Notice on Promoting National Sign Language and National Braille

All provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government Party Committee Propaganda Department, Disabled Persons’ Federation, Education Department (Education Committee), Language Committee, Radio and Television Bureau, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Party Committee Propaganda Department, Disabled Persons’ Federation, Education Bureau, Radio and Television Bureau:

Sign language and Braille are special languages used by more than 30 million people with hearing and vision disabilities in China. Since the founding of New China, the country has carried out a series of standardization work of sign language and Braille, with remarkable results. In the new era, with the implementation of the National Sign Language and Braille Standardization Action Plan (2015-2020) and the establishment of the National Sign Language and Braille Research Center, two major topics, the National Standard for Common Sign Language and the National Standard for Common Braille, passed the review in 2015. After more than two years of trial and improvement, the research results, the National Glossary of Common Sign Language and the National Scheme for Common Braille, were recently standardized by the National Language Committee.

In order to promote the national common sign language and the national common Braille, the Central Propaganda Department, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the Ministry of Education, the State Language Commission and the State Administration of Radio and Television have formulated the National Common Sign Language Promotion Scheme and the National Common Braille Promotion Scheme, which are hereby printed and distributed to you, and put forward the following requirements for the promotion.

First, raise awareness, unify thoughts, and enhance the sense of responsibility and mission of promoting national common sign language and national common Braille.

National common sign language and national common Braille are important supplements to national common language. As citizens of China, people with hearing and vision disabilities have the right to use national sign language and national Braille. Popularizing national common sign language and national common Braille is a concrete measure to implement the "people-centered" proposed by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which not only protects the right of hearing and vision disabled people to use spoken and written languages, but also plays an important role in learning cultural knowledge, obtaining information, social interaction, participating in social life more fairly, realizing rights and interests equally and integrating development.

All localities should take the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era as a guide, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, strengthen the "four self-confidences", conscientiously implement the important instructions of the Supreme Leader’s General Secretary "Building a well-off society in an all-round way, leaving no one without a disability" and "running special education well", fully understand the significance of popularizing national common sign language and national common Braille, enhance the sense of responsibility and mission, and improve the promotion consciousness and initiative.

Two, clear responsibilities, work together to form a joint force to promote the national common sign language and the national common Braille.

All localities should establish organizations to promote the national common sign language and the national common Braille, strengthen the organization and coordination of the promotion work, decide major issues through consultation, collectively resolve the handling of major issues, and jointly carry out supervision and inspection of the promotion work. At the same time of close cooperation, relevant departments and organizations of the Disabled Persons’ Federation should perform their respective duties.

Disabled Persons’ Federation system, including deaf associations and blind associations, should shoulder the responsibility and take the lead in organizing and coordinating the promotion of national common sign language and national common Braille; Clear departments and personnel responsible for ensuring the investment of funds; Do a good job in training hearing and vision disabled people who use sign language and Braille in society; Relying on professional institutions, we will train professionals in the field of public service and strive to create a barrier-free communication environment for the disabled.

Language and writing departments should effectively take sign language and Braille work as an important part of language and writing work, incorporate it into planning and unified deployment, strengthen business guidance and technical support, and give necessary financial support if conditions permit.

The education department should arrange for teachers and students with hearing and visual disabilities to learn the national common sign language and the national common Braille, and encourage schools at all levels to explore scientific teaching methods to ensure a smooth transition and transformation.

The administrative departments of press, publication, radio and television should widely publicize the national sign language and the national Braille in various forms, increase the training of sign language translation of TV programs, incorporate the reading promotion of the national Braille into the reading activities of the whole people, and take effective measures to implement the requirements of using the national sign language and the national Braille in national official activities, television and online media, public services and information processing.

Three, combined with the actual situation, make a plan to ensure the realization of the promotion task.

The National Universal Sign Language Promotion Program and the National Universal Braille Promotion Program define the mission objectives, implementation steps, main measures and guarantee conditions for promoting the use of national universal sign language and national universal Braille by 2020. China has a vast territory and complex dialects, and the level of economic development and educational development vary from place to place. It is necessary to formulate a road map and timetable for popularization with local characteristics, taking into account the actual situation, the number and distribution of hearing and vision disabled people, the status and distribution of educational resources, dialect characteristics, economic strength and other factors, so as to ensure the completion of the phased task of popularizing national common sign language and national common Braille by 2020.

