Right to use sign language in educational programmes

We, Deaf, denied any discrimination created by the single one and oppressive socio-medical vision - called AUDISM -, which is source for us, of prison, depreciation and negation of our identity.
Indeed, if the audists consider that deafness is an infirmity, a suffering to be looked after, a sensory lack to repair, and that it is necessary to act very precociously on this deficience, us, Deaf, let us not perceive like that, and wish to express it highly but proudly.

This proclamation is a vibrating manifest to express once again that we are Deaf, yes, but not disabled people. We don't want to be seing under this single aspect of repair which alienates us mentally and intellectually, summarizing us with a simple stereotype of auditive deficient individual.

To be able to affirm us like “other” but certainly not “less”, we must be opposed to this reducing current of thought. We must mobilize ourselves together to rehabilitate, in its right social, political and public place, deafness.
Deafness is a report, it supposes an exchange between two, and it reveals a not shared communication. It is quite simply only that at the beginning.
Nobody is deaf alone, one is it in relation to the other.
And it is this view of the other which it is urgent to correct.


MANIFEST OF SURDISM


The surdism is an artistic, philosophical and cultural movement which wants to be carrying militant values against the obscurantism still of topicality which make us prisoners, us Deaf, of judgements, and especially of a destiny, on which we do not have really the right of signs.

The surdism is thus a claim, and a catch of signs in public space, and for this reason, it must thus be clearly written, read, signed and shared to exist.
This is why this proclamation translates obviously this act of emancipation which refutes the point of view dominating and critic who is the audism.
It is a intellectual and artistic movement, “Deaf pi”, which we mean:

- we, surdists, let propose to express ourselves by literature, theater, cinema, painting, sculpture or any other form of expression, by exploring all that touches, of near and by far, with deafness and the Deaf people and their place in social space.

- let us assert our movement like carrier of creativity, of inclusion, complementarity and mutual enrichment.


- we will mobilize ourselves artistically to create a frame of mind of deafhood which wants to be an attitude, being able to be shared by all.
Provided that linguistic specificity is recognized and accepted with right value, and provided that the equality and respect, communication and exchange values are shared.
We thus want that the surdism creates and stimulates a deafhood at the other; that it is a bridge between you and us, a link that each one can cross freely.

- let us defend we and we thus mobilize ourselves by our artistic means, without ambiguities, to make place with this linguistic and sociocultural specificity of the deaf community.

- let us assert we the artistic expression on, of and by the Language of the Signs like a hyphen social, and not like a linguistic and cultural cleavage.

- let us pay we homage to those which defended and carried our potential, to considering and with known of all, in spite of and against barriers, through the Deaf History.
Known or unknown, they carried the faith of the surdism to us, even without naming it explicitly. We must redefine it, to connect to us, and to work to make visible and real our social place.


The surdism wants to be a collective movement international and carrying a positive, constructive, militant and inclusive philosophy, so those which share these values, join us!
Let us denounce the prejudices, stimulate our creativity and call upon a new Community force in the spirit of universality, beyond our national borders.

Fellow-members, express us in the surdism!


The audism disparages,
The surditude accommodates,
The surdism reveals.