Many will agree with me that sign language is perceived to be the language for people with special needs. This includes people with visual impairment, hearing impairment, or mental retardation.
Sign language is a form of language which uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning, as opposed to acoustically conveyed sound patterns. This can involve handshakes, orientation and movement of hands, arms or body and facial expressions. There exist myriads of sign languages in the world. Every country has its own sign language and some have even more than one. This corrects the misconception that many hold that sign language is one and it’s international. Each country or region has its own sign language though with some similarities.
In the recent decades, there has been worldwide recognition of the importance of sign language in day to day communication. Many people worldwide have taken interest to study sign language for their respective regions or countries.
The increase in number of professional sign language interpreters and translators world over has enhanced the growth and development of sign language. The United Nations convention on persons with disability recognizes the right to use sign language and the rights of persons with disability. All this is in a bid to promote the growth and development of sign language in the world.
Despite the fact that the number of professional sign language interpreters has grown worldwide, not any interpreter can be hired to do sign language interpreting services any where across the world. This is due to the variations in sign language symbols/signs across the globe. I defying an appropriate sign language interpreter for the target audience is therefore very important.
There is need world over to acknowledge and appreciate sign language as one of the highly spoken languages in the world much as there is a difference between signed and spoken languages. When looking for a sign language interpreter, it’s important that adequate research is done before selecting the best to perform the task. It may shock many people to learn that sign language is among the most highly used languages in the world and that it differs from country to country.