Collection of Arnaud Balard artwork

Arnaud Balard is a French Deaf-blind Artist born in 1971. He created the Surdism Art Movement in 2009 in Brussels. He wrote a manifesto to propose artistic exchanges on all Deaf subjects and experiences. Identity, History, Bilingualism, Biculturalism, Audism and Deafhood, all expressed by the emergence of a Deaf Art, is the goal of Surdism.

When asked why he designed a flag for the Deaf, Balard explains that finding a Deaf flag in a crowd one would instantly know there are other people like you who will accept you as you are. You instantly know you would find sign language, or at least someone who knows how to communicate with you. The fundamental aim of having a flag is saying with sign language: WE ARE, WE CAN, and WE WILL. It took him two years of studying flags from all over the globe to imagine the Deaf Union flag. It was approved by the Deaf French National Federation in May 2014. The colors used in the flag; turquoise represents how the Deaf community cherishes Sign Language; yellow symbolizes light, hope, knowledge, and enlightenment; dark blue indicates Deafhood, an individual and collective journey to combat audism and embrace Deaf gain. Dark blue is also the color used by the World Federation of the Deaf.