by the signer’s
natural dominance and that hand is called the dominant hand, while the other is called
the passive hand. The signs executed with the dominant hand are more significant
because they carry the essential information whereas the shapes of the passive hand
play a less important role, so the hand is often less carefully articulated.

The alphabet
Sign language uses the same alphabet as the spoken languages in order to provide a
visual presentation of the oral language; this does not imply that sign language is a
translation of the oral language because it is only used when there is no sign for the
word to be mentioned.
An important use of the alphabet is when it comes to Finger-spelling; its role in SL is
generally limited to proper names of people and places, brand names, and titles.
Technical terms are fingerspelled only if no sign currently exists and the term is
important to know. However, a combination of signs may be enough to carry the
concept until a more efficient sign is created by the Deaf community.
Historically, the emphasis when learning SL has always been on expressing the
message rather than on receiving it. This brings us to face difficulty when trying to read

15
fingerspelling which shows that many students lack the complete fluency on Sign
Language. They cannot develop and maintain good receptive skills.  

The following paragraphs are going to be the explanation of the grammatical categories
in SL for both Sign languages since they have more similarities than what I had
expected. Nevertheless, I will give an explanation when a category is used differently.

The verb
I find the verb the most difficult category to express due to its importance in the
sentence. In order to give the correct form of the verb and
show that it is a verb and not another grammatical category,
one should arrange the sign with the speed it has to be
executed, the direction and the placement of the hand just to
make it clear.
This does not mean that you have to sign the verb, the
object and the subject separated since it will take a lot of
time. That is why most verbs are signed along with the
6. An example of a
subject and object of the sentence so they are not signed directional verb where the
alone. These regular verbs cannot take advantage of subject is pointed out and
not signed.
variable movement and space to create modifications on the
root sign. On the other hand, it can also happen the other way round when the actual
verb uses space to incorporate both the subject and object of the sentence in the verb
sign itself. These directional verbs use movement to or from the signer to express who
or what gives or receives the action (the subject). Examples of directional verbs are:
GIVE, INFORM, DEFEND, and BORROW. Directional verbs are very efficient since an
entire sentence is expressed with the use of one sign.
In sign language the verb has four times: the present, past, future and imperative,
which are indicated respectively with the signs of "today" “before" and “tomorrow”
followed with the sign of the infinitive verb executed very fast and energetically with a
frown on the face to indicate that it is a verb.
One important thing that it is crucial in OL is the verb “be” which is usually not
mentioned while signing. For example, when we meet someone for the first time and
we ask them for their name instead of saying “what is your name?” with signs it should
be “what you name?”
The duration of action is indicated by repetition, by the speed or the amplitude of the
gesture. Thus the sign of "combing" is once: in combing for a long time is two times
slower.

16
We have to bear in mind that the figurative senses would not be as easy to understand
for a deaf signer as for a hearing person since the first group has more limited
vocabulary and that is why it is not normally used.

The Article
The determined articles are not used in sign language, in which they have no
grammatical value neither in CSL nor ASL.

Nouns
As previously mentioned, the verb and the
subject of the sentence can be signed
together; therefore their shape is formed in
a very similar way. The signs may actually
look the same because the difference in
movements cannot be shown easily.

When we sign the verb and the noun separately we can differentiate them because
7. This illustration shows the difference between the
typically the verb forms have a single large way of signing a name and that of a verb.
movement, whereas their nouns are often
signed smaller and with a double movement as we can see in the illustration above.

The signing of nouns depends on the kind of noun itself, but usually many of them are
designated by pointing out the thing to be mentioned, especially when the verb is a
directional verb.
The pronouns, on the other hand, have to be mentioned always so that other people
can understand the meaning of the sentence.

Agent markers
The first difference I found between the two SL is related to the Agent marker; the sign
that is added to something, usually a verb, to indicate the person that executes the
action.

In ASL it is also called ‘Person affix’ considering that it is referred to as the -er sign,
which marks the distinction between a noun and a verb (for example, TEACH + agent
marker=TEACHER). ASL uses the suffix (-er) for comparative form and it is made by
closing the hand and jerking the thumb upward a short distance; the superlative use
the form (-est) and it is made by a larger movement upward.

In CSL there are no suffixes added. The movements of the signs are accompanied by
appropriate facial expressions, and they can be exaggerated to show just how much

17
difference is indicated in the comparison. For example, superlatives are made with a
greater movement and beaming. On the other hand, to indicate the agent marker the
Catalan signer uses the verb followed by the word “man” or “woman” instead of a
suffix.

The Plurals
There are several ways to show the plurality of people and objects. One of the most
common techniques is to repeat the noun sign a number of times, sometimes the sign
will be moved slightly to the right while being repeated.

Some signs cannot be pluralized by

repeating the sign. In such cases, there
are several other ways to express plurals,
including adding a plural pronoun, a
number, using two hands or a quantifying
8. The ASL sign of 'MANY'.
signs (for example, MANY) to the noun
sign.

The adverbs
The most used adverbs in SL are the affirmative and denial. The adverb of affirmation
is made with a head movement and denial is done with a movement of the head and
the hand.

Comparing items
The second difference that I found is when comparing two places, objects or ideas.
In ASL all the action that goes around the comparative is more important than the sign
itself. Let me explain it more in detail: when discussing the first item being compared,
the American signer shifts the shoulders toward the right looks in that direction and
signs everything related to that item on that side of the body. Then when discussing the
second item, the signer shifts left, looks left, and signs toward the left for the other item.
This shifting continues throughout the conversation as the signer refers to either item.

While in CSL the conversation is being done as usual changing just the sign and not
the entire body. For example, the augmentative and diminutive adjectives are formed
with the sign “much” or “little” without making any other movement.

The last piece of information in the theoretical part is going to be about the evolution of
the two languages, to see how they have grown since their origins and see which role
they take in today’s society. I have found interesting information that I am going to
share below.

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4.7. CSL evolution
Currently, the integration law makes deaf children educate themselves in ordinary
schools along with hearing children. This means that not all deaf people have access to
the signed language since they are educated in the OL of their environment usually by
the decision of parents or listeners who consider the integration a better idea.

On the other hand, we have the case of Deaf people who were not educated around
OL and they face difficulties when it comes to this integration. The obvious solution is
to provide an interpreter for them so the communication between both worlds can be
possible. Nevertheless, presently in Catalonia, there are no interpreters available due
to the recession cuts.

