Ukrainian Sign Language Is a “Language” in Law — But Has No Law of Its Own Yet

September 23 is the International Day of Sign Languages, established by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 72/161 of December 19, 2017. The resolution states that sign languages are full natural languages with a structure distinct from spoken languages. Sign language is not universal worldwide. Ukraine has its own Ukrainian Sign Language (українська жестова мова), a language distinct from Japanese Sign Language.

Ukrainian law describes this Ukrainian Sign Language as a “language.” At the same time, as of September 2026, the dedicated law meant to define its status in detail has still not been enacted. The following summarizes the situation as of September 2026, based on the text of the law and materials published by the Verkhovna Rada, the broadcasting regulator, and the Human Rights Ombudsman.

Article 4 of the State Language Law

The 2019 law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language” (Law No. 2704-VIII, hereafter the State Language Law), which establishes Ukrainian as the sole state language, devotes one article to sign language: Article 4, “The Status of Ukrainian Sign Language and the Linguistic Rights of Sign Language Users.” This article has been part of the law since the version adopted on April 25, 2019.

1. Ukrainian Sign Language is the language of the community of people who use sign language.
2. Ukrainian Sign Language is a natural visual-gestural linguistic system with its own vocabulary and grammatical structure, formed through a process of evolution, and used by sign-language users who permanently or for a long time reside in Ukraine as their primary means, or one of their primary means, of communication.
3. In Ukraine, everyone is guaranteed the right to freely use, learn and support Ukrainian Sign Language in social life, and to be educated in Ukrainian Sign Language.
4. No provision of this Law shall be interpreted as narrowing the scope of use of Ukrainian Sign Language.

State Language Law, Article 4 (translated from the Ukrainian text)

The State Language Law is a law that requires Ukrainian to be used in every public field. Paragraph 4 can be read as a clause inserted so that, within that law, sign language’s place would not be eroded. The mechanism of the State Language Law itself is covered in our article on Ukraine’s State Language Law and its staged rollout — customer service after a year and a half, local newspapers after five years.

Article 3 of the same law, among the items listing how the state supports Ukrainian, states that it promotes “the development of Ukrainian Sign Language as the primary means, or one of the primary means, of sign-language users,” and goes on to state that “the status, principles, and procedures for the use of Ukrainian Sign Language shall be established by law.” In other words, the State Language Law itself foreshadows the creation of a separate law for sign language.

Other Provisions That Mention Sign Language

Provisions touching on sign language also exist outside the State Language Law. The main ones are as follows.

Ukraine ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by Law No. 1767-VI of December 16, 2009. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ombudsman (the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights), in a September 23, 2026 op-ed, notes that this Convention calls for recognizing sign language and promoting its use, and describes how the Ministry of Social Policy set a state standard for sign-language interpretation as a social service in Order No. 220 of May 6, 2021.

Why Is There Still No Dedicated Law?

A bill did exist for the sign-language law that the State Language Law foreshadowed. According to the Verkhovna Rada’s bill database, the bill “On Ukrainian Sign Language” (No. 2340) was submitted by lawmakers on October 29, 2019. It was added to the session’s agenda by a Verkhovna Rada resolution (No. 4229-IX) on February 10, 2025, but its September 3, 2025 entry records that it was “withdrawn from consideration” (Знято з розгляду).

In the op-ed cited above, Lubinets writes that, although the State Language Law foreshadows a separate law setting sign language’s status and procedures for its use, attempts to adopt such a law “did not result in adoption.” He notes that his annual reports for 2024 and 2025 also pointed to the need to improve the legal regulation of sign language and to guarantee the rights of sign-language users.

As of September 2026, then, Ukrainian Sign Language’s legal position is determined by Article 4 of the State Language Law and the individual provisions listed in the table above. What a sign-language law would say has not yet been decided.

How Much Sign Language Is There on Television?

The National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine (Національна рада України з питань телебачення і радіомовлення), the broadcasting regulator, published on September 23, 2026 the results of a July 2026 survey covering 36 national television channels.

• Sign-language interpretation was present on only 2 channels. On “ПЕРШИЙ” (Pershyi), 47.57% of broadcasts had sign-language interpretation, used for major programs and news. On “Армія TV” (Armiya TV), it was 0.15%, appearing only during public-service announcements
• On the remaining 34 channels, no sign-language interpretation was found during the week surveyed
• The average share of broadcasts with sign-language interpretation was 1.33% (1.68% in 2025); the average share with subtitles was 1.83% (1.62% in 2025)
• No audio description was found

In the same announcement, the Council explains that, apart from public broadcasting, Ukrainian law does not set a numerical share for programming adapted for people with disabilities. Only public broadcasting has a set figure, the 5% or more shown in the table above.

Meanwhile, the Verkhovna Rada in 2026 produced videos translating the full text of the Constitution into Ukrainian Sign Language, releasing them to mark the Constitution’s 30th anniversary. The Verkhovna Rada’s website has a page where visitors can select and watch sign-language videos for each article.

How Many People Use Sign Language?

No national statistics have been found on the number of people who use sign language in Ukraine. One figure that offers a clue is the membership of the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf (Українське товариство глухих, UTOG). The Ombudsman’s office, in an announcement of March 23, 2022, states that more than 44,000 people with hearing impairments are registered with the Society. However, not all people with hearing impairments use sign language, and some are not registered with the Society. This figure cannot be read as the number of sign-language users.

The same announcement cited, as the first problem people with hearing impairments faced after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the fact that they could not hear sirens or smartphone-app alert sounds and so could not know that an air-raid alert had been issued. Ukraine’s air-raid alert system is introduced in our article on how air-raid sirens run for three to five minutes, and in Kyiv have a two-stage yellow-and-red system.

How This Differs from Japanese Sign Language

Ukrainian Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language are separate languages that developed independently. Just as interpretation is needed between Japanese and Ukrainian, interpretation is also needed between different sign languages. Lubinets’s op-ed likewise states that there is no single universal sign language in the world, and that sign language is not a word-for-word gestural substitute for spoken language.

In Japan, the 手話に関する施策の推進に関する法律 (“Act on the Promotion of Measures Concerning Sign Language,” Reiwa 7 Act No. 78) was promulgated and took effect on June 25, 2025. According to an explanation from the House of Councillors Legislative Bureau, this law establishes the responsibilities of the national and local governments, among other things, on the premise that, for people who use sign language, it is “language and another important means of communication” for daily and social life. Article 14 of the same law designates September 23 — the same day as the International Day of Sign Languages — as Japan’s “Sign Language Day.” This is the reverse order from Ukraine, which named sign language a “language” within its State Language Law and left the dedicated law for later.

How to read Ukrainian law numbers and status labels such as “withdrawn from consideration” is explained in our article on reading Ukrainian legislation in the original — “-IX” means the 9th convocation of parliament.