Break the barrier now!

According to development actors in the public sector, civil society organisations, and the private sector, opportunities for individuals, especially the youths, to improve their living conditions, and build their future are increasing in the country. They say employment opportunities in agriculture, industry and commerce are increasing, quality education and skill training opportunities and healthcare facilities are becoming more accessible and affordable, telecommunication facilities bringing more and more people closer together and making them better informed about the world around them, good roads are making it easy for passengers and goods to move from place to place. Credit facilities are available for people to promote their businesses, oreven acquire homes, and more youths are participating in recreation and sports.

While this may be true in many aspects, the situation must not be a case of “NYAA LATINEH,  DAALA HARAM”. A saying in Mandinka language which could refer to a situation where opportunities are brought close to door steps of a community but some doors could not open for the room occupants to seize the opportunities. This is what we call barriers and is exactly the situation most people with disabilities find themselves in. The consequences are imposed hardship, dependence, poverty, and inability to improve one's lot.

And you would often hear responsible authorities saying “These barriers are very difficult to eliminate. Let’s give them charity and let them be content with that” Others would say “the situation of having the barriers broken is not worth the amount of resources needed to break these barriers. This ideology itself is not only a gross violation of the human rights of persons with disabilities, it also drives away sympathy and patriotic desire in development actors to come to the aid of persons with disabilities. It is also sad to hear them during their public speeches referring only collectively to persons with disabilities as if there is only one type of disability and that all victims of this disability have identical conditions. Is it lack of their awareness or are they trying to dodge the task of emphasising the various barriers which are so different from each other and their solution requiring different approaches?

Don’t they realise that ignoring such tasks do not eliminate them, and barriers do not eliminate themselves either? What is more, the solution becomes more problematic as the number of victims increases with the passage of time.

So now that the needy persons with disabilities, who are also members of our society and entitled to equal opportunities and equal rights have opportunities lying on their door steps but could not open their doors to it, what justification is there to keep the statuesque? Isn’t it the responsibility of the state to ensure that these doors are open?  We are sure that no barrier can withstand intensivestate intervention.

It is not just a country having ratified the UNCRPD and its optional protocol, formulated and adopted a National disability policy, and establishing the Disability Act 2021 that matters to people with disabilities, but seeing the mechanism changing their lives for the better.

Take the situation of victims of hearing loss for example. As you can see, all the violations of their human rights are rooted in their inability to communicate with others using spoken language.  Schools and training centres are being erected in all areas of the country, but education facilities for this group are still scarce leading to a growing number of illiterates, semiliterates, and unskilled youths among them. This situation in turn leads them to their inability to seize the available employment opportunities, leaving them in extreme poverty, continuous dependency and inability to access proper medical care.

The Gambia victims of hearing loss and their representative organisation (GADHOH)are not only aware of the reality of their situation but also what needs to be done to change their lives for the better.

They are aware that the seemingly insurmountable barrier, or the massive, immovable steel door (in the eyes of the wider Gambian society) that must be flung open before any real development initiative can effectively reach them

Is nothing more than the act of promoting sign language and utilising it. Technical hearing aids, doubtless, are helpful to victims of certain hearing loss. However, considering the economic force that governs our decision makings nowadays, sustainability problems limiting success of development programs, and the UNCRPD Article 2 which says that states are mandated to provide reasonable accommodation for their people with disabilities, the community of people with hearing loss has come to the conclusion that utilising sign language is the most viable strategy.

The use of Gambian sign languages (GSL and Indigenous sign language) have taken foothold and preparations are under way to facilitate their nationwide utilisation. However, resources available for this task are far too limited to match the corresponding demand for them, resulting in stagnation.

We are now calling for establishment of programs that would enable Gambian stakeholders working with an expert or team of experts in African sign language linguistics to help arrange the grammar of the sign languages create reliable learning resources on them, train deaf trainers who will take the future role of extensive, nationwide sign language training of stakeholders such as teachers of schools for the deaf and sign language interpreters. While also undertaking research continuously to cope with the evolving nature of sign language.