In Bratislava, on December 16, 2024, at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University, we successfully held our first conference entitled From Linguistic Isolation to Inclusion: Deaf Roma and Their Place in Society, which we organized in cooperation with FSEV and with the support of our partners RESDI, o.z., Minority Rights Group – MARIO and the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic.
Our event was the first of its kind in Slovakia, bringing together many experts, educators, representatives of non-governmental organizations, representatives of organizations for the deaf, linguists, politicians, and even a government plenipotentiary or commissioner for children and youth participated, as well as the dean of FSEV herself, who opened a space for professional discussion with us.
At the same time, we managed to connect two different worlds – hearing and deaf, so the discussions after the lectures were lively, full of new impressions, questions and ideas. Our sign language interpreters did not rest during lunch, where lively discussions continued about overcoming the language barriers of this society. Everyone who contributed provided us with a quality lecture, their experiences or examples from practice, we also received a wonderful demonstration of how social events for the deaf work.
The main goal of the conference was to highlight the importance of language inclusion, especially in the context of education, the labor market or social life, and to find effective solutions that will enable isolated deaf Roma children to participate in a full-fledged life in society, healthy self-development and growth.
At the end of the conference, due to stereotypes, discrimination or racism, a new gesture was introduced for the word Roma/Roma, which is an important step for recognizing the identity of deaf Roma, is intended to show equality, respect and esteem for Roma culture, and depicts the wheel that is found on the Roma flag. Because all people are equal and should help each other.
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE CONFERENCE