On the other hand, there are few schools of bilingual education, where the CSL, as a
vehicular language of the deaf students, coexists with OL, Catalan. One example is the
Municipal School ‘Tres Pins’ in Montjuïc which applies a model of bilingual
apprenticeship of Catalan sign language and written and spoken the oral language. It
has been doing it since 1984 and now it is the centre of reference for the subject of
Catalan culture.

Another change that was made in society in order to include the Deaf was the creation
of their own media both in Catalonia and Washington (Gallaudet University).

As for the linguistic matters, in 2012 the Institute of Catalan Studies started a project
that consists of gathering data from CSL native signers from all over Catalonia. This
material is available on the Internet, with the hope that it can be a useful tool for the
development of materials in CSL, linguistic research and the creation of a
lexicographical database of the CSL.

4.8. ASL evolution

Today, 86% of deaf students in the U.S. are in public schools along with hearing
children. In many cases, they are the only deaf or hard-of-hearing student in their
school. There are still schools specializing in education for deaf students, but several of
them are closing. In the best of the cases, they change their educational philosophy in
order to integrate deaf children into the modern world.

The Deaf’s situation is critical but in America, the balance is in favour of suppressing
the right to study sign languages due to the majority of parents’ opinions who consider
that learning the SL interferes with what is common and necessary for the lives of their
children, which is communicating in the oral language.

19
Historically America had been the pioneer and great defender of the rights of the deaf,
especially because so many were part of this country but lately they are forcing the
deaf to adapt to the lives of most speakers, which I did not expect to happen and it is
changing my point of view in this matter.

As it has been said Gallaudet University has its own media (for instance; Bison TV).
Although a few TV channels are available for American deaf children this is not enough
to get a complete view of the reality around them. That is why captions are available on
most channels. However, the captions are an exact translation of the OL and it does
not adapt to the grammar structure of sign language.

As we already know, signs change over time as a result of the personal and practical
needs of the current users. Following the pattern of all languages, ASL is evolving to
allow quick, easy, and concise communication. Many times people prefer to use one-
hand signs because it frees the signer to use the passive hand for another activity like
holding a drink or a baby. Now, this is possible because the two-hand sign can be
adapted to only one hand.

5. FIELDWORK

The last section of this project is the fieldwork which consists of three different parts
that are going to give me enough information of the current situation of the deaf and

20
their language in both countries. This way, I can conclude the project and find out
where SL is more promoted either in America or Catalonia.

I am going to present each part with the information I could gather and give an
explanation of the results as well as the experience I went through while working with
deaf people.

5.1. Survey
In order to see the influence of sign language among the people in society, I had to
know their opinions on this matter. That is why I have decided to do a survey asking
accurate questions that would show me the sincere point of view of each person.

To do this, I used one of the available Google platforms that is 'Google forms'. I have
considered that this possibility can make my survey reach more people, and actually,
that is how it went. With the help of two classmates and friends, the survey has
reached not just the Catalan population but even American citizens.

First, I wrote the questions that I thought were necessary and correct for the work (It
will be one of the attached documents in the Annexes) after a review with the tutor and
the math teacher I formulated them in the survey and finally started sending them to
Catalan citizens as well as Americans.

I have not had any problem in this section except that the answers were fewer than
expected; the survey was answered by 35 people in both countries. This may have
happened because I had the intention that the people who did the survey would send it
to more people since it is only a link. However, it did not happen like this in this case. I
think that it would have been necessary to combine both the technological possibilities
that open many doors and the effort to go out and do it myself.

Next, I will comment and compare some of the answers that have impressed me in the
survey and I will try to deduce the current situation of sign language in today's society.

 Do you know what sign language is?

The first thing I had to learn was the knowledge that people have concerning this
subject so I have had to start with questioning if they knew what sign language really is.

21
 It may seem an unnecessary question given the globalization of information in our
times, but surprisingly a small part of the population does not know. What has
surprised me the most has been the fact that these people are actually Americans and
not Catalans where everybody marked the ‘yes’ box. This gives an unexpected turn to
my project because it can disprove my hypothesis.

Americans answer: 2 people out of 35 do not know what sign Catalans answer: 35 people out of 35 know what sign language is.
language is.

 Do you think that all deaf people use the same sign language?

Something that I did not know myself and I learnt through this project is that each deaf
community uses a different sign language. I added this question because I thought that
most people would not know the answer. Nevertheless, a good number of people knew
the answer to this question. 80% of Americans knew that each community had their
own language system and in Catalonia only 60%.

This information confirms that Americans know the situation of their deaf fellow citizens
better than here in Catalonia. Although, one possibility for this may be the fact that ASL
has different variants as we have seen, and the CSL does not have any other type. So,
this fact may have helped people to infer that there is more than one sign language.

Americans answer; 28 people knew that deaf use different SL. Catalans answer: Only 14 people knew that deaf use different SL.

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  What option do you think should be more promoted; Build more special
schools for deaf or have interpreters available in public schools?

After talking to many people about the situation of deaf people nowadays (especially in
Catalonia) I learnt that a lot of them cannot attend schools to increase their knowledge,
because on the one hand, there are not enough possibilities for adult deaf to keep
studying and on the other hand, they do not have options when it comes to public
schools since they cannot keep up with the classes due to the different way of teaching
they need.

I wanted to know if both societies were keen to help out their possible deaf classmates
so we can all have the same opportunities. The vast majority of the two countries
agreed that public schools should have interpreters available for deaf people. This
option is followed by the buildup of more special schools who dedicate their work,
especially to the deaf. In this answer, both Americans and Catalans had the option to
add their own ideas of how to make the integration of deaf people in the educational
field possible. Their answers were as creative as the following; they suggested that
people should learn basic sign language and not only provide interpreters in public
schools, also they think that special classes should be offered in public schools just for
the deaf.

American’s answers and suggestions.

More Deaf schools or mainstream schools AND have all students be educated on how to communicate
with a Deaf person.

More deaf schools don’t need to be built as the population in deaf schools is shrinking. Parents of deaf
children need to advise that a deaf school is a choice for their kid.

23
Catalan's answers and suggestions.

 Do you think that public services offer enough options for the deaf to
integrate into society?

