Norway
National Sign Language
Norsk Tegnspråk, NTS
In English: Norwegian Sign Language, NSL
Language Status: 5 (Developing).
Legal Recognition
"Norwegian Sign Language is recognised by law in education."
"Sign Language Legislation in the European Union", Wheatley, M., A. Pabsch., Edition II. Brussels, EUD, 2012:
"Sign language is mentioned a number of times in Norwegian legislation. For example, it can be found in the Education Law, which states that pupils who have sign language as their first language are entitled to tuition in "the use of sign language and through the medium of sign language".Sign language can also be chosen as the medium in secondary education. (..)
Currently, a general Language Act is under discussion in Parliament. If the approved proposal will go ahead as planned, sign language will be included as one of the official languages of Norway (along with the two versions of Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), and Sámi, as well as Kven)."
Number of Deaf Sign Language Users
2,500 (EUD website, December 2016)