Founded in 1935,[1] the Danish Deaf Association, or Danske Døves Landsforbund (DDL), is privately run but receives monetary support from the government.
[1] Its members continue to push for greater equality between the deaf and hearing communities in Denmark and for the recognition of Danish Sign Language.
They updated their emergency warning system to send deaf individuals text message alerts at the same time that sirens go off, they maintain the Danish Deaf Sports Association within the Danish Sports Organization for the Disabled, and they require news broadcasts to be interpreted either at the time of airing or at maximum by the following day.
Additionally, they provide interpretation services for all communication with authorities, as well as any other events vital to one's quality of life, specifically throughout one's education.
Finally, Denmark offers a sign language interpreter program at several schools with a professional bachelor's degree option.
[3] In the 1970s, as Danish Sign Language gained recognition and popularity, deaf schools adopted a teaching method of total communication.
[1] Most deaf and hard-of-hearing children are enrolled in their local mainstream school and thus do not use Danish Sign Language in their education.
[10] The 2019 study also found that deaf or hard-of-hearing people were less likely to own their own company or to be employed in a management position when compared to the general population.
[6] Under the Act for Compensation of Disabled Employees, deaf Danes are granted up to 20 hours a week of interpretation services for the workplace.
For the relative, this creates stress over possibly forgetting to relay important information, and for the patient, this contributes to unwanted feelings of reliance on others.