Is A Standard or International Sign Language the Goal?

It is ironic that a day and week established to celebrate the diversity and richness – and prevalence – of Deaf people and their signed languages across the globe should then result in people calling for a unification of languages, an homogenisation of languages ‘to make it easier’. One of the Guiding Principles of the originator of this occasion – the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) – is Respect For Linguistic Diversity. On this, the WFD states that it ‘works tirelessly for the recognition of, respect for and promotion of sign languages as part of human diversity and aims to improve the status of national sign languages.