In this case, the answers were slightly different since Catalans agreed that public
services do not provide enough options for deaf people. The interpretation I give to this
answer is that Catalans are concerned about the situation of the deaf who are not
integrated properly to their society. On the other hand, 14.3% of the American citizens
think that public services provide enough help to deaf people. One of the reasons they
gave was:

'I feel like they have tried to help people with learning sign language and have
interpreters for people who are deaf to help them communicate'

This answer is the only one that justifies the fact that it is believed that public services
offer enough possibilities for deaf people. Since the rest justify the opposite, this leads
me to deduce that in both countries, the situation of deaf people still needs to be
improved and citizens are aware of this issue.

American’s answer; 30 people deny the question and 5 people agree.

These are some of the justifications for why public services do not offer enough
possibilities for deaf people:

24
‘A translator is commonly used in large events, so it could be a struggle for deaf people
attending smaller events and they don’t know what’s being said’

‘Many services still don’t even provide an interpreter, even though it’s a law by the
ADA. There is a big lack of communication’

'No widespread use of interpreters, and the expectation that Deaf people should learn
to speak rather than hearing people learn to sign'

Catalans answer; 32 people deny this question and 3 agree.

And these are the opinions of Catalan citizens regarding this matter (Their answers are
translated into English by me)

‘When you use public transport, there is no informative screen with sign language’

‘In the world of culture, there are very few adapted shows’

‘One day I found a young deaf man on a bus and the driver could not communicate
much with him’

‘Some traffic lights make noises and not all the deaf people can hear these noises’

‘For example; the ads, I have rarely been able to see in an advertisement another
woman doing the sign language’

 Do you think that sign language is a plain translation of the oral language
or that it has its own grammar and structure?

This is one of the misconceptions I have written about in this project and I wanted to
know if it is a common mistake among people, especially whether they know where it is
more common, here in Catalonia or in America, where the Sign Language seems to be
more developed.

After revising the answers I can say that both citizens fall into this misconception that
says that sign language is just a plain translation of the oral language. As for the

25
Catalan people, 37.1% think that it is a different language with its own grammar and
structure whereas in America 51.5% think that.

This confirms finally that the sign language is better known in the USA than in
Catalonia.

Americans answer; 18 people believe that SL is a different language.

Catalans answer; 12 people believe that SL is a different language.

Here I conclude with the results of the survey and as one can see the results are quite
the expected since the Americans seem to have a better idea of what sign language
could be and the Catalans lack some information. Nonetheless, I think both countries
are concerned about the situation of the deaf among them and that is already a step
took by both societies in order to integrate deaf people.

5.2. Deaf interview

The second part of the fieldwork is a personal interview with a deaf person from
America and another one from Catalonia.

Before starting this project I have already had in mind that I wanted to learn about the
experience of deaf people leaving around us. Nevertheless, my previous idea was
different from what I ended up doing.

26
My original idea was to do an experiment with the help of a classmate. She would try to
live without her auditory and speech sense for a week to simulate the state of a deaf
person. In doing so, she would have to manage how to adapt herself to the people
around her and make herself a place in her society. The objective of this experiment
was to learn how a deaf person feels inside a hearing community, how they manage to
go through it and mostly the ultimate goal would have been to teach a hearing person
from her own experience what it is to be deaf.

I had everything planned out on how this experiment would have gone, but
unfortunately, after sharing my idea with some teachers, they advised me to not do it
because I would be getting out of my topic which is comparing SL in different countries.
The experiment would have been a good idea if it was a psychological research
project, they said, but not in this case.

I do not rule out this idea for future projects as I would like to know how the deaf person
feels about this survival challenge. And I would even like to base the project on my own
experience.

Back to the topic I am faced with; the interview of an American deaf was a little bit
tricky at first. As one can tell, it is not possible for me to travel to the USA to talk face to
face with a deaf person. I instead chose to reach them via email.

I began the search for a deaf person who could answer my questions looking for deaf
associations. In this way, they could introduce me to someone suitable for the
interview. This did not turn out as I thought since many associations did not answer my
messages.

I did not know how to contact a deaf person, but I remembered that when I started
looking for how to learn sign language on YouTube there were many people who were
deaf and were teaching hearing people how to use ASL, so I put my shoulders to the
wheel and started searching on YouTube for deaf people and sent comments to see if
they could help me out with my project.

On the one hand, I had solved the problem of how to contact a deaf American person.
This person ended up being Jenna Stewardson from her YouTube channel 'ASL Stew
life'. I sent the questions to her and she answered me straightaway. I will discuss her
answers along with the answers of the Catalan deaf person later on.

On the other hand, it was more difficult to get in touch with someone a few kilometres
away from me than with one that is on the other side of the ocean. In Catalonia, it has

27
been really hard for me to contact any person. That is why I had to resort to seeking
help that my tutor gave me immediately.

My tutor spoke with her co-worker, Elisenda, who knew some people who teach
Catalan sign language. Fortunately, we were able to contact a CSL teacher from
Barcelona who has answered my questions without any problem.

The CSL teacher is Maria R. She is a mother of two hearing girls although her husband
and she are Deaf. Maria uses Sign Language most of the time, she learnt how to talk
when she was in school, but she had never felt comfortable speaking. She then left
school and her parents took her to a deaf association where she learned how to sign.
She does not rule out the idea of using the hearing aid because she needs to hear
when she goes to the doctor or in important situations where she cannot count on
another person to translate what is happening, she needs some way to make the
exchange of information possible. The hearing aid is not a device of special interest to
Maria since she says that the sound of daily life bothers her a lot so she uses sign
language most of the time.

For both Maria and the deaf community, sign language is a language like English or
Italian and should be treated as one. For them, SL is very important and what they try
to do is to transmit it with the use they make of it and in this way also protect it from
being extinguished.
The teacher believes that SL is a very expressive language that facilitates
communication between deaf people of all countries. That is why she considers that
they should learn more than one sign language, in her case, she knows how to
communicate with CSL, SSL, ASL and would be interested in learning FSL.
As I have already said Maria is married to a deaf person but her daughters are not
deaf, nor the rest of her family and even though her daughters have learned sign
language and they use it to communicate at home, the rest of her family had never
learned SL and for that reason communication with her parents and brother is limited.
Maria is involved in an area where sign language is important, so talking to people is
almost never given and she even tries to avoid it.

