This is Slovenian too
Background
Would you believe that 1,500 Slovenes speak their own language, which almost 2 million other Slovenes do not understand? These people are the deaf and hard-of-hearing who communicate in sign language. Although sign language is also the Slovene language, deaf schoolchildren and students have great difficulties in communicating with teachers and professors in educational institutions, while adults have difficulties in communicating in all their daily tasks and at their workplaces. Therefore, the biggest wish of deaf people is that even people who can hear would know at least the basics of sign language.
IDEA
Learning gestures and signs of sign language is a demanding and time-consuming process; therefore, it would be unrealistic to expect that the wish of deaf people will easily be realised. But since one needs to start somewhere, we started with a sign that stands for I love you in the language of deaf people. An important aspect of the campaign was also raising the awareness among people who can hear that sign language is also the Slovene language spoken by Slovenes.
Execution
We invited illustrator David Krančan to participate in the campaign and created posters with which the founding fathers of the Slovene language taught us the meaning of one sign and made the general public aware that sign language is also the Slovene language. Cankar, Prešeren and Trubar are the ones who are responsible that we can learn our mother tongue in school and later on in life. But this time, they taught us sign language, which is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia as Slovene and thus an equal language.
RESULTS
The campaign started with city posters, continued with teaching people who can hear a bit of sign language on city buses, it was carried out in shopping malls, it reached the media and even decision-makers in the parliament.
