Two se­nior Unit­ed Na­tions of­fi­cials, Tues­day said that every per­son de­serves the right to com­mu­ni­cate, learn, and par­tic­i­pate in so­ci­ety, ar­gu­ing that for deaf chil­dren and adults, sign lan­guage pro­vides that crit­i­cal gate­way.

In a joint mes­sage co­in­cid­ing with the In­ter­na­tion­al  Day of Sign Lan­guage, Si­mon Springett, UN Res­i­dent Co­or­di­na­tor, East­ern Caribbean and Er­ic Falt, the Unit­ed Na­tions Sci­en­tif­ic and Cul­tur­al  Or­gan­i­sa­tion (UN­ESCO) Re­gion­al Di­rec­tor for the Caribbean,  said that glob­al­ly, more than 70 mil­lion peo­ple are deaf, and over 80 per cent live in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries.

They said that recog­nis­ing and pro­mot­ing sign lan­guage is not a niche is­sue, but a mat­ter of fun­da­men­tal hu­man rights.

They said that in Caribbean small is­land de­vel­op­ing states, mem­bers of the deaf com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ue to face sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges of ac­cess, in­clu­sive ed­u­ca­tion, and civic par­tic­i­pa­tion.

“Deaf in­di­vid­u­als must be able to com­mu­ni­cate in their own lan­guage to ful­ly ex­er­cise their rights – and poli­cies af­fect­ing deaf peo­ple must in­clude their voic­es and lead­er­ship,” Springett and Falt said, adding that the UN­ESCO  World At­las of Lan­guages, which doc­u­ments more than 8,000 spo­ken and signed lan­guages, re­minds every­one that each one is part of hu­man­i­ty’s shared her­itage.

“When deaf in­di­vid­u­als are in­clud­ed, com­mu­ni­ties ben­e­fit from rich­er cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion, stronger civic en­gage­ment, and a more eq­ui­table so­cial fab­ric.”

Ac­cord­ing to UN­ESCO, ed­u­ca­tion re­mains a crit­i­cal en­try point for in­clu­sion. Sign lan­guage im­proves learn­ing out­comes and pre­serves cul­tur­al her­itage, and its ear­ly ex­po­sure sup­ports cog­ni­tive, emo­tion­al, and so­cial de­vel­op­ment.

Across the world, more than 300 sign lan­guages ex­ist, yet on­ly 78 coun­tries legal­ly recog­nise them.

“It is crit­i­cal that in the  Caribbean we move swift­ly to fur­ther ad­vance recog­ni­tion and in­te­gra­tion of sign lan­guage in­to ed­u­ca­tion,” the two UN of­fi­cial say, adding that en­sur­ing ac­cess to me­dia and in­for­ma­tion are al­so cen­tral to in­clu­sion and civic par­tic­i­pa­tion.

They said in this re­gard, the Unit­ed Na­tions sys­tem is sup­port­ing Caribbean coun­tries to ad­vance in­clu­sive dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion strate­gies.

In An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, for ex­am­ple, the UN  sup­ports the na­tion­al Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Frame­work, in­clud­ing through a pub­lic com­mu­ni­ca­tions cam­paign in­ter­pret­ed in sign lan­guage to pro­mote in­clu­sive dig­i­tal readi­ness and af­firm­ing the right to be in­formed.

Caribbean gov­ern­ments, civ­il so­ci­ety, and ed­u­ca­tors all have a crit­i­cal role to play in sup­port­ing ear­ly ed­u­ca­tion in sign lan­guage, en­sur­ing ac­ces­si­ble pub­lic ser­vices, and fos­ter­ing in­clu­sive par­tic­i­pa­tion in civic life.

They said that UN­ESCO’s up­com­ing “Knowl­edge Se­ries on Em­pow­er­ing Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties in Caribbean SIDS” will of­fer valu­able in­sights in­to in­clu­sive poli­cies, adap­tive tech­nolo­gies, and ac­ces­si­ble in­fra­struc­ture; ini­tia­tives that are all vi­tal for cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties where peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, in­clud­ing the deaf, can thrive.

“These ef­forts re­flect the UN’s shared com­mit­ment to dis­abil­i­ty in­clu­sion out­lined in the Unit­ed Na­tions Dis­abil­i­ty In­clu­sion Strat­e­gy. By recog­nis­ing sign lan­guage rights, we ad­vance hu­man rights, pro­mote in­clu­sion, and em­pow­er cit­i­zens to con­tribute ful­ly to so­ci­ety.

“Pre­serv­ing and pro­mot­ing sign lan­guage is more than a means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, it is a gate­way to dig­ni­ty, equal­i­ty, and op­por­tu­ni­ty. In­clu­sion is not char­i­ty—it is smart de­vel­op­ment and so­cial co­he­sion.

“When we recog­nise and sup­port sign lan­guages, we cel­e­brate hu­man po­ten­tial and em­brace di­ver­si­ty. When we in­clude all voic­es, we build a Caribbean that is vi­brant, re­silient, and tru­ly eq­ui­table.”

Springett and Falt said on this In­ter­na­tion­al Day of Sign Lan­guages, “let us com­mit to build­ing an in­clu­sive Caribbean, where every deaf child, stu­dent, and adult is heard, seen, and val­ued and no one left be­hind”.

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos, Sept 23, CMC –

CMC/ss/ef/ir/2025