Response to interpellation 2025/26:256 on the right to sign language throughout life
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that the government has a clear ambition to strengthen the opportunities for persons with disabilities to participate in social life 1 and that a well-functioning interpreting service is a fundamental prerequisite for this 2. M emphasizes that the public is responsible for protecting and promoting Swedish sign language according to the Language Act 1 and that the regulatory framework for mother tongue instruction remains unchanged 3. M argues that the government does not intend to investigate sign language as a national minority language since it already has an official status 1. M emphasizes that Äldreomsorgslyftet provides opportunities for language development in the workplace 3. M considers that every sector has a responsibility for accessibility in order to achieve equal living conditions 2. M emphasizes that it is important to highlight issues concerning persons with disabilities and rectify deficiencies 4. M argues that sign language education for students who are deaf or hard of hearing in primary school needs further discussion 4. M emphasizes that all ministries and ministerial portfolios bear responsibility for disability issues within their respective areas 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Nadja Awad has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to ensure that deaf people receive equal rights and to ensure the right to Swedish sign language. She has also asked me if I and the government intend to recognize Swedish sign language as a national minority language and if I and the government intend to make the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into law.
Sweden's disability policy is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This means that persons with deafness shall have the same rights to language, education, information and participation as everyone else. It is a matter of democracy and human rights.
The government has, with a clear ambition to strengthen the opportunities for persons with disabilities to fully participate in social life, taken several measures to create better conditions for an equal and accessible interpretation service throughout the country. For example, the government has tasked the Agency for Participation, MFD, with establishing a national function for the coordination of the interpretation service and allocated 41 million kronor per year from and including 2025 to the regions to expand the coordination of the interpretation service.
According to Sections 9 and 14–15 of the Language Act (2009:600), the public has a special responsibility to protect and promote Swedish sign language and those who are deaf or hearing impaired, and those who for other reasons need sign language shall be given the opportunity to learn, develop and use Swedish sign language.
The question of sign language as a national minority language was raised in the report of the Minority Languages Committee (SOU 1997:192). The investigation found that sign language already had an official status as a language in Sweden and that a ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages would not lead to any additional support for the language. The investigation therefore made the assessment that sign language would not be covered by Sweden's ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Against that background, the Government does not intend to investigate whether sign language should be recognized as a national minority language.
The Government has not made a decision to incorporate the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into Swedish law. Sweden has, however, received recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding incorporation. These recommendations are currently being prepared within the Government Offices. The Agency for Participation has also received a specific assignment linked to the recommendations, which will constitute an important part of the continued preparation.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! Sweden recognized Swedish Sign Language as early as 1981, but over 40 years later, there is still a lack of a national policy that guarantees that deaf people today are not systematically excluded from education, the labor market, healthcare, democracy, and rights, even though the rights are enshrined in laws and conventions such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The state continues to treat Swedish Sign Language as a communication aid, not as the full-fledged language it is. From this starting point, Swedish Sign Language has not been recognized as a national minority language.
The Minister says today that the government does not intend to investigate whether Swedish sign language should be recognized as a national minority language. Why does the government not want to see Swedish sign language as a full-fledged language but only as a communication aid?
Education for the deaf cannot be reduced to support measures but is about the right to language from early childhood and throughout the entire education system. Today, deaf children do not receive instruction in their language because Swedish Sign Language is not covered by the mother tongue right. The special school is not accessible via free school choice, and deaf youth are prevented from attending the high school program they want because Riksgymnasiet applies a limit of four applicants and the Education Act lacks clear language guarantees. There is also a shortage of both teachers with sign language and deaf competence and learning materials in sign language. All of this leads to delayed language development, language deprivation, and unequal life chances.
How will the government ensure equal education regardless of location and an education system built for students with sign language as their first language?
Working life is still designed based on hearing as the norm, which is important to address now that the Minister for Employment is also in the chamber. This creates structural barriers for the deaf. The self-financing principle, which makes interpreting services a cost for the employer, contributes to the fact that there is no change for the deaf on the labor market. Furthermore, the interpreter support for interpreters in working life was almost halved in 2025, which has led to fewer interpreting hours, rejections of meeting interpretation, and employers who refrain from hiring or including the deaf. This affects the deaf's opportunity for work and long-term livelihood as well as their opportunity to make a career.
This is discrimination and a significant loss of competence for society. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to prove discrimination since there is no legislation regarding discrimination based on language or hearing. DO only takes up cases concerning accessibility, not language or hearing.
Furthermore, health and care are compromised when staff lack sign language competence and interpretation is not guaranteed, which affects both patient safety and self-determination.
