(Issue, Monday, 19 September 2016)
The
Gambia Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (GADHOH) is once again
celebrating the International Week of the Deaf (22nd – 24th September 2016)
under the theme: “With Sign Language I am equal”.
For
deaf people to:
Have
equal access of participation in the Gambian society as everybody else; be able
to appropriately advocate for their rights; be involved in all decision making
processes concerning their lives; have
access to public information and services such as education, social welfare,
health care, and employment; be able to do almost every job; and lead independent lives.
The
Gambia must identify deaf people as belonging to a cultural and linguistic
community and recognize sign language as their natural language which they need
to use to communicate.
The
government needs to immediately provide resources for the language’s promotion
(training and employment of adequate number of sign language teachers and
interpreters for public service.
The
authorities should enable deaf children to acquire sign language knowledge to
enable them to have full communication with people, improving their cognitive
and social skills. They need access to language from birth.
The
authorities need to facilitate sign language be used as language of instruction
in all subjects with a parallel strong emphasis on teaching, reading and
writing of English language.