Growing up she had to face the difficulties of being different from the rest of people and
try to adapt to society in some way or another. However, she has now found her place
in the deaf community and she no longer has to force herself to adapt to anyone.

28
To finish I asked her what she would change in the society in which she lives if she
could do it and she answered the following:
'I would like them to have more empathy and dedicate more time to thinking that not
everyone has the same needs'

Now, I will comment the interview I had with Jenna Stewardson from America.
Jenna Stewards uses Sign Language as well as a Hearing aid. She uses SL because it
is easier for her to express and communicate. Meanwhile, the hearing aid is to help her
to be aware of her surroundings, listen to music and support her lip-reading skills.

She personally thinks that SL in America does not have the value it deserves because
she thinks that it should be treated as the English language and not as an inferior
language.
At this point, I think that even if I thought that ASL was more developed in America, this
language still has a long way to go through no matter the place where it is being used.
What matters is that a deaf person is looked like someone who needs to get over the
fact that they cannot hear and start learning how to speak just as the rest of the
population. The Deaf community has done a great job in maintaining their language
alive and even if we want to help, the hard work will be done by them because they are
the true ones who are interested in keeping Sign language as their official way of
communication.
Next, I asked in my interview how she communicates with hearing people and the
answer was that she communicates verbally, which means that she had to learn to
speak. And also, when she is not able to speak she writes her demands so people can
understand what she wants.

That is, Jenna when growing up had to adapt to her society without getting much
support which was challenging in some ways, but, currently, she says that she is
fighting for accessibility and that she is well equipped with experience and support.

Finally, I asked her what she would change about her society regarding this matter if
she could and she answered the following:

'More respect for sign language, especially for deaf children to acquire along with
English without pushing for oralism'

5.3. Association interview

This last part of my project has the objective of knowing the opinion of people who work
with the deaf, that is, to know their way of working in more detail, especially with the

29
intention of knowing if they introduce the deaf person to the society the way there are
(i.e, deaf using sign language) or they ‘help’ them to adapt to the society by changing
some of their characteristics as teaching them the oral language instead of SL.

The same has happened in the interviews with a deaf person. This time, I could find a
generous woman who was willing to help. Her name is Stephanie Mourkakos and she
is from Florida, also she is a mother of a hard of hearing child. She made possible for
me to contact with a person who is a deaf signer of ASL. Patti Sanchez belongs to
three organizations for the Deaf community. (Florida Association of the Deaf, Deaf
Literacy Centre and Deaf CareerSource, her new business)

We did not have any problem when doing the interview which I will also comment
below with the results of the Catalan association.

The associations that Patti Sanchez works with seek to promote and safeguard the
deaf’s educational system, to promote awareness of communication difficulties and
methods, to promote the use of protective signaling devices, to serve as a watchdog of
legislation or practices that may affect Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Late Deaf individuals
among many other activities. She believes that any kind of Deaf association and not
just the ones she is affiliated with shall preserve, protect and promote the civil, human
and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

I asked about the way that these associations integrate deaf people into society and
the answer suggests that she thinks that the Deaf community does not have to be
integrated by anyone and that they have their own place in society since the Deaf
culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviours, art, literary traditions, history, values, and
shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign
languages as the main means of communication.

One of the conclusions I get from this is that Deaf people in America are not keen on
getting involved completely with hearing people, they accept their help but they prefer
to be known by themselves.

P. Sanchez considers that Deaf is equal as hearing and that they must continue to
educate the hearing society regarding this. She added that ‘Dr.King Jordan was
appointed the seventh president of Gallaudet University. He quoted ‘Deaf people can
do anything hearing people can, except hear," which became the motto of the deaf
community’

30
During my research, I found that some associations have the aim to teach Deaf how to
speak since they consider that this way their integration in society would be more
successful. I wanted to know if this option was also promoted by the associations that
Patti works with. She said that she, personally, motivates deaf and hearing to learn
sign language since she considers that in America they are diverse and each individual
knows more than two languages. So she says that she would love for every individual
to learn sign language, but at the end of the day, it is their choice to select the
communication methods.

Finally, I asked her to give me her opinion about how the situation of deaf people in
America would be improved and she explained that the deaf situation will be improved
if we never give up educating both Deaf and Hearing people. ‘If they could understand
the Deaf culture, language and resources, we would have a better-quality life. There
are many uneducated and use the wrong language such as ‘hearing impaired’ or
‘handicapped’ that it is insulting to the Deaf community’ she added.

After searching for several associations near my town and sending emails to every
association I could find on the internet, one organization answered me and that one is
FESOCA. I have sent them an email asking if they could help me by answering some
questions for my research project. They did so and here are their thoughts on this
matter.
FESOCA is the Federation of Deaf people in Catalonia. This nongovernmental
organization brings together different associations to which it represents at the regional
level. It also represents coordination and works with them in a cooperative and co-
responsible way to improve the quality of life of deaf people.
This federation works to protect the rights of deaf people and especially to help and
collaborate with the associations that are part of it. With this purpose, this organization
works in the social and political field and maintains relationships and contacts with
different institutions that have the same aims. Among the objectives of FESOCA we
have mentioned that they work to achieve equality and social participation of deaf
people fulfilling the legal framework. So, I believe that this association aims at fully
integrating deaf people into society as opposed to the purpose of the American
associations, to which Patti Sanchez belongs; they have the intention of promoting a
group of deaf people within their society itself without uniting the two parties.
Another objective of FESOCA is to work to develop the law that implies CSL in areas
such as research, spreading of the SL, and the process of linguistic normalization and
its correct use among society. Then what they are trying to do is to promote access for
deaf people at all levels of the education system, training and occupation.

31
Lastly, they also work to promote cultural activities within the deaf associations’
movement and make society aware of the needs of deaf people.
One of the questions of the interview was to know how the associations integrate the
deaf person and unlike Patti's associations, in FESOCA I have been told that the
integration is made by educating society about the situation of the deaf.
I asked also about the possibilities that the deaf person has within their society, I learnt
that in the same way as the American Association, in Catalonia they also believe in the
infinite possibilities that a deaf person has within the society in the same way that a
hearing person.