The Minister says that the government has tasked the Agency for Participation with establishing a national function for the coordination of the interpretation service. We in Vänsterpartiet do not think that is sufficient. Based on the latest interpretation service investigation, which we were involved in appointing, we want the public support for interpreters in the working life to be gathered at Arbetsförmedlingen within the framework of a special initiative on grants for interpreters for the deaf.
It is also worrying that the state wage subsidy for employing persons with disabilities has stagnated.
How will the government ensure that deaf people are not discriminated against in the labor market?
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Nadja Awad for the question.
In my profession as a teacher of Swedish and English, I have devoted the greater part of my working life to precisely language development in children and young people, so I am very well aware of what it means to have the right conditions for language development.
The provision that students shall be offered mother tongue instruction cannot be disregarded by municipalities or individual school providers. I want to emphasize that the regulatory framework has not been changed in any way; it is, on the contrary, unchanged. The Government has therefore not made any decision regarding changed rules that would make it impossible to provide instruction in sign language as a mother tongue. Someone who has a mother tongue other than Swedish, belongs to one of the national minorities, or uses sign language shall be given the opportunity to develop and use this language. It is the public sector that is responsible for this, and it stands very clearly in the Language Act. Students who have a right to mother tongue instruction shall receive it. A student who has a guardian with a mother tongue other than Swedish shall be offered mother tongue instruction in this language if the language is the student's daily language of communication in the home and the student has basic knowledge of the language. It is therefore the Language Act that I am seeking to clarify.
From January 1 of this year, a new public service mandate came into force which further strengthens Utbildningsradions responsibility for programming in national minority languages and sign language. This makes the dialogues and the ongoing work a central part of the democratic infrastructure.
It was also turned towards care, and elderly care is a priority issue for the government. That the staff has the right competence is central for quality and safety in elderly care. At the same time, it should be mentioned that the supply of competence is a major challenge for our municipalities. The initiative Äldreomsorgslyftet aims to strengthen competence within municipally funded health and elderly care by giving new and existing staff the opportunity to educate themselves during working hours.
Funds from Äldreomsorgslyftet may also be used to give staff the opportunity to attend courses in care and nursing Swedish and courses linked to language in connection with other training conducted within the framework of Äldreomsorgslyftet. Funds may also be used for language development in the workplace and language-developing methods, such as training employees to become language ambassadors. New and existing staff at workplaces where there is a significant need for Swedish sign language shall also be given the opportunity to attend courses in Swedish sign language during working hours.
These are therefore news that provide an additional opportunity to strengthen the quality within Swedish health and care.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I have several things I want to bring up, but I will start with Äldreomsorgslyftet. I am the spokesperson for Vänsterpartiet on elderly care issues. We have welcomed Äldreomsorgslyftet, but we have not perceived it as the government sending any signals to the municipalities and regions to specifically invest in Swedish sign language.
The need for competence will be enormous in the future for a number of different languages, but above all for Swedish Sign Language. If one cannot communicate with a care recipient who is deaf, it is quite frankly discriminatory. I wonder if the government intends to send signals to the municipalities about incorporating Swedish Sign Language into the Äldreomsorgslyftet in the workplace. That was my first question.
My second question is linked to education for the deaf. I did not mean that the government has made a change that has led to deaf children not receiving instruction in their language because sign language is not covered by the right to mother tongue. That has been the case for a very long time. What I meant was: Does the government intend to make any regulatory change to ensure that Swedish sign language becomes part of the right to mother tongue? Will special school be made available via free school choice, or is it again just a municipal matter? What signals does the government want to send?
That Riksgymnasiet in Örebro, which is the only national upper secondary school for the deaf, has a limit of four applicants is also exclusionary. At least four applicants are required before one even considers whether an applicant is allowed to attend a high school program there. We cannot have such a limit.
The Education Act needs clear language guarantees to ensure that Swedish Sign Language receives the same value as the Swedish language. This also requires that we have teachers with sign language competence and learning materials in sign language. What does the government intend to do in this matter?
We know that cuts are occurring in schools across the country – the largest in 30 years – and that qualified staff is lacking. Many have left the school system and are working in everything except that. How are we to lure back the teachers who have sign language and deaf competence to the Swedish school? And how do we ensure that more are trained?
Then I received no answer regarding what the government thinks about the interpreter service investigation's proposal to centralize the general support for interpreters in the working life at Arbetsförmedlingen within the framework of the special initiative for grants for interpreters for the deaf. It would truly ensure that more people receive interpreter support in the working life.
