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

[John Walker]

I would also add a line referring to the UN CRPD as Austria has ratified the convention in September 2008. The need for language appropriate education is detailed in article 24 (3b and 4).

John D. Walker

On 10 Apr 2013, at 15:02, m. miles <m99miles at HOTMAIL.COM<mailto:m99miles at HOTMAIL.COM>> wrote:

Eh, a minor language tweak to any urgent emails to government ministers:   instead of the phrase "Please keep to the international attitudes   against   deaf people..."  {which says approximately the opposite of what is presumably intended here}   it would be more useful to write:
      "Please keep to the   modern  international attitudes   concerning   deaf people...." etc     or

          "Please keep to the   enlightened   attitudes toward   deaf people..."  etc

Recorded attitudes have been   against  deaf people for long enough, without need of any government plot to chop their hands off!
[With apologies for personally being unable to write any correct sentence in German...]

m. miles

________________________________
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:46:16 +0200
From: Franz.Dotter at UNI-KLU.AC.AT<mailto:Franz.Dotter at UNI-KLU.AC.AT>
Subject: The Austrian Education and the Social Ministries use the constitution in order to discriminate deaf people
To: SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>

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<mailto:claudia.schmied at bmukk.gv.at>
and Rudolf Hundstorfer (social affairs) briefkasten at bmask.gv.at<mailto: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<mailto:firstname.lastname at uni-klu.ac.at>

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