France
Bonjour. C'est notre histoire.
Milan banned our language in 1880. France wrote it back into law.
Access on this page: Signed: Langue des signes française — pending How this page is tested
In 1880 the Milan congress declared the oral method superior, and within seven years France's Deaf teachers had been pushed out of the classroom. It took 111 years: on 18 January 1991 the loi Fabius gave families the right to choose bilingual education in LSF. On 11 February 2005 the law recognised LSF as a language in its own right. Since 2010 every channel with more than 2.5% of the audience must subtitle 100% of its programmes; since 1 January 2020 no French film gets CNC approval without subtitles for the Deaf and audio description. The law is ours. The screens are still not signed.
LSF video — this story, in our language
A named French Deaf creator tells this page's story in LSF. The video is the page, and the text is its transcript's cousin. This video existing is the reason this page is allowed to exist.
It took 111 years to write our language back into law.
The delivery will not take another century — we are building it.
What do you want to do?
-
I want access
Watch.Understand.Belong.
Films, news, and services — in LSF, captions, or audio description.
Go -
I create access
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf signers, interpreters, captioners, audio describers — your work, your name, your income.
Go -
I provide access
One API.Every screen.
Platforms, governments, cinemas, companies — deliver real access with one integration.
Go -
I back access
Host.Sponsor.Invest.
The builders who will put LSF on the screens the law already covers — be part of the firsts.
Go
More than one of these can be yours. The access is for you, and you can be paid to help make it.
Access in France today
The law now says:
LSF is a language in its own right — loi 2005-102, article 75, written into the education code as L312-9-1. Every channel above 2.5% of the audience subtitles everything — since February 2010. Every French film approved since 1 January 2020 carries subtitles for the Deaf and audio description, and since 24 August 2021 the same duty reaches online platforms.
And we know the exhausting part: subtitles are not sign language. A right to bilingual education written in 1991 still depends on whether a school offers it. The law says accessible; almost nothing says it in LSF.
The law took a century. The delivery comes next — made by us. That is what ally is: Deaf and blind creators, paid to make the access — LSF, captions, audio description — delivered to any screen.
In plain words
The law is on your side. What is missing is the service — and that is what gets built here, with the community.
Why captions alone are not enough → Why sign language
Talk to us
Tell us who you are
Write in your own language. We reply in it.
- Emailpartners@a11y.media
- Video messageSend a signed video — no writing needed
Contact us by form, email, or a signed video message — never voice-only.