Seventy-five years, and the day is still about recognition

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The International Day of Sign Languages falls on 23 September 2026 under the theme Declaring Deaf People’s Human Rights. It marks the founding of the World Federation of the Deaf in 1951, making 2026 the Federation’s seventy-fifth year, and it sits inside International Week of Deaf People, 21 to 27 September.

Seventy-five years in, the theme is not a retrospective. The World Federation of the Deaf closes the week with a note that begins in 1951 and ends: “The work continues. Deaf people’s rights are human rights.”

Why the date is 23 September

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the day in resolution A/RES/72/161, adopted by consensus on 19 December 2017. The proposal came from the World Federation of the Deaf, was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, and was co-sponsored by 97 member states. The Canadian Association of the Deaf records that Canada was one of the 97.

The date commemorates the founding of the World Federation of the Deaf on 23 September 1951, which is why 2026 is its seventy-fifth year, and why the closing theme of the week on Sunday 27 September is 75 Years of Human Rights.

One figure we could not settle. The Federation’s own 2026 page counts 138 national member organizations. The United Nations page for the day puts the number at 140. Both were read this week and neither explains the difference, so we are reporting both rather than picking one.

What the 2026 theme is asking for

Declaring Deaf People’s Human Rights is a call to implementation rather than to awareness. The United Nations says the day calls for action to make those rights “a reality in all areas of life”, and the World Federation of the Deaf frames the declaration as requiring recognition, commitment and concrete implementation, with full access through national sign languages.

The daily themes read the same way. Monday 21 September marked twenty years of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the recognition of national sign languages. Tuesday took up the right to a quality multilingual inclusive education under Article 24 of the Convention. Thursday 24 September is titled No Access Without National Sign Language, under Article 9. Friday is Nothing About Us Without Us, under Articles 4.3 and 33. Saturday is Deaf Culture Is a Human Right, under Article 30. Each day is pinned to a numbered obligation that states have already signed.

That is the second anniversary in this year. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted twenty years ago, and Canada is a state party to it.

What Canada has put in law

The Accessible Canada Act received Royal Assent on 21 June 2019 and came into force on 11 July 2019. Its stated purpose is to make Canada barrier-free, in areas of federal jurisdiction, by 1 January 2040.

Communication is one of the Act’s seven priority areas. The federal summary of the Accessible Canada Act states that communication as a priority area includes the use of American Sign Language, Quebec Sign Language and Indigenous sign languages, and that the Act “recognizes these sign languages as the primary languages of Deaf people in Canada”. The Canadian Association of the Deaf describes it as the first federal law that clearly mentions sign languages.

Two things about that recognition are easy to miss. It covers three sign languages rather than one, and the third is plural: Indigenous sign languages, not a single named language. And it is recognition inside a statute that applies to federal jurisdiction, which means federal departments and agencies, Crown corporations, banks, airlines, interprovincial transport, broadcasting and telecommunications, the Canadian Forces and the RCMP. Hospitals, schools, provincial courts and most workplaces are provincial and sit outside the Accessible Canada Act entirely.

What the courts decided, twenty-two years before the Act

Hospitals were dealt with earlier, and by a different route. In Eldridge v British Columbia (Attorney General), [1997] 3 SCR 624, three Deaf appellants argued that the absence of interpreters in publicly funded medical care left them exposed to misdiagnosis and ineffective treatment. The Supreme Court of Canada held that the failure to provide sign language interpretation, where interpretation was necessary for effective communication, breached section 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It gave British Columbia six months to provide interpretation in the delivery of medical services where doing so is necessary to ensure effective communication.

Two findings from that judgment still do work. The Court held that the Charter reaches hospitals when they are delivering a government health programme, even though the hospitals themselves are not government bodies. And on cost, the Court recorded the estimated expense of providing the interpretation at $150,000, which it put at roughly 0.0025 per cent of the provincial health care budget at the time.

The phone call

Video Relay Service is the closest thing Canada has to a national sign language service. The CRTC describes Video Relay Service as a basic telecommunications service for people whose primary language is American Sign Language or Langue des signes québécoise. A signer connects to an operator through SRV Canada VRS, an internet and cellphone application; the operator places the voice call and relays the conversation in both directions. Voice callers can reach signers the same way.

The CRTC says the service runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that a Video Relay Service user calling 9-1-1 is placed first in line for an interpreter.

