On the Legal Status of Sign Language and Braille in China: Development Process and Institutional Evolution

On the 30th anniversary of the implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities, re-examining the standardization of sign language and Braille will help implement the 14th Five-Year Plan and further improve the protection system for the rights and interests of persons with disabilities. From the perspective of regulation, conception and cultivation, it is necessary to clarify the legal status of sign language and Braille in China, accelerate the development of education, and heighten the awareness of rights protection. Identifying sign language and Braille either as a part of the standard national spoken and writ-ten language or as a supplementary language can both reaffirm their actual status in the practice of language and script standardization, but the actual needs of the promotion and use of sign language and Braille have not yet been met. Only when the two are clearly defined as being forms of the standard national spoken and written language can their legal status be fundamentally consolidated, and a systematic structure for the protection of the rights and interests of persons with disabilities be realized. In order to determine the legal status of the two as being forms of the standard national language, a three-level system of "legal foundation-legislative implementation-system sup-port" should be put in place, so as to form a synergy for the promotion of national standard sign language and Braille.