The Austrian Education and the Social Ministries use the constitution in order to discriminate deaf people

[Franz.Dotter at UNI-KLU.AC.AT]

Dear colleagues,
 
When in 2005 the Austrian Sign language was constitutionally acknowledged, there was a curious second sentence added: "The Austrian Sign language is acknowledged. All details are  determined by law". This sentence was a puzzle from the begin, because either it was trivial (then now one would add it because it should be found after every single point of the constitution) or there was some hidden intent behind it.
Now I got the proof for the hidden intent by letters coming from "horrible jurists" of two ministries: They tell us that since there is no respective law, Austrian Sign Language cannot be established as a mother tongue in schools for deaf pupils. The jurists use the tardiness of the education ministry (this would have been obliged to develop realization laws for deaf people) as an argument that the Austrian governmen now dismisses the language rights of deaf people in the education process.
 
Therefore my urgent request: Please send emails to the two responsible ministers, Claudia Schmied (education) claudia.schmied at bmukk.gv.at
and Rudolf Hundstorfer (social affairs) briefkasten at bmask.gv.at using a text like the following:
 
"Dear minister,
 
I am deeply concerned that your ministry denies the right of deaf people to use their sign language as their mother tongue in the Austrian education system. Please keep to the international attitudes against deaf people and establish bilingual education, bilingual curricula and training for teachers in bilingual education in order to end the discrimination of the Austrian  Deaf.
 
Yours sincerely"
 
 
Thanks and Best Regards
 
Franz Dotter
 
Center for Sign Language and Deaf Communication, University of Klagenfurt
Additionally funded by: Provincial government of Carinthia
Head: Franz Dotter (hearing)
Collaborators: Elisabeth Bergmeister (deaf), Silke Bornholdt (deaf),  Luzia Gansinger (hearing), Simone Greiner-Ogris (hearing) Andrea Grilz (hearing, on maternity leave), Christian Hausch (deaf), Marlene Hilzensauer (hearing), Klaudia Krammer (hearing), Christine Kulterer (hearing), Andrea Lackner (hearing), Anita Pirker (deaf), Nathalie Slavicek (hard of hearing), Natalie Unterberger (deaf)
Administration: Friederike Wieser (hearing)
Homepage: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/zgh
Deaf server (in German): http://deaf.uni-klu.ac.at
Fax: ++43 (0)463 2700 992891 (Elisabeth Bergmeister), /992892 (Silke Bornholdt), /992893 (Christian Hausch), /992894 (Anita Pirker), /992895 (Nathalie Slavicek), /992896 (Natalie Unterberger), /992802 (Friederike Wieser)
Phone: ++43 (0)463 2700 /2821 (Franz Dotter),/2823 (Marlene Hilzensauer), /2824 (Klaudia Krammer), /2829 (Christine Kulterer), /2802 (Friederike Wieser)
Email addresses: firstname.lastname at uni-klu.ac.at
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