Conference Program

In the Italian public debate, deaf people are predominantly portrayed as recipients of accessibility measures rather than as active participants in decision-making processes and knowledge production. Inclusion thus tends to be framed in terms of external technical-instrumental measures (interpretation, translation, subtitling) and internal ones (hearing aids), while the issue of exclusion from the spaces where policies, priorities, and models of citizenship are defined remains less addressed.

This paper aims to describe the Italian Deaf community from an internal perspective, highlighting how forms of social injustice manifest not only in access to services but also in limited participation in educational, cultural, and institutional governance. Even the most recent legislation directly concerning the deaf community, Law 69/2021, while representing a historic step in the recognition of LIS, is nevertheless focused almost exclusively on the training and stabilization of interpreters, treating them primarily as a technical tool, without addressing more broadly the issues related to rights, representation, and the active role of the deaf community in decision-making processes; its implementation is producing ambivalent effects. Nor has it encouraged the creation of deaf spaces, such as the establishment of Italian/LIS bilingual schools, specific vocational training programs, or new fields of study in line with practices in other countries, such as training in Deaf Studies.

Many expectations that have developed over the years remain unmet, as has been the case in other countries (De Meulder et al., 2019): linguistic recognition has not automatically translated into a structural strengthening of the autonomy, leadership, and creativity of Deaf people in educational, professional, and cultural contexts. At the same time, those who did not support the recognition of LIS express dissatisfaction with the perceived imbalance of resources toward the linguistic dimension at the expense of other services.

This paper will analyze how this scenario contributes to reorganizing the field of demands, fueling new tensions and redefining political priorities. Particular attention will be given to the dichotomies that tend to polarize public discourse and which, despite the passage of time, have not seen substantial changes: deaf-mutes/deaf-speakers vs. signers/oralists; the deaf community or the signing community; gesture/word vs. sign/word; LIS vs. Italian; individual autonomy according to the hearing model vs. isolation in the “deaf ghetto.” These are oppositions that often oversimplify a far more complex reality, characterized by diverse paths and multiple affiliations, making for a more nuanced approach capable of valuing the diversity within the Deaf community (Kusters et al., 2017; Leigh, 2017; Monaghan et al., 2003), which is also evident in light of studies conducted outside the Global North (Friedner & Kusters, 2015; Green, 2024; Kusters et al., 2024).

The paper argues that the inclusion of deaf people must be interpreted as a democratic imperative: not only ensuring access, but promoting effective participation in decision-making processes and recognizing the epistemic authority of the deaf community as a competent partner in defining policies that affect it. From this perspective, the challenge is not merely to increase accessibility tools, but to rethink the relationships between representation, power, and knowledge production.