Did you know that the Swedish sign language has existed for several hundred years?
It is a visual language - with its own vocabulary and its own grammar. However, it has not always been accepted as a language, and it has created major problems for deaf people.
In 1880, a European Congress of Deaf Teachers decided that schools for the deaf were no longer allowed to teach in sign language.
Instead, deaf children were forced to "train their hearing" and to "speak", which is impossible of course.
After that, the level of education dropped, and deaf people have had to struggle to use their language.
On 14 May 1981, the Swedish Parliament made a historic decision - to officially recognize sign language as the deaf's first language.
Sweden then became the first country in the world to do so.
But the situation in other parts of the world is not the same as in Sweden.
80-90 percent of all deaf children in other parts of the world receive no education at all.
Only 1 percent of the children in the world receive education in sign language.
In the Nordic countries, the school situation for the deaf is quite good, in comparison.