The World Assembly,
Noting the existence of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals,
Further noting that these individuals can experience discrimination that are otherwise unknown in a populace of hearing individuals,
Hoping to bring attention to this discrimination, and attempts to relieve it,
And reaffirming that, while many may believe that deafness is an insurmountable disability, it is no more insurmountable than any other natural characteristic which makes an individual unique,
Hereby,
- Defines, for the purpose of this resolution:
- "deafness" and any linguistic variations thereof as the condition of having partial or total lack of hearing which directly impairs one's ability to communicate using verbal or audial language;
- "hearing" as the state of not being deaf;
- "non-audial language" as any method of communication capable of demonstrating complex thought and having a distinct grammatical structure that does not use verbal or audial speech, especially using gesticulatory motions;
- "community of non-hearing individuals" (henceforth known as "CNHI") as any community consisting of deaf individuals and those related to them, with a distinct culture that is centered around the celebration of ones deafness;
- "child of a deaf adult" (henceforth known as "CODA") as any individual under the age of majority who is hearing, but is under the primary guardianship of one or more deaf adults;
- "school for the deaf" as any school, classroom, or other educational facility which specializes in the education of deaf children, especially using a popular local non-audial language;
- Establishes the International Institution of Non-Audial or Sign Languages (henceforth known as "IINASL" as a subcommittee of the World Assembly Language Society, and tasks the IINASL to:
- directly work with national and international CNHIs in order to determine modern and historical non-audial languages and create a database of these languages, which shall note the grammatical and linguistic structure of the language, as well as common local and international vernacular variations that have arisen from them;
- create easily accessible resources that can help newly-deaf individuals and educators of the deaf to learn or teach these languages;
- Requires one or more school for the deaf to be established in every member-nation, which shall be granted the same supplies and resources of other schools in the nation, with alterations made as needed in order to maximize the effectiveness of the education towards the deaf children, with sufficient capacity to hold all deaf children or CODAs that wish to attend them;
- Directs member-nations to supply funding, transportation, and housing for deaf students to attend these schools, as well as their families, should the distance or cost of the schools be overly burdensome on the deaf children or their families;
- Forbids member-nations from making these schools for the deaf difficult to access, or to put an undue burden on deaf children who will attend it or their families, so as to prevent attendance to these schools;
- Recommends that these schools for the deaf use the IINASL database of non-audial languages as an aid in education;
- Exempts nations which have no deaf individuals within their nation, but, should deaf individuals become present in the nation, that these schools are to be established in a timely manner;
- Requires that schools for the deaf have a class or period which students may opt into which shall teach deaf students how to speak audial languages;
- Forbids nations, schools, or other organizations from requiring deaf students to learn how to speak audial languages;
- Subject to World Assembly legislation, allows parents of deaf children to decide where their children will go to school, but strongly urges them to consider sending their deaf children to a school for the deaf;
- Subject to World Assembly legislation, allows parents of CODAs to determine where their children will go to school, even if they wish for their child to attend a school for the deaf;
- Affirms that deafness is not grounds for discrimination, and that deaf individuals are granted the same immunity under national and international laws as hearing individuals;
- Clarifying, however, that in a setting of employment, employers may decide that a deaf individual is not suitable for the job at hand, so long as the deafness will provide reasonable threat of physical or psychological harm to either the deaf individual or other people, or where hearing is an absolute necessity for the sake of the job;
- Requires national and international announcements and edicts to have either a transcription of the text of the announcement, or a translator present who will translate the text of the announcement into a local, well-known non-audial language.