Central Propaganda Department China Disabled Persons’ Federation Ministry of Education
State Language Committee State Administration of Radio and Television
June 18, 2018

National universal sign language promotion program

This promotion plan is formulated in accordance with the 13th Five-Year Development Plan of the National Language and Character Undertaking and the National Action Plan for Standardization of Sign Language and Braille (2015-2020).

I. Mission objectives

By 2020, the social awareness of the national common sign language will be improved, and the atmosphere of using the national common sign language in national official activities, school education, television and online media, book publishing, public services and information processing will be initially formed; Basically complete the national common sign language training for relevant personnel in special education schools, key personnel in organizations of disabled persons’ federations at all levels and deaf associations, and the backbone team proficient in and using national common sign language has begun to take shape; The national universal sign language system is more perfect, and the information service ability is further improved; Establish a national sign language level assessment mechanism.

Second, the main measures

(a) training first, and strive to build a backbone team proficient in the national common sign language.

1. Relying on the National Sign Language and Braille Research Center, China Braille Sign Language Promotion Service Center, China Association for the Deaf and some professional institutions, we will hold national key training courses on sign language for special education teachers in special education colleges and universities, sign language column hosts of TV stations at or above the prefecture level, and cast members of China Disabled People’s Art Troupe.

2. Special education institutions will take the national common sign language as the content and post requirements of teachers’ on-the-job training, and include it in continuing education credits and annual assessment, and strive to achieve full-time rotation training by 2020. Full-time teachers in special education colleges should master at least 5,000 common sign language words, and managers who directly serve students with hearing disabilities should master at least 3,000 common sign language words, and understand the characteristics of sign language, paying attention to expressing according to its characteristics.

3. Deaf associations at all levels are responsible for conducting national general sign language training for hearing-impaired people who use sign language as the main means of communication in society. In 2018, major cities in China will basically use the national common sign language, and in 2019, it will cover prefecture-level cities. In 2020, the national common sign language will be basically used in cities and towns above the county level.

4. Disabled Persons’ Federation at or above the county level should carry out national common sign language training, encourage disabled persons’ Federation staff to understand, learn and use national common sign language, and the staff who directly serve the hearing disabled should correctly master not less than 3,000 national common sign language words, and understand their own characteristics, and pay attention to expressing them according to their characteristics. By 2020, we will strive to equip disabled persons’ federations at all levels with at least one certified part-time sign language interpreter.

5. Encourage and support local special education institutions and deaf associations to carry out national common sign language training for employees in public service fields such as justice, medical care, transportation, banking, commerce, tourism and urban management.

(2) Highlight key points and strengthen the ability of key personnel in key areas to use the national common sign language.

1 to recruit students with hearing disabilities in special education schools and conditional ordinary schools (including kindergartens, ordinary primary and secondary schools, secondary vocational schools) to use the national common sign language in education and teaching activities. Since 2018, the new textbooks for deaf schools in compulsory education have used the national common sign language. In class teams, school meetings and other activities, the national common sign language is used in combination with the content of education and teaching, and school-based courses in sign language are encouraged to teach the national common sign language. By 2020, students with hearing disabilities of all grades can correctly understand and skillfully use 500-2,000 national sign language words.

2. From 2019, the national common sign language will be gradually used in the sign language columns of CCTV, provincial TV stations, simultaneous sign language interpretation of major events of the party and the state, and publications. From 2020, the national common sign language will be gradually used in the sign language column of municipal TV stations and the sign language simultaneous interpretation of local official activities.

3. Gradually establish sign language translation training and certification system. Complete the development of national common sign language level standard (Trial) and sign language translation level standard (Trial), test outline, question bank and other specifications; Relying on professional institutions and the China Deaf Association, the National General Sign Language Examination Committee was established, and 2-3 provinces were selected to carry out the pilot of the National General Sign Language Examination, so as to explore the unified industry management of the National General Sign Language Examination and qualification certification.

(three) extensive publicity, improve the social attention of the national common sign language.

1. Publish news about the national common sign language on official and institutional websites such as relevant state departments, China Disabled Persons’ Federation and its local organizations, China Deaf Association, National Sign Language and Braille Research Center, China Braille Sign Language Promotion Service Center, Huaxia Publishing House, etc., and widely publicize the national common sign language through expert interpretation, in-depth media coverage and other forms, attracting social attention.

