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Humberto Insolera (born 1975) [1] is a deaf Italian politician, academic and advocate for the deaf and people with disabilities.
Insolera was born in a deaf family. He is a Fulbright scholar and studied in various universities: University of Bristol, Gallaudet University to University of Padua. He obtained a degree in international politics. After his academic studies, besides attending and delivering various seminars, conferences and workshops worldwide, he has worked for several international organizations. [2]
Insolera has worked and collaborated for several international and national organizations mostly related to protecting the rights of deaf people.
In 2002, Insolera collaborated as an intern at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland, one of the four major office sites of the United Nations.
In 2006, Insolera participated in the UN CRPD (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Ad Hoc Committee meeting in New York, US. [3]
In 2009, he was appointed board member of the European Union of the Deaf (EUD) and since 2013 has been EUD vice-president. While working for the EUD, he has participated in numerous European Institutions, such as European Parliament Committee Sessions, European Commission Conference on the European Day of Persons with Disabilities and also in the Council of Europe. He was also involved in the implementation and monitoring processes of the UN CRPD both in Italy and at a European level. As an expert, one of his main responsibilities was assuring that every State's regular submission of reports were implementing the rights accordingly.
From 2013, he was appointed Chair of the Accessibility Working Group and has worked also as a Member of the Expert Group on Human rights for the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) until 2015. [4] [5]
In May 2017 he was elected to the EDF Executive committee by the EDF (European Disability Forum). [6] [7]
Insolera worked as a consultant on foreign affairs for the National Association of the Deaf in Italy known as the Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS) from 2006 until 2012. Since 2007 is a lecturer of international politics, disability rights and deaf studies and is an accessibility observatory member of the ENS since 2011. [8]
Humberto Insolera received an award of appreciation by the CIO Dr. Yousif Asfour and Maha Zouwayhed at the American University of Beirut during the ABLE Summit in April 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon.
Insolera was the first student in Italy to receive the stenotype service from the University of Padua after a collision with one of the university's representatives whom was denying to provide him access to education. Since then, numerous Italian students have had access to this service as well. Successively, he worked at Italian Youth Committee Member and coordinated the nation's first Italian Deaf Academic Conference for the deaf, deaf blind and hard of hearing delegates in 2011. It was later followed with a second one in 2016 under his guidance. [9]
Insolera stars in his brother Emilio Insolera's film Sign Gene , the first superhero film about deaf mutants who have superhuman powers through the use of sign language. Insolera plays as Jux Clerc, the brother and main villain of the leading character Tom Clerc. The film was released in 2017. [1] [10]
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and deaf educator Jean Massieu, at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America, the Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, on April 15, 1817, in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. The school was subsequently renamed the American School for the Deaf and in 1821 moved to 139 Main Street, West Hartford. The school remains the oldest existing school for the deaf in North America.
The history of deaf people and deaf culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is a culture that is centered on sign language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. By some, deafness may be viewed as a disability, but the Deaf world sees itself as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is an international non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on Deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends. WFD aims to promote the Human Rights of Deaf people worldwide, by working closely with the United Nations and various UN agencies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). WFD is also a member of the International Disability Alliance (IDA).
The World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP) is an international organisation representing, and led by what it terms "survivors of psychiatry". As of 2003, over 70 national organizations were members of WNUSP, based in 30 countries. The network seeks to protect and develop the human rights, disability rights, dignity and self-determination of those labeled 'mentally ill'.
Italian Sign Language or LIS is the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe's research on American Sign Language in the 1960s. Until the beginning of the 21st century, most studies of Italian Sign Language dealt with its phonology and vocabulary. According to the European Union for the Deaf, the majority of the 60,000–90,000 Deaf people in Italy use LIS.
The International Disability Alliance (IDA), created in 1999, is an umbrella organization focused on improving awareness and rights for individuals with disabilities around the globe. The IDA works with Non Governmental Organizations (NGO's), supranational organizations such as the United Nations (UN), as well as state governments in order to create legislation, fund disability programs in developing and industrialized countries, and advocate for people with disabilities around the world. The IDA works very closely with the United Nations, and in particular they use the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) as their code of conduct.
