Every year on May 20, people of a very rare profession celebrate their professional holiday in Ukraine — translators-dactylologists, or sign language interpreters — specialists who help deaf and hard of hearing people understand the phrases addressed to them and conduct a dialogue with others. In other words, they translate spoken language into sign language.
Day of Sign Language Translator in Ukraine (Ukrainian. The day of relaying sign language appeared on the calendar of holidays in 2009. Then the IV plenum of the central board of the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf, responding to the initiative of the Council of Sign Language Translators, issued a resolution establishing a professional holiday. This decision was also supported by the World Association of Sign Language Translators and the European Forum of Sign Language Translators.
The purpose of introducing a new — date is to draw public attention to the problems of people with hearing impairment (complete or partial), as well as to highlight the contribution of sign language interpreters to the development of the deaf community.
According to statistics, about 1.5 million citizens suffering from various hearing impairments currently live in Ukraine. A tenth of them — 150 thousand people — need the help of sign language translators. However, there are just over three hundred such specialists throughout the country.
The fact is that this profession has now turned out to be unattractive —, if only due to rather modest wages and a small number of specialized educational institutions. However, the importance of this rare profession is difficult to overestimate.