First international standard for sign language published
Sign languages have been included in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for the first time. This is a crucial step towards their political recognition and the development of professional training standards.
The descriptors for sign language published in the online version of the CEFR are the result of an SNSF project carried out by Jörg Keller, Petrea Bürgin, Aline Meili and Dawei Ni at the ZHAW. They currently comprise seven scales for the communicative language competences, while scales for the receptive language competences will be added this spring. A printed version of the updated CEFR is planned for summer 2018.