Durban - Imagine trying to take out a cellphone contract, explain symptoms to a doctor or discuss the specials of the day with a waiter if you are deaf. There is no chance of having the natural exchanges that hearing people enjoy. You can’t hear what is being said and the chances are that the person you are dealing with cannot understand you.
These are some of the frustrations experienced by members of the deaf community every day and it is why the KZN Blind and Deaf Society has launched the Talk Sign campaign to popularise South African Sign language (SASL) and to raise funds to encourage more people to learn to sign.
Shelley Buckle and Norma Millar, two KZN women with links to the deaf community, are throwing their weight behind the campaign and encouraging hearing people to learn SASL.
Shelley, the current Miss Ballito and a former Miss Deaf SA, has been deaf from birth. Norma can hear but has deaf parents.
Shelley, however, has impressive communication skills.
“Because I went to a mainstream school, Our Lady of Fatima, I learnt to lip-read and never learnt sign language,” she says. “When I entered Miss Deaf SA in 2011, I met other deaf girls and was introduced to SASL. I picked it up easily and felt as though I had known it all my life. I ended up winning Miss Deaf SA and decided to host free sign language lessons for hearing people as I feel this is a way to close the gap between the deaf and hearing.”
Shelley is totally deaf in one ear and has 30 percent hearing in the other. She converses easily, thanks to her residual hearing, but she is all too aware of the difficulties faced by deaf people in a hearing world – hence her wish for more people to learn sign language.
Norma became the spokeswoman for her family from an early age as her parents, Jean and Bobby Truter, are deaf.
“I remember, at the age of five, having to phone the doctor, dentist and hairdresser to make appointments for myself, mom and dad,” says Norma, who has a sister six years her junior. “To this day, when we go to a restaurant, I order for the whole table.”
She says it is difficult for deaf people to be part of a social event as they need to face someone squarely in order to lip-read, so group conversations are strenuous and difficult.
“If more people knew sign language, the deaf or hard of hearing would not feel so isolated and lonely in this environment.”
Many deaf people experience prejudice, says Shelley.
“A girl in my class thought I was ‘retarded’ because I ‘spoke funny’ and in the working environment I have had to prove that I am capable. People think that people with disabilities lack intelligence. Deaf people can do anything, except hear. If more people were proficient in sign language it would improve communication and bring the deaf and hearing communities together.”
The president of the KZN Blind and Deaf Society, Justice Zak Yacoob, says it is a human right of every person who is deaf to be able to communicate, to understand others and to be understood.
“Imagine how lonely it must be when you don’t understand what people around you are saying and, no one understands what you are trying to say,” he says. “This is how people who are deaf feel around those who don’t understand South African Sign Language.
“We need to make sign language South Africa’s 12th official language, not only for people who are deaf, but for everyone’s benefit.”
The fake sign language interpreter at the Nelson Mandela memorial service has highlighted the need for sign language to be taken as seriously as any other language.
“I was angry,” says Shelley. “It was an important event, and deaf people were forced to miss out because of the lack of communication.” - Daily News
* SMS “Talk Sign” and your city to 36931 at a cost of R5. All profits will be donated to the Talk Sign campaign. For information on sign language courses, see www.talksign.co.za