The service is run by the Canadian Administrator of Video Relay Service under a CRTC mandate. In Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2025-54, published in February 2025, the CRTC found that Video Relay Service meets the needs of Canadians who use it and should continue to be offered as a basic telecommunications service, raised the administrator’s annual funding cap to $41 million, and required it to file a five-year roadmap of service improvements.

The gap the regulator named itself

Two of the three sign languages recognized in the Accessible Canada Act can be used to place a relay telephone call in Canada. The third cannot.

Video Relay Service is offered in American Sign Language and Langue des signes québécoise. Indigenous sign languages are not part of the service. In its summary of the 2025 policy the CRTC says it “intends to launch a consultation to understand how Indigenous Sign Languages are used in Canada and assess the availability of interpreters who can sign in these languages”. No launch date for that consultation appears on the CRTC’s Video Relay Service pages.

The same policy requires the Canadian Administrator of Video Relay Service to consult users and potential users who self-identify as Indigenous and who use American Sign Language or Langue des signes québécoise as their primary language, with those consultations developed in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, and to work out how voting positions for Indigenous and Deafblind members could be added to its board.

That distance between a statutory recognition and a delivered service is documented by the regulator responsible for the service. It is not our characterization. We have written before about the communication technology DeafBlind Canadians rely on.

What is running this week

The World Federation of the Deaf runs three campaigns across the week. Shine a Blue Light asks public buildings and landmarks to be lit in blue. The Global Deaf Flag Raising asks communities, schools, associations, businesses and government institutions to raise the Deaf flag. The Global Leaders Challenge asks prime ministers, presidents, parliamentarians and local officials to sign the message “No Human Rights Without Sign Language Rights” on 23 September.

The Canadian Association of the Deaf has documented Canadian participation in the blue light campaign, with photographs of Toronto and Calgary landmarks lit in 2025. Both that page and its International Week of Deaf People page were last updated in 2025, and the week page still carries the 2025 theme and the 2025 dates, so neither is the place to check what is happening in your city this week. Provincial and local Deaf associations are.

The Federation’s 2026 page carries each daily theme with a signed video, which is the one source on any of this that is published in the language the week is about.

Frequently asked questions

When is the International Day of Sign Languages and what is the 2026 theme?

The International Day of Sign Languages falls on 23 September every year, and the 2026 theme is Declaring Deaf People’s Human Rights. It sits inside International Week of Deaf People, which runs from 21 to 27 September 2026 with a separate focus for each day. The date commemorates the founding of the World Federation of the Deaf on 23 September 1951.

Does Canadian law recognize sign languages?

Yes, at the federal level. The Accessible Canada Act names American Sign Language, Quebec Sign Language and Indigenous sign languages, and the federal summary of the Act states that it recognizes these sign languages as the primary languages of Deaf people in Canada. The Act applies to federal jurisdiction, which means federal departments and agencies, Crown corporations, banks, airlines, interprovincial transport, broadcasting and telecommunications, the Canadian Forces and the RCMP. Health care, education and most workplaces are provincial and sit outside it.

What did the Supreme Court of Canada decide about sign language interpreters in hospitals?

In Eldridge v British Columbia (Attorney General), [1997] 3 SCR 624, the Supreme Court of Canada held that failing to provide sign language interpretation in publicly funded medical care, where interpretation was necessary for effective communication, breached section 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court gave British Columbia six months to provide interpretation in the delivery of medical services where it is necessary to ensure effective communication.

Can Deaf Canadians make phone calls in ASL or LSQ?

Yes, through Video Relay Service. The CRTC describes VRS as a basic telecommunications service for people whose primary language is American Sign Language or Langue des signes québécoise. A signer connects to an operator through the SRV Canada VRS app, the operator places the voice call and relays the conversation in both directions, and voice callers can reach signers the same way. The CRTC says the service runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that a VRS user calling 9-1-1 is placed first in line for an interpreter.

Are Indigenous sign languages available through Video Relay Service?

No. Video Relay Service in Canada is offered in American Sign Language and Langue des signes québécoise only, even though the Accessible Canada Act also names Indigenous sign languages. In its 2025 policy the CRTC said it intends to launch a consultation to understand how Indigenous Sign Languages are used in Canada and to assess the availability of interpreters who can sign in these languages. No launch date for that consultation appears on the CRTC’s Video Relay Service pages.

Sources

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