Although the integration has not yet been achieved either in America or Catalonia
because it is not easy for two societies that have two levels of life to agree on all areas
of their lives, they consider that with effort and time integration can be achieved.
Both Patti Sanchez and this federation agree to promote the use of sign language
since it is part of the deaf person's identity and it cannot only be the language used in
the same country, but also all the sign languages that the deaf person can learn.
To finish, the idea that they consider in this organization to be able to improve the
situation of deaf people in Catalonia is education by promoting typical cultural activities
of the deaf community.

6. CONCLUSIONS

My thoughts and points of view have changed along with this project. I started thinking
that I had some idea of what sign language could be and that I had the aim of showing
what it really is in this project. However, throughout this learning experience, the roles
have changed and I took the student role meanwhile the project came to life to teach
me what Sign language is. My hypothesis was obviously shaken all the way long
including many of my thoughts that I have shared from the beginning of this project,
which began back in the summer of 2017. Nevertheless, I would and will not change
any of those thoughts because they are the proofs of the evolution of this project and
actually the details that give life to it. I want the transformation of my thoughts to get to
anyone who reads it so they can move along with this document and learn as well as I
did what sign language really is.

32
My hypothesis was the following:  I thought ASL was a language that everyone knew
about in America; meaning that, Deaf Americans are more integrated into their society
without having to adapt to the hearing demands. Also, that CSL was less known among
Catalans being that Deaf Catalans have a hard time to mingle with their fellow citizens.
At this point, I cannot take this hypothesis as good or bad because basically it is badly
formulated and especially made by someone who had no idea of what sign language
is.

The situation of this language is still in the process to be determined as an official

language both in America and in Catalonia. There is still a lot of work ahead for the
deaf to make their signs be seen, although they have come a long way already.
America might have an advantage over Catalan citizens but they are still struggling to
make the integration possible. Besides this, I do not have data on this specific topic,
but due to the dictatorial regime in Spain by Franco, all form of languages foreign to
Spanish was banned so this contributes to the lack of improvement of CSL here in
Catalonia. This only means that my hypothesis is wrong because America does not
integrate Deaf people properly, but nor does Catalonia either.
In my opinion, Sign language is the case of minority languages that strive to survive in
today's generations, which means that CSL, ASL, FSL, SSL and any other form of sign
language work together to improve and it would be unfair to study them separately
because they represent the same community.

In the first part of the project, I tried to gather relevant information about SL to have a
deep understanding of this language and its users. As one can see, Sign language is
not the only method used by Deaf people, but in my opinion, it is the most interesting,
especially after learning about its history and all the struggles Deaf people had to go
through in order to keep growing as a community. Despite this fact, the majority of the
world nowadays does not recognise it as a proper language but I am sure that it is only
a matter of time for it to be known as it should be especially if all Deaf communities
work together.
Due to the Deaf people’s hard work and especially the need for deaf children to
express themselves, currently, we can appreciate this way of communication as a
language on its own. Moreover, I think that Sign language is something that we all
should know about and try to introduce in our education since it is considered a
language, too.

33
I have come to the conclusion that Sign language is a complete language. It acts like
any other language and comparing it to an Oral language is just like comparing two
foreign languages. They have differences although they are used for the same purpose
which is to communicate. The only difference is the language they communicate with.

It would be amazing if the entire world could speak the same language, but this is not
possible because we cannot even agree on choosing one president. Nevertheless, we
have done many things together that represent us as humans and one more human
thing that we should do is to respect and accept what seems different because we all
are, but we choose to put our hands together and fight against adversity.

The last thing I wanted to do in this project is to put forward ideas in order to change
aspects of the Catalan sign language that are not helping deaf people, but actually, I
am just going to give one suggestion that  I think can help not just CSL, but any sign
language.
In my opinion, education is the key and that is why I suggest for any organization to
keep promoting the teachings of their work so the rest of the society can actually be
aware of what is going on in the world.

7. LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

(ASL) American Sign Language

(SSL) Spanish Sign Language

(LSF) French Sign Language

(OL)Spoken/Oral Language

(CSL) Catalan Sign Language

(SL) Sign Language

34
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY2
 AMAT, J. S. (2015). Llengua de signes i llengua escrita en la modalitat
educativa bilingüe i en la intervenció amb l'infant sord.
 Departament de cultura de la generalitat de Catalunya. (2014). LLengua de
Signes Catalana. Barcelona, Catalunya, Espanya.
 GARCIA, C., & CODORNIU, I. (2007). Manual per l'ensenyament-aprenentatge
de la Llengua de Signes Catalana. Barcrelona : Fundació ILLESCAT.
 LEIGH, I. W., ANDREWS, J. F., & HARRIS, R. L. (2016). Deaf Culture. San
Diego: Plural Publishing Inc.
 PERELLÓ, J., & FRIGOLA, J. (1998). Lenguaje de signos manuales . Madrid:
CIE Inveriones Editoriales DOSSAT 2000.
 SANZ, M. M. (2012, març). Les construccions relatives en. Les construccions
relatives en. Barcelona, Catalunya, Espanya: Departament de Lingüística
General.
 SCHEMBRI, D. A. (2005). HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN SIGN LANGUAGES?
Deaf Australia.
 SERRAT, J., & FERNÁNDEZ-VIADER, M. d. (2012). Research into the
information referents of deaf signers. Communication & Society 25(2) , 255-
278.
 CORRAL, A. (Conductor). (2014). Sords i oïdors en una mateixa aula.
Barcelona, Catalunya, Espanya.
 TENNANT, R. A., & GLUSKZAK BROWN, M. (1998). The American Sign
Language Handshape Dictionary. Washington, DC: Clerc Books.
 WILLIAM.C, S. (2003). L'adquisició infantil de le llengües de signes. Tardor, pp.
79-92.

