NASLI Focus: Croatia
July 20, 2026
Intro
Welcome to NASLI focus, our new series putting one member association in the spotlight. We start in Croatia with HZJ, who will welcome us all in Zagreb this year for the efsli conference 🇭🇷 👋
Next episodes
NASLI focus: each episode, one member association shares its story, its victories and its battles.
Episode 1: Croatia
Hrvatskog društva prevoditelja znakovnog jezika (HZJ)
Croatian Association of Sign Language Interpreters
Country:
Croatia 🇭🇷
Founded:
September 2016
Members:
24
Main challange
Since a 2023 law reclassified interpreters as communication mediators, they are dispersed across many organisations. This makes it hard to build a strong professional identity and a unified voice.
Proudest achievements
HZJ is now an elective course at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, thanks to HZJ. In 2023, its pioneering work on crisis interpreting won a national civil protection award from the Ministry of the Interior..
History and Founding
In what context was your association created? Who were the people behind it, and what concrete problem were they trying to solve at the time?
The association was founded in September 2016 in Zagreb by a group of dedicated Croatian Sign Language (HZJ) interpreters, professional linguists, and experts deeply intertwined with the Deaf community and academia. Before its establishment, sign language interpreting in Croatia lacked a distinct, autonomous professional body solely focused on the professionalisation of interpreters themselves. The founders aimed to solve a critical, fundamental problem: the absence of professional standards, structural specialised training, and a formalised code of ethics that separated the profession of interpreting from general social work or passive assistance.
How was the sign language interpreting profession perceived in your country back then by public authorities, by the Deaf community, by society in general?
Historically, public authorities and society in general viewed sign language interpreting primarily through a charitable lens - interpreters were often seen as "helpers" or well-meaning assistants, rather than highly qualified linguistic experts. Within the deaf community, although interpreters were heavily relied upon, the line between providing professional services and personal advocacy was often blurred, largely because the majority of CASLI members are persons from deaf families. While the formal recognition of Croatian Sign Language by the 2015 Act provided a legal basis, practical societal perception continued to lag behind, treating the service as an act of social care rather than a fundamental human and civil right to professional linguistic access.
Evolution and How You Work Today
How has the role of your association changed since it was founded? Are the needs you respond to still the same as at the beginning?
Since 2016, the association has evolved from a grassroots initiative to a key national and international stakeholder. While the fundamental need for key professionalisation remains, the scope of the requirements has expanded exponentially. CASLI has shifted to establishing professional guidelines and bridging the national context with the European and global frameworks through regional representation and the implementation of various projects.
How does your association function today—who keeps it running on a day-to-day basis?
Today, the Association operates through its Board of Directors, specialised committees (such as the Ethics Committee) and active members comprising both hearing and Deaf experts. Day-to-day operations are handled by the Board of Directors, which manages administration, project applications, workshop organisation, membership support and strategic partnerships. The Board also actively manages incoming requests for professional language services to connect clients with qualified interpreters. However, we must note that we would welcome more involvement from the wider membership. This is a recurring issue in most voluntary associations: a small core of individuals do most of the work, while the rest of the membership remains somewhat passive.
Working Conditions in the Profession
Do your members work in satisfactory conditions today, in terms of pay, recognition, and access to continuing professional development?
Progress has been made, but shortcomings remain. Although language recognition has increased and access to continuing professional development (CPD) has improved thanks to the consistent efforts of associations - such as holding workshops led by accredited conference interpreters - financial compensation and formal recognition of work still fall short of the standards found in spoken language conference interpreting. While interpreter salaries have increased since the implementation of the Personal Assistance Act in 2023, they remain lower than those of spoken language interpreters.
What remains most difficult to change in your national context?
Despite ongoing advocacy, there is still no formal training for HZJ interpreters at the academic level. This is precisely why we chose education as the core topic of the efsli conference - to highlight international best practices and outline how they can be effectively implemented in Croatia.
Relationship with the Deaf Community
Does your association have a formal or informal relationship with Deaf organisations in your country? How did that relationship develop?
The association maintains a deep, structurally sound and collaborative relationship with Deaf organisations. This alliance has developed organically from a shared goal: ensuring full accessibility and the protection of human rights for sign language users. Furthermore, CASLI has included Deaf interpreters on an equal footing since its inception, applying the exact same criteria as for hearing interpreters. Notably, a member of CASLI also serves as the current president of the Croatian Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HSGN).