2. In 2018, the National Dictionary of Common Sign Language was published on the basis of the National Glossary of Common Sign Language, and some minority language versions of the National Dictionary of Common Sign Language and other dictionaries, teaching materials, learning and other series of books were successively translated and published.

3. Organize the national general sign language column program on China Education Television. Compile and publish national sign language posters and teaching wall charts. Use important time nodes such as "National Day for the Disabled", "International Sign Language Day", "International Day for the Deaf" and "International Day for the Disabled" to hold various and popular national sign language promotion activities. Organize the National General Sign Language Skills Competition in due course.

4 to encourage the establishment of a public welfare national common sign language learning platform, research and development of national common sign language information products. Encourage the use of artificial intelligence, speech recognition, sign language recognition and other advanced technologies to study various national common sign language information products.

Third, the guarantee conditions

(1) Strengthen organizational leadership. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) shall establish a leading group for the promotion of national common sign language, led by the Disabled Persons’ Federation and attended by education, language committee, press and publication, radio and television departments, with a clear division of labor, close cooperation, strengthened coordination, formulated an implementation plan for the promotion of national common sign language in the province (autonomous regions and municipalities), and regularly studied and solved major problems to ensure the orderly development of the promotion work. Special attention should be paid to giving play to the role of deaf associations and actively absorbing them to participate in training and promotion activities. The provinces that have carried out the pilot project of national common sign language should play the leading role of the pilot unit, sum up the experience of promoting the pilot, lead the promotion work in the whole province, and improve the promotion quality.

(2) make overall arrangements for funds. Disabled persons’ federations at all levels shall, in accordance with the requirements of the National Action Plan for Standardization of Sign Language and Braille (2015-2020), take the initiative to coordinate the financial departments, and include the funds needed to promote the national common sign language in the budget to ensure investment. National textbook publishing funds, national publishing funds, TV station business funds, etc. should be included in the promotion of national common sign language and be tilted. All localities should focus on subsidizing the purchase of national general sign language school supplies by poor hearing disabled people. Conditional places can establish and implement the national universal sign language translation service subsidy system.

(three) into the scope of supervision. All localities should incorporate the promotion and use of national common sign language into the education supervision, language work supervision and evaluation, barrier-free environment construction supervision and inspection of governments at all levels, and carry out special supervision when necessary. It is necessary to report the results of supervision and inspection, sum up successful experiences, and find and solve problems in time.

National General Braille Promotion Program

I. Mission objectives

By 2020, the social awareness of the national common Braille will be improved, the backbone team skilled in mastering and using the national common Braille will take shape, the information service ability will be improved, the national common Braille level assessment mechanism will be established, and the national examination papers will be printed in the national common Braille, thus forming an atmosphere of using the national common Braille in national official activities, school education, book publishing, public services and information processing.

Second, the implementation steps

(1) Students with visual disabilities who use Braille at school.

1. From the fall semester of 2018, the first-year primary school students began to use the textbooks printed in the national common Braille (the standard version of each word), and the second-year primary school students began to use the textbooks printed in the national common Braille and supporting extracurricular reading materials (including provincial and simplified versions). The third to sixth grades and junior high school grades will change the national general Braille version simultaneously with the new curriculum standard textbooks for blind schools. Students in other grades continue to use the original textbooks.

2. Starting from the spring semester of 2019, in the spring semester of each academic year, students with visual disabilities who graduated from junior high schools, senior high schools (including ordinary senior high schools, adult senior high schools and secondary vocational schools, the same below) and colleges and universities will receive no less than 8 class hours of national general Braille training until the transition of students at school is completed.

3. Starting from the fall semester of 2019, freshmen majoring in rehabilitation and health care of traditional Chinese medicine in secondary vocational schools began to use textbooks and supporting extracurricular reading materials (including provincial and abbreviated versions) printed by the national general Braille, and students of other majors and grades continued to use the original textbooks.

4. From the fall semester of 2020, freshmen in ordinary high schools and universities (including graduate students) began to use textbooks printed in Braille and supporting extracurricular reading materials (including provincial and simplified versions). Students in other grades continue to use the original textbooks.

Students who have already used the national common Braille textbooks will be promoted to senior grades and replaced with the national common Braille textbooks.

(2) Visually disabled people who use Braille in society.

From 2018, focusing on young people under 50 years old, we will carry out national general Braille training for visually disabled people in society. By 2020, all localities will complete the backbone training of social vision disabled people at the provincial, city and county levels, and carry out a certain range of universal training.

