Reporting on the Irish Sign Language Act 2017

2021 Report on the ISL Act

On behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the National Disability Authority (NDA) was asked to prepare the first report to the Government on the operation of the ISL Act in 2021.

To understand how the Act is working for ISL users as part of preparing the report, we consulted with the ISL community in March 2021 through:

• Online public meetings
• Online surveys
• Invitations for submissions (written or ISL)

To understand how public bodies are implementing the Act, we requested standard information from all relevant public bodies through an online survey and held meetings with those mentioned in the Act.

The final report on the operation of the ISL Act was given to the Minister in July 2021.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) also sought observations on the report from every Government department. The National Disability Authority then amended the report where corrections were needed and provided an updated version to DCEDIY in late 2021.

DCEDIY published the report in January 2023 on gov.ie. We have also published the report along with the full ISL video translation.

If you’d like to learn more about this project feel free to contact us at isl@nda.ie.

• Report on the ISL Act