Are Deaf interpreters represented in your association, as members or within your governance? If that is not yet the case, how do you think about this question?
Yes, inclusion is a fundamental principle of the association. CASLI is explicitly structured to bring together Deaf and hearing interpreters, as well as academic experts. Deaf interpreters are represented within the membership and actively participate in CASLI’s governing bodies such as the Ethics Committee. Furthermore, Deaf interpreters are increasingly involved in International Sign interpreting, as well as in the translation of written texts.
Achievements, Ongoing Challenges, and an Anecdote
What is the achievement your association is most proud of?
The association is immensely proud of raising national professional standards through the implementation of a comprehensive Code of Ethics and the creation of targeted educational workshops. Another major milestone is our long-standing cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, where we helped introduce HZJ as an elective course open to all students.
Furthermore, we are deeply proud of our pioneer work in language standardisation and curriculum development. CASLI has successfully developed the first official HZJ textbooks and learning materials for the A1 and A2 levels, aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), while currently actively working on the B1 level textbook. This provides the essential, structured linguistic foundation previously missing in our national education framework.
Finally, a crowning institutional achievement was receiving the prestigious Annual Civil Protection Award in March 2023, presented by the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Protection Directorate. This historic recognition was awarded following our successful project focused on crisis interpreting, which included adapting emergency protocols into HZJ, producing crisis video instructions, creating an online crisis glossary, and drafting the first official Guidelines for Interpreters in Crisis Situations. This award marks a pivotal moment for our profession in Croatia, formally validating sign language interpreting not merely as a social welfare tool, but as an indispensable pillar of public safety, crisis response, and national security.
By organising specialised peer-led workshops, pioneering educational curricula, and engaging in high-stakes public safety collaborations, the association has successfully demonstrated that sign language interpreting firmly belongs within the sphere of professional applied linguistics and conference interpreting.
What is the challenge that matters most to you today?
The most critical challenge today is establishing academic-level higher education for HZJ interpreters and securing a binding national system for professional certification. Additionally, we aim to ensure fairer working conditions and greater professional autonomy for interpreters who are currently employed by local Deaf and hard of hearing associations.
Another major challenge is strengthening the advocacy role of our professional association. Since the introduction of the Personal Assistance Act in 2023, sign language interpreters have been officially classified as communication mediators and are employed by a wide range of civil society organisations, many of which are not specialised in working with the Deaf community. As a result, interpreters are dispersed across different organisations, making it difficult to develop a strong professional identity and a unified voice.
This fragmentation has also weakened the position of our association. Many communication mediators do not yet perceive CASLI as the organisation that represents and advocates for their professional interests. At the same time, the responsible ministry does not consistently recognise our association as the primary stakeholder in matters concerning sign language interpreting and therefore rarely consults us when developing policies or regulations affecting the profession.
Strengthening our advocacy capacity is therefore essential. Our goal is to establish the association as the recognised national representative of the profession—both in the eyes of public authorities and among interpreters themselves. By doing so, we can ensure that interpreters have a strong, independent voice in policy-making, that their professional needs are effectively represented, and that future reforms are developed in partnership with the profession rather than without it.
And to close: is there an anecdote, a memorable moment in your association's history, that you would like to share?
The most significant and memorable moment took place during our initial negotiations at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. Following two weeks of intense preparations and a comprehensive comparative analysis of sign language higher education across other European countries, our President at the time was given the floor. She delivered a powerful, highly structured 8-minute pitch to the Faculty’s leadership, bracing for a long, uphill academic battle.
As soon as she finished, the head of the institution looked at us, smiled, and completely caught us off guard by saying: "Well, this is actually exactly what we wanted to do ourselves, we just didn't know who to reach out to until now!”
To add to the magic of the moment, this all happened on International Women's Day. For an association predominantly led by determined, professional women, it was a beautiful and deeply rewarding milestone. It showed us that the academic doors weren't locked; they were simply waiting for a highly professional, well-prepared organisation like CASLI to come and unlock them. It remains a powerful reminder of how far thorough preparation, international benchmarking, and a clear professional vision can take us.