The European Union of the Deaf (EUD) is a supraorganization comprising each respective National Association of the Deaf of the member states of the European Union. The EUD is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 and is a Regional Co-operating Member of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), a full member of the European Disability Forum (EDF) and has a participatory status with the Council of Europe (CoE). Ten countries were present at this meeting. During the assembly of October 10, 1994, the delegates of the deaf associations in Europe voted for a change of name: ECRS is thus replaced by the European Union of the Deaf (EUD).
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy full equality under the law. The Convention serves as a major catalyst in the global disability rights movement enabling a shift from viewing persons with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing them as full and equal members of society, with human rights. The convention was the first U.N. human rights treaty of the twenty-first century.
Jean Massieu was a pioneering deaf educator. One of six deaf siblings, he was denied schooling until age thirteen when he met Abbé Sicard, who enrolled him in the Institute national des jeunes sourds de Bordeaux-Gradignan, the Bordeaux School for Deaf Children. There he learned to read and write French, and later helped develop the first formalized French Sign Language. This French Sign Language was later adapted into American Sign Language. He taught at the famous school for the deaf in Paris where Laurent Clerc was one of his students. He began work after a scandal in Paris in Rodez and dedicated his life to educating deaf children. Later he founded a deaf school in Lille, France.
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets two times a year in Geneva to consider the reports submitted by 164 UN member states on their compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and to examine individual petitions concerning 94 States Parties to the Optional Protocol.
Dr. Gergely Tapolczai is a Hungarian politician, member of the National Assembly (MP) from the National List of Fidesz since 2010. The deaf politician is the first user of Sign language in the Hungarian parliament. He was elected to the European Union of the Deaf (EUD) as a board member in 2009, and served as the vice-president of the EUD until resigning on February 5, 2021.
The Italian National Agency for the protection and assistance of the Deaf (ENS) is an Italian non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on Deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends. ENS aims to promote the Human Rights of Deaf Italians, by working closely with Italy. ENS is also a member of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and European Union of the Deaf.
Emilio Insolera is a deaf actor and producer, known for Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes (2017). In 2022, Insolera had a role in Simon Kinberg's The 355.
In Japan, a person with a disability is defined as: "a person whose daily life or life in society is substantially limited over the long term due to a physical disability or mental disability". Japan ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 20 January 2014.
Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes is a 2017 superhero film written, produced, directed and starred by Emilio Insolera. The story revolves around a deaf agent, Tom Clerc, from New York City who is a carrier of a powerful genetic mutation. He is sent to Japan with his colleague, Ken Wong, to investigate crimes believed to have been committed by Japanese deaf mutants. The film's characters, both villains and agent, use sign language as their superhuman powers. The film also stars Carola Insolera, Ben Bahan, Hiroshi Vava, Humberto Insolera, and Noboru Kuragawa.
Antonio Magarotto was an Italian educator, founder of the Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS) and rector of the Padua Deaf institute. His son Cesare Magarotto founded the World Federation of the Deaf.
María Soledad Cisternas Reyes is a Chilean lawyer and disability rights activist. Cisternas, who became blind while she was in college has worked to increase access for people with disabilities in Chile and at the United Nations (UN). She was on the committee that drafted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and served as the chairperson on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2017, Cisternas was appointed the Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility for the UN.
Arthur Verney (1943-2013) was a British Deaf and disability rights campaigner and activist.
Italy is a country located in the south of Europe. The capital city is Rome. There are about 59 million people in Italy, and about 3.5 million Italians have some form of hearing loss. Among them, around 70,000 people are severely deaf. The European Union for the Deaf reports that the majority of the deaf people in Italy use Italian Sign language (LIS). LIS has been an official sign language in Italy since 2021. Italy, among other countries, ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and is slowly improving conditions for deaf humans in Italy. Many major organizations in Italy fight for deaf rights and spread awareness to the Italian National Agency for the protection and assistance of the Deaf and Associated Italian Families for the Defense of the Rights of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals (FIADDA). Newborns in Italy also receive universal hearing screenings. Education in Italy is directed towards oralism although sign language is also used. LIS is a stable language and used by 10,000 to 1,000,000,000 users in Italy.