We also need to increase the state wage subsidy so that small businesses can employ deaf people and other people with disabilities.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! An important part of the budget announcements that the government gave during the autumn was that even persons and staff within LSS are now covered by Äldreomsorgslyftet. This means that we can see that it is a broader initiative. It has been very much in demand among LSS staff to have the opportunity to undertake that educational journey.
The money is now in place, and work is being done to ensure that the information is available to the municipalities. Then it is up to the municipalities as the primary authorities to make use of the opportunities that the money and the initiative provide. I naturally have high expectations, because when I travel around the country, I think I hear that it is in demand. There is also a strong need to do this. It is important there that we do not continue to see what is sometimes all too frequently occurring, namely that it looks a bit different in our municipalities. Here, an initiative needs to take place broadly across the entire field.
A well-functioning interpretation service is incredibly important so that people are not excluded from society. I believe we all agree on this. The interpretation service is a fundamental prerequisite for persons with deafness, hearing impairment, or deaf-blindness to be able to be citizens with exactly the same rights and obligations as others and have a functioning and independent life in our society.
Access to a well-functioning interpretation service is not only a matter of human rights but also a linguistic and disability policy issue. As I have said before, the government has a clear ambition to strengthen the opportunities for persons with disabilities to participate fully in social life and has therefore decided to establish the national function for the coordination of the interpretation service.
The Government considers that a unifying resource for long-term follow-up and quality development of the interpretation service is an important starting point for a well-functioning interpretation service that can meet the needs. It is also very clear that we need to have a way in connected to the regions. In the meetings I have had, it has been clear that a large part is about having to speak with many different actors to gain access to the interpretation service that one is entitled to.
Just these items are parts of the interpretation services investigation that the member referred to. Other parts are still being prepared and reasoned through within the Ministry of Social Affairs. This is an ongoing work, but we have handled and proposed the first parts of the interpretation services investigation in accordance with what I perceive the investigation proposed.
Following the work of the national function will be an incredibly important part of the government's follow-up of the interpretation service. That being said, it is important to remember that the principle of responsibility and funding means that every sector in society has a responsibility to ensure that the activity is accessible to everyone, including persons with disabilities. It is part of the work to achieve equal living conditions and full participation in society for persons with disabilities, in a society that is to have diversity as its foundation.
Then there are many questions here that are quite large. How we attract staff back to the school is a comprehensive issue. Several other of the questions that the member raised are very clearly questions that the Ministry of Education is responsible for. I also recommend a debate with the responsible minister from the Ministry of Education linked to the purely school policy issues.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I want to start by thanking the Minister for this debate and also the previous one. It was very valuable to have them. It is the first time I have had an interpellation debate on the issue of the right to sign language throughout life, which is something I have noticed more and more in connection with my contacts with the disability organizations, not least Sveriges Dövas Riksförbund. The association highlights all parts and that they need to be incorporated into a national action plan to ensure that Swedish sign language is respected and that deaf people are not excluded from different parts of society.
I have not interpreted it as the minister considering that Swedish sign language is subordinate to the Swedish language, but somewhere one still gives it the value it has. I believe that one also needs to look at making it a national minority language, in order to ensure that we do not just see it as a communication aid for these people. It is important to investigate whether sign language can be recognized as a national minority language. I believe it would be important for this group to feel that it is recognized as a group that has a full-fledged language.
Yes, I can absolutely resume my questions regarding education and the inclusion of the deaf in the educational world with the responsible minister. With that, I would like to thank you for this debate.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you very much, Nadja Awad, for this discussion!
In general, I experience that issues concerning persons with disabilities are issues that are discussed and touched upon far too rarely in the public debate. It is important to highlight their issues and also to see the deficiencies that exist and work to rectify them. I thank you for what I perceive as a sincere commitment from the member's side, and I look forward to more such discussions.
This is a question about having the right to a language. Most children who are deaf or have a hearing impairment attend primary school today and not special schools, we can state, and then sign language is not always included in their education. We can reason further on that. But today, the National Agency for Special Pedagogical Schools offers sign language training for siblings and children of deaf or hearing-impaired people, but not to students who are deaf or hearing-impaired who attend primary school. There is much to discuss further to develop this issue.
Overall, investments are now being made in a unified interpretation service in order to facilitate the lives of people who need this type of support. Otherwise, we now continue to prepare the unified interpretation service investigation. But there are several parts to this. I have the great responsibility and the joy of being the coordinating responsible minister for this, but it is also important to emphasize that all departments and all ministerial portfolios bear a responsibility for disability issues within their respective areas. Therefore, I am glad that the member heeds the request I gave.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.