Sapienza kicks off first sign language course in Italy

Antonella Polimeni

 ROME – The La Sapienza University is introducing a new program of sign language studies at the Faculty of Modern Literature and Cultures, which will start from the next academic year.

 The studies will enable students to acquire linguistic and methodological skills that will allow them to transmit, through various communication channels, a language message from sign language to Italian and vice versa. The aim of the course is to train professional interpreters to work with the most important public and private entities that deal with deafness. It will be the first in Italy degree course about sign language and tactile sign language.

 “For our University it is a source of great pride to be the first to build this new degree course. Students will acquire specific theoretical and applied skills that allow them to operate, in a critical and conscious way, in the various areas of linguistic and cultural mediation with the signing community made up of deaf and hearing people and people with disabilities and co-morbidities,” explains the rector Antonella Polimeni.  She also highlighted that, creating this study program is a commitment for the university, above all on the civic and social level.

 The study program will provide knowledge of the linguistics of spoken and signed languages, of semiotics and philosophy of language, of legislation relating to disability and the psychological, anthropological aspects of the theories and techniques of translation. Together with theoretical program, there will be a practical sign language course with a reference to tactile sign language.

 Graduates will be able to work as a translator, consultant for language and communication services, tour leader or tour guide in sign language. In the public sector, they can be employed in ministries, embassies, regions, courts, chambers of commerce, law enforcement agencies, international organizations.  In the private sector, on the other hand, they can find work in foreign commercial offices or marketing and communication offices of companies in various product sectors, communication experts at companies specialized in tourism, and at event organization companies, law firms.

 "With the establishment of this new course Sapienza strengthens and confirms the commitment aimed at building an ever more inclusive and accessible university, not only by breaking down barriers, but also by training top professionals profile serving the country," concluded the rector.

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