Spain · España
Spain already signs the news. Next, everything else.
More of this works here than in most countries — and the distance left is still wide. We have no partner in Spain yet. That is what this page is for.
This page in LSE
A Deaf creator from Spain signs this page, credited by name. Recording begins when we have a local creator — that is one of the things we are looking for.
Where Spain stands
Closer than it looks.
In plain words
Here is who lives here and what reaches them. Some of it already works. Where a number is missing, we say so instead of guessing.
Every figure carries its source and says what it measures — surveys that ask people and clinics that test people produce different numbers, and we will not blur them together. Send us a better source and we will use it.
- Deaf and hard of hearing
- 1.23 million · 2.5% SourceSelf-reported disability survey. The two figures measure different thresholds and should not be merged.INE, Encuesta EDAD, via FASEN, 2020
- Blind and low vision
- 70,490 ONCE members SourceA membership floor, not the full population, which INE's disability survey puts higher.ONCE, 2022
- Functionally illiterate
- 31% of adults SourceOECD PIAAC measures reading proficiency for everyday tasks, not whether someone can read at all. It is the most internationally comparable measure available.OECD PIAAC 2023, via INEE, 2023
- Sign language
- Spanish Sign Language (LSE) · ISO 639-3: ssp
- People who sign it
- About 70,000 SourceINE's own survey gives a narrower 27,300. Around 98% of Deaf people in Spain report using spoken language, which is the global pattern rather than a Spanish anomaly.ACCEDES; INE EDAD, 2024
- Interpreters
- 2,781 accredited SourceThe most-cited official figure, from 2010 and still referenced in 2024 advocacy material. It puts the ratio at roughly one interpreter per 140 Deaf people, against a Northern European benchmark of one per ten. Training output collapsed from about 650 graduates a year to 20–32 after a curriculum change.CNSE, reported by Consumer (Eroski), 2025
Catalan Sign Language (LSC, ISO 639-3 csc) is recognised separately in Catalonia, under its own 2010 law.
The gap, in one number
There are not enough interpreters. There were never going to be.
Interpreters are skilled professionals and there will never be enough of them to cover every film, lesson, clinic visit and news bulletin. That is not a criticism of interpreters — it is arithmetic.
Recorded sign language does not replace an interpreter in a hospital room. It covers the enormous amount of content no interpreter was ever going to be booked for — so the interpreters go where only a person will do.
1 : 442
One qualified interpreter for every 442 Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
1,230,000 people aged 6+ reporting a hearing disability ÷ 2,781 accredited interpreters. We show the arithmetic because the two numbers come from different places.
Promised, and delivered
Compliant isn't the same as understood.
Spain has already written much of this into law. The distance between the promise and the ordinary day is where we work.
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The law says
Public television must carry at least 15 hours of sign language a week, and private open channels at least 5.
In practice
Across all open channels the regulator counted 21,842 hours of sign language last year — against 189,000 hours of subtitles. In May 2025 the Deaf confederation objected publicly when the news channel declined to sign a live statement by the prime minister.
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The law says
Deaf students have the right to bilingual education in sign language.
In practice
95 in every 100 are in mainstream classrooms. The Deaf confederation says that without dedicated funding the right stays suspended in practice, and bilingual schooling exists in a handful of city schools.
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The law says
Emergency services must be reachable in sign language.
And it works
They are. Free video interpreting to 112, 24 hours a day, in every region since the end of 2025 — and it reaches the police and the gender-violence line too.
An ordinary day
Today, and when this works.
Not emergencies. Ordinary days, in this country, as they are now — and as they are somewhere else already.
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The evening news
Today
Sign language is required by law and it is there — about 21,800 hours a year across all open channels, against 189,000 hours of subtitles. Better than almost anywhere. Still a fraction.
When this works
Every bulletin signed, not a fraction of them — and the films and lessons after it too.
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School
Today
95 Deaf students in every 100 sit in a mainstream classroom. Bilingual schooling is a right on paper, available in a handful of city schools in practice.
When this works
Lessons in LSE, with Deaf teachers in the room, in more than a handful of cities.
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Calling for help
Today
A Deaf person can reach 112 in sign language, free, at any hour, through a video interpreter. It took until the end of 2025 for the last region to switch it on.
When this works
This one already works. It is the proof that the rest is possible — a law, a budget, and a service people actually use.
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Finding an interpreter
Today
There are 2,781 accredited interpreters and only about a quarter of them work as interpreters — the jobs are not funded, so the skill drains away.