8.1. webgraphy
 ASHLEY, & TAYLOR. (2013, February 27). Signs of life. Retrieved August 2,
2017, from Bridging the gap between the Deaf World and the Hearing World:
https://signsoflifeasl.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/3-forms-of-sign-language-asl-
vs-pse-vs-see/
 BERKE, J. (2017, January 30). Very Well. Retrieved July 31, 2017, from
https://www.verywell.com/deaf-history-milan-1880-1046547

2
Some bibliographic and webgraphic citations are not complete because they were not
included in the documents.

35
 Generalitat de Catalunya (2017, Gener 16). Gencat.cat. Retrieved Juliol 18,
2017, from http://llengua.gencat.cat/ca/llengua_signes_catalana/llei_lsc/
 Departament de cultura. (2017, October 26). Generalitat de Catalunya.
Retrieved 11 05, 2017, from gentcat.cat:
http://llengua.gencat.cat/ca/detalls/noticia/El-Departament-de-Cultura-impulsa-
la-definicio-dels-nivells-de-competencia-en-llengua-de-signes-catalana
 Departament de Cultura. (2014). Gencat.cat. Retrieved Juliol 25, 2017, from
LLengua de Signes Catalana:
http://llengua.gencat.cat/web/.content/documents/publicacions/publicacions_en
_linia/arxius/lsc_diptic.pdf
 Enciclopèdia.cat. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2017, from El cercador de referència
català: http://www.enciclopedia.cat/EC-GEC-0519111.xml

 FESOCA. (n.d.). Fesoca. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from

http://www.fesoca.org/es/
 Generalitat de Catalunya. (2017, January 16). Gencat.cat. Retrieved Juliol 18,
2017, from http://llengua.gencat.cat/ca/llengua_signes_catalana/llei_lsc/
 Hearing dogs. (n.d.). hearing dogs. Retrieved July 28, 2017, from hearing dogs
for deaf people:
https://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/deafness-and-hearing-loss/how-deaf-people-
communicate/
 Testimonis de Jehovà. Retrieved November 04, 2017, from
https://www.jw.org/jw-vlc/testimonis-de-jehova/que-fem/publicacions/biblia-en-
llengua-de-signes/
 JOSEP, Q. (2004-2005). Futurlearn. Retrieved July 21, 2017, from
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/lsc/0/steps/13465
 Rochester Institute of Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2017, from
https://www.rit.edu/showcase/index.php?id=86

 STONEMAN, E. (n.d.). Mrs Stoneman: Sign Language Club. Retrieved January

3, 2018, from https://sites.google.com/site/mrsstoneman85/home/lessons/time-
of-day-signs
 Wikipedia. (2017, July 14). Retrieved July 15, 2017, from Sign language:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_language

 Wikipedia. (2017, December 21). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 28, 2017,

from Typing alphabet: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_dactylologique

36
8.2. Pictures
1. JAMES. (n.d.). A-Z to Deafblindness. Retrieved December 28, 2017, from
http://www.deafblind.com/card.html#dbcard

2. Wikipedia. (2017, December 21). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 28, 2017,

from Typing alphabet: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_dactylologique

3. UMER. (n.d.). Viewpark. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from

http://viewspark.blogspot.com.es/2011/05/biggest-college-protests.html

4. FESOCA. (n.d.). Fesoca. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from

http://www.fesoca.org/es/

5. LONGMAN, P. (n.d.). Pearson custom. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from

Pearson Education:
http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/wps/media/objects/2428/2487068/images/
img_ah3_p012.html

6. TENNANT, R. A., & GLUSKZAK BROWN, M. (1998). The American Sign

Language Handshape Dictionary. Washington, DC: Clerc Books.

7. TENNANT, R. A., & GLUSKZAK BROWN, M. (1998). The American Sign

Language Handshape Dictionary. Washington, DC: Clerc Books.

8. STONEMAN, E. (N.D.). Mrs Stoneman: Sign Language Club. Retrieved

January 3, 2018, from
https://sites.google.com/site/mrsstoneman85/home/lessons/time-of-day-signs

Annexes
In this document are attached all the important documents and material I had to create
in order to reach all the conclusions I was seeking in the fieldwork.

37
1. Survey

38
39
1.1 American’s answers
I have to make some clarifications about the results as some vary: The questions that
ask for an answer with an example have been added later on; therefore not all the
respondents have answered them.

40
41
42
43
More Deaf schools or mainstream schools AND have all students be educated on how
to communicate with a Deaf person.

More deaf schools don’t need to be built as the population in deaf schools is shrinking.
Parents of deaf children need to advice that a deaf school is the choice for their kid.

44
45
1.2 Catalan’s answers
In this case I have not been able to translate the answers to English, but they are in
Catalan because the survey was done in that language and the answers are also in
Catalan. I have detected that one of the answers is not as serious as I would have liked
so I am going to have to cross it out slightly. However, I consider that the rest of the
answers of this same person have been correct.

46
47
48
49
2. Individual interview
In this section I am going to put all the answers given to the individual interviews as
well as the interviews done with the association since they are quite interesting, even if
I only used some of them in my project.

2.1 Jenna Stewardson

Jenna is an American deaf who uses ASL. Let’s know more about here situation as a
deaf in the United States.

50
QUESTIONS

1. Do you use the sign language? Why did you decide to use it?
Yes, sign language makes it easier for me to express and communicate.
2. Do you use a hearing aid? In that case why?
Yes, to be aware of my surroundings, listen to music, and support my lip
reading skills.
3. Do you think the sign language in America is a language that has the
value it deserves?
No.
4. Do you think the sign language should be treated like any other
language?
Yes, it should be valued equally to English and is not an inferior language.
5. Would you like to learn another sign language? Which one?
Would love to learn British SL.  
6. Is the rest of your family deaf? If not, how do you communicate with
them? And also, how do you communicate with people who are not deaf?
I am the only deaf person in my family.  We usually communicate verbally or
written.  
7. Have you grown up between a society that accommodates to your needs
or did you have to adapt to the rest of the people who are not deaf?
I grew up having to adapt to the society without getting much support, but now I
fight for accessibility.  
8. At the moment, how is your situation? Regarding being deaf in the
modern society.
Challenging in some ways, but I’m well equipped with experience and support.  
9. What is it that would change within the society in which you live if you
could do it?
More respect for sign language, especially for deaf children to acquire along
with English without pushing for oralism.  

Jenna Stewardson

(Please write your name after finishing the questions so you can be mentioned in
the project)

51
2.2 Maria R.
Maria is a Catalan sign language teacher who also knows American and Spanish Sign
Language. She is surrounded by sign language in work and also at home.

Here are the originals questions I asked her in Catalan even though in my project I
have a summary of them in English.

PREGUNTES

1. Utilitzes la llengua de signes? Per què vas decidir utilitzar-lo?

Sí, sempre. A l’escola em van fer aprendre a parlar però mai m’hi he sentit a
gust. Al final vaig deixar l’escola i els meus pares em van portar a una
associació de persones sordes on vaig aprendre llengua de signes.

