Today is the International Day of Sign Languages and according to the United Nations Organisation, the occasion is a unique opportunity to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users.
The 2021 theme, declared by the World Federation of the Deaf, is ‘We Sign For Human Rights’, highlighting how each of us – deaf and hearing people around the world – can work together hand in hand to promote the recognition of our right to use sign languages in all areas of life.
According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are more than 70 million deaf people worldwide. More than 80% of them live in developing countries. Collectively, they use more than 300 different sign languages.
Sign languages are fully fledged natural languages, structurally distinct from the spoken languages. There is also an international sign language, which is used by deaf people in international meetings and informally when travelling and socialising. It is considered a pidgin form of sign language that is not as complex as natural sign languages and has a limited lexicon.
On this special day, we let the founder of the Association for People with Hearing Impairment (Aphi), Anita Adeline Gardner, tell us more about the day.
Seychelles NATION: How important is the International Day of Sign Languages? Anita Gardner: The International Week of Deaf People has been celebrated during the last full week of September. Seychelles will celebrate the week from September 23 to 30. This week, we come together to recognise that deaf people have our own communities, our own cultures, our own languages, sign languages, which unite us all.
This year’s theme for the International Week of Deaf People is ‘Celebrating Thriving Deaf Communities’. Deaf communities have been expanding and thriving throughout the years and giving us all strength, now is the time to celebrate their incredible endurance at the local, national and international level. September 23 is marked as sign language day theme ‘We sign for human rights’.
Locally the association will not be able to organise activities as it would have wished due to Covid-19 restrictions. One main activity is a three-day short course for new teachers that have joined our school. It started yesterday and will end tomorrow.
We will also recognise deaf students and adults who have excelled during the year in a small ceremony on Thursday September 30 at the Centre for the Deaf. We will be following webinars organised by the World Federation for the Deaf (WFD).
Seychelles NATION: In Seychelles, do we acknowledge the importance of sign language? Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, we saw an attempt to have sign language during important press conferences. Why did it stop?
Anita Gardner: In the beginning it was not easy. To make people understand that we do have a deaf community in Seychelles and that we needed to put up facilities such as schools and also access to information through sign language. We are now in the process of giving the Seychellois sign language its legal status and we will soon present our documents to cabinet for approval. We will also be having talk with the University of Seychelles to see how we can include sign language as a subject in its curriculum and also to add sign language on its website.
During the pandemic we were present during the press conferences and deaf people were very excited about it but we stopped because masks became compulsory and we were not able to perform but we continued to send information through WhatsApp to the community.
Seychelles NATION: What is the school doing to remedy this shortcoming?
Anita Gardner: The School for the Deaf has also been affected by the pandemic where students were attending school one week at a time. We are also expanding with new students enrolling.
Seychelles NATION: Do we in Seychelles have sign language translators? How many of them are active and what should be done to encourage more people to join in?
Anita Gardner: We trained four sign language interpreters and two deaf mediators in the past but only three are active. We also have one student on training.
Seychelles NATION: Are there sign language classes – where and when?
Anita Gardner: We did organise sign language training for the general public every Saturday mornings but due to Covid-19 we had to cancel. We will resume as soon as the situation is back to normal.
At the moment we are training 12 social workers and they attend classes on Mondays and Tuesdays for six months. This will make their service accessible. We are ready to train other interested groups if they show the interest.
Source: Seychelles Nation