(3) Special education normal students.

From the fall semester of 2018, the Braille courses for special education teachers will be gradually converted into national general Braille, which will be completed in 2020. Beginning in the spring semester of 2019, graduates will receive no less than 16 hours of national general Braille training before leaving school, until the transition of students in school is completed.

(four) the publication of teaching AIDS, extracurricular reading materials and social reading materials.

From the second half of 2018, the national general braille books will be gradually published. The proportion of new books published in 2018 is 10%, the proportion of new books published in 2019 is 30%, and the proportion of new books published in 2020 is 60%.

(5) Official activities and examinations.

From 2019 onwards, when people with visual disabilities participate in major activities of the party, the state and local governments, they will provide written materials in national Braille.

From 2020 onwards, the national general Braille system will be gradually used in qualified national examinations (excluding abbreviations), and candidates’ answer sheets will not be required for the time being.

Third, the main measures

(1) Building a backbone team. Professional institutions such as China Association for the Blind, China Braille Publishing House, China Braille Library, Beijing Union University College of Special Education, etc., hold national general Braille backbone training courses for special education institutions, ordinary schools where students with visual disabilities attend classes, Braille publishing units, blind associations and units where people with visual disabilities are concentrated in employment. The number of backbone teams is not less than 800.

(2) Strengthen the training of special education teachers. Special education institutions that recruit students with visual disabilities should take the national Braille as the content and job requirements of teachers’ on-the-job training, and include it in continuing education credits and annual assessment. From 2018, it is necessary to train teachers of grades and disciplines who use the national Braille textbooks, and in 2020, all staff will be trained in rotation.

(3) Smooth learning channels and enrich learning forms. Compile and publish national general Braille posters and teaching atlases, and record the audio and video of the training and teaching of the National General Braille Program. In the blind monthly, blind children’s literature and other Braille publications, the national general Braille training lectures were held, and the relevant columns were selected to gradually switch to the national general Braille. In 2020, the National General Braille Knowledge and Skills Competition will be held.

(D) Build an online learning platform. Widely mobilize social forces, research and develop national general-purpose Braille information products, and incorporate them into the digital reading promotion project for the blind. By 2020, the national universal Braille network service platform and a variety of electronic information products will be gradually realized to serve the majority of visually disabled people.

(five) the establishment of a national general Braille level assessment mechanism. In 2019, we will complete the development of the national general Braille level standard (for trial implementation), test outline and test question bank, establish the national general Braille examination committee based on professional institutions and China Blind Association, and select some provinces to carry out the national general Braille level examination pilot work in 2020.

Fourth, the guarantee conditions

(1) Strengthen organizational leadership. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) shall establish a national leading group for the promotion of universal Braille, led by the Disabled Persons’ Federation and attended by education, language committee, press and publication, radio and television departments, with a clear division of labor, close cooperation, strengthened coordination, formulated an implementation plan for the promotion of national universal Braille in the province (autonomous regions and municipalities), and regularly studied and solved major problems to ensure the orderly development of the promotion work. Special attention should be paid to giving play to the role of blind associations and actively absorbing them to participate in training and promotion activities. The provinces that have carried out the national general Braille pilot should give full play to the leading role of the pilot units, sum up the experience of promoting the pilot, lead the province’s promotion work, and improve the quality of promotion.

(2) make overall arrangements for funds. Disabled persons’ federations at all levels shall, in accordance with the requirements of the National Action Plan for Standardization of Sign Language and Braille (2015-2020), take the initiative to coordinate the financial departments, and include the funds needed to promote the national Braille into the budget to ensure the investment. National textbook publishing funds and national publishing funds should include the publication and promotion of national general braille books and give them a tilt. All localities should focus on subsidizing the purchase of national general braille school supplies by poor visually impaired people.

(3) Providing Braille teaching materials and reading materials in a timely manner. Shanghai Boai Braille Printing Co., Ltd. is responsible for printing Braille textbooks for compulsory education. China Braille Publishing House is responsible for publishing extracurricular reading materials, high school (including technical secondary school) and college teaching materials and social reading materials.

(four) into the scope of supervision. All localities should incorporate the promotion and use of the national Braille into the education supervision, language and writing work supervision and evaluation, and barrier-free environment construction supervision and inspection of governments at all levels, and carry out special supervision when necessary. It is necessary to report the results of supervision and inspection, sum up successful experiences, and find and solve problems in time.