2. Utilitzes un audiòfon? Si és així, per què?

Porto audífon quan he d’anar al metge o quan he de fer algun encàrrec

important i ningú m’hi pot acompanyar, però intento no portar-lo. Els sorolls de
la vida quotidiana em molesten molt.  

3. Creus que la llengua de signes a Catalunya és una llengua que té el valor

que es mereix?
Suposo que te el valor normal. Per a la comunitat sorda la llengua de signes és
molt important i mirem de transmetre-la i protegir-la. Per al oients, no és una
llengua important, no es plantegen com és la vida d’una persona sorda fins que
no coneixen a una persona sorda.
4. Consideres que la llengua de signes s'hagi de tractar com qualsevol altra
llengua?
Sí, nosaltres intentem que així sigui, però hem de ser realistes i entendre que
molta gent no la necessitarà mai, com qualsevol altra llengua minoritària.
5. T'agradaria aprendre un altra llengua de signes? Quina?
Els que ens comuniquem amb llengua de signes tenim més facilitat per fer-nos
entendre entre nosaltres, és una llengua molt expressiva. De totes maneres,
sempre ens agrada aprendre paraules en altres llengües de signes i poder
parlar més còmodament.  Jo em puc comunicar amb llengua de signes
catalana, castellana i anglesa.  La francesa no la domino gaire,  m’agradaria
aprendre’n més perquè a vegades treballo amb gent sorda d’associacions
franceses.

52
 6. La resta de la teva família és sorda ? si no és així com et comuniques amb
ells? i també, Com et comuniques amb persones que no són sordes?

Els meus pares són oients i el meu germà també però mai es van molestar a
aprendre la llengua de signes i comunicar-se amb ells és molt complicat així
que no ens veiem gaire, només una vegada a l’any. El meu marit és sord i les
meves dues filles oients. A casa parlem en signes tot i que les meves filles
parlen entre elles.
No em comunico gaire amb persones oients fora de casa o de la feina i ho fem
sempre amb signes. Tinc sort que en el meu entorn molta gent coneix la
llengua de signes, la comunicació amb els oients que no saben llengua de
signes acostuma a ser massa complicada tot i que llegeixo els llavis i intento
parlar.
7. Has crescut entre una societat que s'acomoda a les teves necessitats o
t'has hagut d'adaptar a la resta de persones que no són sordes?
La comunitat sorda és una minoria així que, com la resta de minories, ens
intentem adaptar a la societat, però no ens ho posen fàcil.
8. Actualment com és la teva situació? Pel que fa al fet de ser sord en la
societat moderna.

Com ja he dit, tinc sort i tinc una feina que em permet comunicar-me amb
signes amb tots els meus companys. No es pot dir que estigui integrada en la
societat en general, però si en el meu entorn.

9. Què és el que canviaries dins de la societat en què vius si poguessis fer-

ho?

M’agradaria que tinguessin més empatia i dediquessin més temps a pensar en que
no tothom té les mateixes necessitats.

Maria R.

(Escrigui el seu nom després d'acabar les preguntes perquè pugui esmentar-se
en el projecte)

53
3. Association interview

3.1 Patti Sanchez

Patti is a Hispanic and deaf Council member in Hillsborough Country Diversity Advisory
Council. She is also a member of Florida Association of the Deaf and Deaf Literacy
Center and she is the owner of her new project Deaf CareerSource. Here is what Patti
shared with me about her thoughts on the deaf situation in America.

QUESTIONS
1. What are the main activities carried out by this association?

The Florida Association of the Deaf, Inc. (FAD) is affiliated with the National
Association of the Deaf (NAD) and seeks among other important things:

 To promote and safeguard the educational system for self-preservation.

 To promote awareness of communication difficulties, and methods.
 To promote in the use of communication devices.
 To promote in the use of protective signaling devices (smoke detectors, alarms
and others).
 To serve as a watchdog of legislation or practices that may affect Deaf, Hard of
Hearing and Late Deafened individuals.
 To support, with reason, all phases of various organizations and associations
working with and for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Late Deafened individuals.
 To support fully the affiliated clubs and Associations of the Deaf in Florida in
their efforts to bring about greater civic and social interaction of the Deaf, Hard
of Hearing and Late Deafened community.

2. What is your objective?

Association shall be to preserve, protect, and promote the civil, human and linguistic
rights of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the States of Florida and the United
States of America.

54
 3. How do you integrate deaf people in society?

Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values,
and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use
sign languages as the main means of communication.

4. What are their possibilities?

Dr.King Jordan was appointed the seventh president of Gallaudet University. He

quoted ‘Deaf people can do anything hearing people can, except hear,’ which
became the motto of the deaf community.  

We must continue to educate the hearing society that Deaf is equal as hearing and we
have all kinds of resources for communication. 
5. Is the integration becoming easier for a deaf person or more difficult now
a days?

I will break into two sections:

Education level:

Deaf adolescents are often faced with the additional challenge of managing these
adaptations in a hearing world, where communication and access to information,
especially about their social world, are incomplete at best and nonexistent at worst.

This transition is trying for a typical teenager, but what if the teenager has the
additional challenge of being a deaf person in a hearing world? In the United States,
one in every 1,000 children is born with some sort of hearing loss. The term “deaf” can
refer to a range of individuals from those who are profoundly deaf to those who
consider themselves hard-of-hearing. Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children find
themselves in a unique acculturative situation, where an extra level of complexity is
added to their struggle of personal development. The additional changes and
processes these children are experiencing are distinct from other adolescents.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847601/)

Employment level:

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act gives deaf individuals legal protection
against discriminatory hiring practices. According to this section of the ADA, an
employer may not use ones’ deafness as a basis for not hiring, not advancing, or
terminating employment status. Qualified deaf applicants must be considered for

55
career opportunities, so long as they meet the skill, experience, education, and other
job-related requirements of a position — with or without reasonable accommodation.

Most hearing people rarely think about deaf accommodations. When it comes to hiring
deaf employees, they are concerned that it will be a costly or inconvenient process.
Potential employers might worry that communication will be challenging, and the deaf
employee will have trouble integrating with the team. These fears are unfounded, and
they usually stem from inadequate corporate cultural sensitivity education.