When this works
Recorded LSE covers the films, lessons and notices no interpreter was ever going to be booked for, so interpreters go where only a person will do.
None of the right-hand column is hypothetical. Every part of it already works in some country — a signed news bulletin, an emergency line that answers without a voice, Deaf teachers in a Deaf school. Just not all of them in the same one.
An ordinary day, signed
This section matters most to people who do not read the written language, so it is first in the signing queue for this country.
What would change here, starting now
Months, not years.
Three things a local partner and a11y could put in front of people quickly — each one already built, just not here yet.
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Content people actually watch, in LSE
Deaf creators here sign films, lessons and public information, and are paid for it. The delivery layer already exists — what it needs is this country's sign language in it.
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One city, one service
A single public service — a clinic, a council channel, a cinema — made accessible end to end, with the receipts published. Elsewhere that has meant ordinances passing and budgets moving.
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A signed news digest
A regular summary in LSE, made by paid local Deaf creators. Small enough to start this year, and it is how a creator community starts earning.
These are descriptions of a first project, not work we have done here. We have no partner in Spain yet.
Who this gets built with
We would not be arriving to an empty room.
Deaf communities here have been organising, teaching and campaigning for decades. Anything we do belongs alongside them, not in front of them.
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CNSE — Confederación Estatal de Personas Sordas
Deaf-led
The national confederation of Deaf people, bringing together 17 regional federations. Its board is made up of Deaf people from across the country.
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Fundación CNSE
Deaf-led
CNSE's foundation for removing communication barriers — sign language standards, training and technology. It runs SVisual, the video interpreting service that reaches 112.
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FESOCA — Federació de Persones Sordes de Catalunya
Deaf-led
Catalonia's Deaf federation since 1979, with around 28 affiliated associations, defending Catalan Sign Language.
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FIAPAS
The national confederation of families of Deaf people, founded 1978. Listed here for completeness — it represents families, and is not a Deaf-led organisation.
These organisations are not a11y partners — they are the people already doing this work here. If we come to this country, it should be alongside them.
People signing in LSE today
This list names real people, so it publishes only once each of them has been checked. Suggest a creator we should include.
Start something
Looking for a partner.
No local partner yet. We are looking for a Deaf-led organisation, a broadcaster or a city to work with here.
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I sign LSE
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf creators come first here. If you sign, you are who we most want to hear from.
Go -
I know who you should talk to
Name them.Introduce us.
An association, a school, a broadcaster, a creator. A name and a reason is enough.
Go -
I work for a city or government
Mandate.Budget.Service.
You may already have the law and the money. What is missing is the service.
Go
Know your rights
What you are entitled to here.
In plain words
These are things the law already says you can ask for. If you have been refused any of them, that refusal was against the law — not a favour you were denied.
Written plainly, with the law behind each one linked as a receipt. This is the part of the page we would most like a local Deaf organisation to check and correct.
- Your language
Recognised by law, with a right to choose sign language, oral support, or both.
Ley 27/2007, with implementing regulation Real Decreto 674/2023: interpreters in health, justice and transport hubs, and bilingual education as a free option.
- On television
Required by law: public television must carry at least 15 hours of sign language a week, private open channels at least 5.
Across all open channels the regulator counted 21,842 hours of sign language in 2024 — against 189,000 hours of subtitling. In May 2025 the Deaf confederation publicly objected when the news channel declined to sign a live statement by the prime minister.
Ley 13/2022 General de Comunicación Audiovisual; CNMC accessibility report
- At school
9,410 Deaf students, 95% of them in mainstream schools.
Bilingual education in sign language is a legal right. The Deaf confederation says that without dedicated funding the right stays suspended in practice — bilingual schooling exists in a handful of city schools, not as the default.
Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional statistics, school year 2021–22
- In an emergency
Yes. A free 24-hour video interpreting service connects Deaf callers to 112 in sign language, nationwide.
SVisual, run by the Fundación CNSE and publicly funded, also reaches the police, the gender-violence line and the suicide-prevention line. A 2023 regulation made this a legal guarantee; the last region joined at the end of 2025.
What opens a full page
This page grows when three things are true.
- A local Deaf creator has recorded this page in Spanish Sign Language — named and paid.
- There is at least one real, local fact with a source behind it.
- Someone owns keeping it current.
Until then it stays honest about what it is: the situation, and an open invitation. All countries · See a full country page