President Luis Abinader was present at the Las Cariatides Hall of the Presidential Palace for the enactment of the Sign Language Law in the Dominican Republic. Sign language now is an official language for the hearing impaired in the country. The law had passed in Congress on 20 July 2023.
Legal consultant of the Executive Branch, Antoliano Peralta explained: “The law commits the government to promote and support research, teaching and dissemination activities of sign language and the integration of interpreters and interpreter guides for access to public and economic services of general interest.”
The same law mandates the ministries of Education and Superior Education to promote bilingual education, based on Spanish and sign language, and create training and learning programs for teachers and administrative staff.
The law calls for the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government to promote the use of sign language in news programs, documentaries, cultural, and educational, in the airing of sessions of the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies and in the messages of the national and municipal authorities.
The legal consultant specified that another of the innovations of this law is the institutionalization of a service of interpreters and interpreter guides, which will now fall under the accreditation of the National Council on Disability (CONADIS).
Peralta said that the law was not an original initiative of the Executive Branch, but of PLD legislator Tobias Crespo. Nevertheless, the Presidency assumed it as if it were its own and announced full government commitment to its implementation.
Read more in Spanish:
Presidency
2 August 2023