In 2026, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine, a complete translation of the Constitution into Ukrainian Sign Language was produced for the first time. What does this mean? For citizens who use sign language, it means the opportunity to independently familiarize themselves with all sections and articles of the Constitution in their native language of communication.
The translation is available on the official website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It covers the entire current text of the Constitution — from provisions on the foundations of the state system and human rights to the procedure for amending the Constitution.
Translating the constitution into sign language is not a common or widespread practice around the world; it is often the work of individual nonprofit organizations or institutions and is used within closed communities.
As a civil society organization that created and initiated the translation of the Constitution into sign language, we decided to research other countries, and here is what we found.
International Experience
A complete translation of the Constitution into sign language remains a rare practice. There is no single international registry of such translations; however, we were able to confirm the existence of relevant projects in several countries through publicly available official and institutional sources.
Spain. The official website of the Congress of Deputies features links to the Spanish Constitution in both sign languages used in the country — Spanish (LSE) and Catalan (LSC). The adapted sign language translation of all articles of Spain’s Constitution, presented in 2012, was created by the CNSE Foundation for Overcoming Communication Barriers in collaboration with the Congress of Deputies and the Senate of Spain.
Brazil. The Brazilian Constitution is available in Portuguese and in Libras, the Brazilian sign language, on the specialized, accessible platform PCD Legal, which was launched by the Public Ministry of Labor (Ministério Público do Trabalho) to ensure access to legislation for people with disabilities. This version includes the text of the document and constitutional amendments up to No. 109 of March 15, 2021. The most recent amendment, No. 139, is dated May 2026. Due to the adoption of subsequent amendments, this translation no longer fully reflects the current version of the Constitution.
Japan. The Institute for Research on Japanese Sign Language has created a sign language version of the preamble and all 103 articles of the Japanese Constitution. The official launch of the website featuring the first complete institutional translation of the Constitution took place on August 1, 2016. However, work on expanded video explanations and more detailed legal commentary continued: for example, the section on legal explanations was launched on July 3, 2017, and updated materials with explanations and new laws continue to be published to this day, the most recent of which was in June 2026. Upon closer examination of the website pages featuring the Japanese Constitution in sign language, it was noted that the sign language explanations are provided by deaf lawyers themselves.
The translation process had its own unique challenges. The Japanese Constitution was written in 1946 (the Shōwa era) in a specific, archaic style of legal language, and modern Japanese Sign Language simply lacked signs for certain concepts. Researchers at the institute, in collaboration with deaf lawyers in Japan and with the involvement of other legal professionals, developed new standardized signs to avoid ambiguous interpretations. This is a full-fledged institutional translation, although no confirmation of its status as an official government text has been found in open sources.
Poland. The Polish Union of the Deaf (Masovian Branch) has published a translation of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland into Polish Sign Language. Although we reviewed the complete translations, we found that Article 57 was omitted from the catalog; therefore, technically, this can no longer be considered a complete translation of the Constitution, even though the text of Article 57 (on ensuring the freedom of peaceful assembly and participation therein) is available on the Sejm’s website. At the same time, this resource is a project of a civil society organization and not an official sign language version issued by the Sejm or the Senate of Poland.
Zimbabwe. Midlands State University coordinated the translation of the Zimbabwean Constitution into fifteen local languages, including sign language. The university reports that the translation of the Constitution into all of these languages has been completed. A complete translation of the Zimbabwean Constitution into sign language was produced in 2019 by Midlands State University (MSU) in DVD video format for educational institutions affiliated with the MSU Language Institute. The idea behind establishing the Language Institute at Midlands State University is to use the Institute to increase the accessibility of all vital information to everyone by translating all key government information. There is still no official public online database available for general access.
Russia. The Russian sign language translation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation was prepared by specialists from the Russian State Social University (RGSU). The video translation in Russian Sign Language was supposed to be posted on this university’s website; however, as of the time of writing, it was not possible to visually confirm this. The printed edition was published on December 12, 2022; QR codes are placed below the text of each article, linking to videos featuring both synchronous (word-for-word) and semantic (adapted to the grammar of Russian Sign Language) sign language translations.
Mongolia. In 2025, the Secretariat of the State Great Khural — Mongolia’s parliament — published the country’s constitution in sign language for citizens with hearing impairments. This is one of the most clearly documented examples of parliamentary translation of the constitution.
More examples of “taking action” regarding the Constitution
We found other examples of video translations as well, but they were limited to individual articles of the constitution or interpretations of laws:
- Articles 1 to 12 — with a translation into SL of the Italian Constitution.
- The official video translation of the Finnish Constitution into sign language does not consist of individual articles, but rather a special 13-part video overview series. Each episode on the Finnish Ministry of Justice’s YouTube channel is about 30 minutes long.
- In the U.S., the preamble has been translated, but a separate YouTube channel, Communication Service for the Deaf, posts videos explaining election-related topics in sign language. There is also a website that provides sign language translations of words whose definitions are taken from Princeton University’s WordNet.
- New Zealand does not have a single codified document called a Constitution. Its constitutional framework consists of several key laws (such as the Constitution Act 1986 and the Bill of Rights Act 1990), principles, and the Treaty of Waitangi. As a result, there is currently no complete video translation of the entire “text” of the constitution into New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)..
So where does Ukraine rank among the countries of the world?
According to the information found in 2026, Ukraine became the eighth country in the world to translate its constitution into sign language—if we disregard the fact that no visual online evidence of institutional video translations of the constitutions of Zimbabwe and Russia was found. We also disregarded the absence of Article 57 on the page containing the sign language translation of the Polish Constitution.
Taking into account the relevance, the official status of the translation of the text of the Constitution, and its distribution by the government, the following has been found:
- Spain – latest version and a link to the translation by SL from the official Congress website.
- Brazil – out of date; changes after 2021 have not been taken into account; there are 30 amendments as of the time of this article’s writing.
- Japan – latest version, there is no evidence that the government is promoting institutional translation.
- Mongolia – latest version, the translation is being distributed by Mongolia’s highest government authority.
- Poland – the text is up to date (with the exception of the absence of Article 57, which can be considered a technical error in the publication); the draft was created by a civil society organization and is not distributed by the government.
As of August 2026, Ukraine ranks third among countries that have translated their constitution into their national sign language, and this translation is being distributed by the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Translation—A Step Toward Equal Access to the Law
International experience shows that translations of constitutions into sign languages are produced by parliaments, government agencies, academic institutions, and civil society organizations. At the same time, not all such versions are posted on official government websites or regularly updated following amendments to the Constitution.
This Ukrainian project stands out because the complete translation of the current text of the Constitution into Ukrainian Sign Language was created through a collaboration between the civil society sector and the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and was published directly on the parliament’s official website. The PostCode Ukraine Charitable Foundation provided support and assistance for the project..
Making the Constitution available in the national sign language is not only an important achievement for the sign language community. It reaffirms that every person has the right to know and understand the Constitution.
You can view a complete translation of the Constitution of Ukraine into Ukrainian Sign Language is available on the official website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
