Avail Information On COVID-19 In Sign Language - MDC Urges Zimbabwe To Consider The Deaf Community During The COVID-19 Pandemic
The MDC has urged the government and the country at large to consider the deaf community in these perilous times when the world is fighting COVID-19. In a statement posted on their Facebook page, the country’s leading opposition party said efforts to make sure information reaches this community are still minimal across the country.
The statement also spoke about how some deaf and hearing-impaired people communicate using sign language and many services providing institutions such as hospitals, courts and police stations to mention but a few, do not have sign language.
Part of the statement reads:
People who are deaf and hearing impaired are exposed to serious risk because information on COVID-19 is not being presented in accessible formats to them.
Most of the members of this group use sign language to communicate.
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Indeed, our national Constitution states that sign language is one of the sixteen officially recognised languages of Zimbabwe.
However, close to seven years after the constitution was adopted, many service providing institutions institutions such as hospitals, courts and police stations to mention but a few, do not have sign language.
People who are deaf and hearing impaired usually rely on personal friends to interpret for them and in some cases, they lose a lot of information as the interpreter chooses which information to give or not to give.
In some cases, information does not reach people who are deaf or hearing impairments on time thereby making it difficult for them to react timeously.
For instance, most deaf people are vendors and when the security forces and the municipality police do their routine clamp down on vendors, the deaf people are last to vacate their selling points because of the communication barrier between them and other vendors.
In the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, people who are deaf and hearing impaired have not been given information and education on how the disease is spread, how it is prevented and related issues.
Thus, many such people still do not practice social distancing as is recommended.
Secondly, most of the people who are deaf and hearing impaired survive on informal jobs such as vending. The current lock-down has left them without any source of livelihood and in many cases, left out in any program assisting vulnerable people with cash and food handouts.
It is important for both government and the broader society in general to note that a true fight against COVID-19 cannot be successful when people who are deaf and hearing impaired are left behind.
It is therefore important that as a matter of urgency the government should do the following:
Avail information on COVID-19 in sign language including information that is aired on national television
Ensure that hospitals and all the other public institutions have sign language to ensure that persons who are deaf and hearing impaired can get timely services
Educate the public on the plight of people who are deaf or hearing impaired on the issues of COVID-19
Ensure that people who are deaf and hearing impaired are assisted with food and cash to mitigate against the loss of sources of their livelihood.
Dennias Mudzingwa
Secretary for Disabilities and Special Needs
MDC Alliance
Source: Facebook