The bottom line is that hearing employers simply don’t understand what it means to be
deaf, and so it seems easier to just hire a hearing person... even if they are less
qualified for the job. This is discrimination, and it’s sadly commonplace.
(https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lydia-l-callis/creating-deaf-
accessibili_b_5366652.html)

6. Do you motivate deaf people to learn sign language?

Yes, I motivate deaf and hearing to learn sign language. In America we are diverse and
every individual should know more than 2 languages. Deaf should learn sign because it
their language but also, it their choice to learn sign language. Many deaf grow up orally
and/or use cued speech that does not sign. For me personally, I would love every
individual to learn sign language but again it is their choice to select the communication
methods.

7. Can a deaf person learn more than one sign language?

Yes, they can learn more than one sign language. Deaf that live in their country like
Puerto Rico, Mexico, Columbia have their own country sign plus when then arrive to
USA, they learn ASL. I know several other countries sign language such as ASL,
Puerto Rico sign language, Mexico sign language, Korean sign language

8. How would the situation of deaf people in America be improved?

Never give up educated both Deaf and Hearing people. If they can understand the
Deaf culture, language and resources, we would of have a better-quality life. There are
many uneducated and use wrong language such as “hearing impaired” or handicapped
that it is insulted to the Deaf community.

Patti Sanchez
(Please write your name after finishing the questions so you can be mentioned in
the project)

56
3.2 FESOCA
FESOCA is a federation that groups different associations,. Some of the associations
we are:

Audiovisual diffusion centre, Home of Deaf people in Badalona, Association of parents

of Deaf children in Catalonia and Association for the diffusion of the Deaf community.
The interview has been answered by one of its members, however, no name has been
provided.

PREGUNTES
1. Quines són les principals activitats dutes a terme per aquesta associació?
En concret nosaltres som una federació, és a dir, som una agrupació
institucionalitzada d'entitats socials relativament autònomes. Les nostres activitats
queden recollides en els estatuts pels quals ens regim, es basen en la representació i
defensa dels drets de les associacions membres i de totes les persones sordes en
general per aconseguir la seva plena participació i integració en la societat actual.
Per aquest motiu l'entitat treballa en l'àmbit de la política social i manté relacions i
contactes amb diferents institucions, públiques i privades, a l'hora que forma part com
a membre ordinari de la Confederación Estatal de Personas Sordas (CNSE) i del
Comitè Català de Representants de Persones amb Discapacitat (COCARMI).

2. Quin és el vostre objectiu?

• Representar a nivell autonòmic a les associacions que la integren, coordinat i
treballant amb elles de forma cooperativa i corresponsable per millorar la qualitat de
vida de les persones sordes.
• Treballar per aconseguir la plena igualtat i participació social de les persones
sordes complint el marc legal, mantenint relacions amb els organismes i
Administracions Públiques i amb els Grups Parlamentaris, elevant quantes propostes
siguin necessàries i aportant quantes peticions, informes, estudis i suggeriments siguin
oportuns.
• Treballar per aconseguir el desenvolupament adequat de la Llei de la Llengua
de Signes Catalana (LSC). Impulsant la seva investigació, difusió i el procés de
normalització lingüística de la LSC promoure el coneixement i vetllant pel correcte ús
d'aquesta llengua.
• Impulsar el ple accés de les persones sordes a tots els nivells del sistema
educatiu, fomentant el bilingüisme - biculturalisme, promoure l'accés a la formació i

57
l'ocupació, fomentar l'autonomia i la independència de les persones sordes eliminant
les barreres de comunicació i promovent la accessibilitat.
• Potenciar i donar continuïtat als serveis d'Intèrprets de Llengua de Signes
Catalana (LSC) en tots els àmbits de la vida social, supervisar i coordinar el seu
correcte funcionament i ús lingüístic.
• Fomentar i dinamitzar les activitats culturals dins el moviment associatiu de
persones sordes i sensibilitzar la societat sobre les necessitats i demandes de les
persones sordes, a través de polítiques de comunicació i difusió.

3. Com s'integra la persona sorda a la societat?

Fomentant l’educació sobre aquest tema a la resta de la societat. Per part de la
persona sorda promoure el seu accés a la formació i ocupació d’aquesta manera pot
integrar-se a la societat ja que estarà qualificada per a qualsevol lloc de treball, sobre
tot si es fomenta la seva autonomia i independència eliminant les barreres de
comunicació i promovent la accessibilitat.

4. Quines són les possibilitats de la persona sorda dins de la societat?

Una persona sorda encara que té dificultats per integrar-se correctament a la societat
degut a que la comunicació te paper crucial, pot realitzar qualsevol activitat que estigui
al seu abast. Com qualsevol altra persona.

5. La integració de la persona sorda és més fàcil o més difícil, avuí en dia?

La integració sempre ha estat difícil ja que parlem d'un individu que no té totes les
capacitats per les que la resta del món es regeix. Per tant, estem parlant de dues
societats diferents que van a diferents ritmes i fer que vagin al mateix costa esforç i
temps. Fins al moment s'han aconseguit molts avenços i es reconeix a aquesta
minoria però encara queda feina per fer perquè puguin anar a una.

6. S’estimula la llengua de signes en l’escolarització?

Com ja hem dit un dels nostres objectiu és Treballar per aconseguir el

desenvolupament adequat de la Llei de la Llengua de Signes Catalana (LSC).
Impulsant la seva investigació, difusió i el procés de normalització lingüística de la LSC
promoure el coneixement i vetllant pel correcte ús d'aquesta llengua.

58
7. Pot una persona sorda aprendre més d’una llengua de signes?

Si considerem que la llengua de signes és una llengua minoritària com qualsevol altra
llengua parlada i que la persona sorda pot fer tot el que una persona oïdora pot, llevat
sentir. Està clar que pot aprendre més d'una llengua com una persona oïdora pot
parlar més d'un idioma.

8. Com es milloraria la situació de les persones sordes a Catalunya?

Fomentant les activitats culturals dins el moviment associatiu de persones sordes i
sensibilitzant la societat sobre les necessitats i demandes de les persones sordes, a
través de polítiques de comunicació i difusió.

FESOCA (Federació de Persones Sordes de Catalunya)

(Escrigui el seu nom després d'acabar les preguntes perquè pugui esmentar-se
en el projecte)

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