Protect deaf kids’ rights
ABOUT 5% of the world’s population, 360 million people (World Health Organisation, 2016) live with hearing loss, with nearly 32 million being children.
The vast majority of these children live in the world’s low- and middle-income countries. In South Africa, about 6 116 babies a year (17 babies every day) are born with a hearing loss.
The way that humans perceive their world is mediated through sensory experience. Hearing fundamentally facilitates communication and fosters social interaction, allowing people to forge relationships, participate in daily activities, learn, grow and develop.
Two of the fundamental rights of all children, but especially the most vulnerable and marginalised of all, namely children who are deaf/ hearing impaired, are the rights to quality education and access to information.
On this Human Rights Day, the Carel du Toit Trust & Centre calls upon the government and all parts of society to work to:
Ensure that all children who are deaf/hearing impaired have access to quality education, supportive of their unique communication needs, ensuring access to information.
Ensure that all children with hearing loss have access to the required hearing technology, rehabilitation services and communication tools and products that they require to live a healthy, happy and productive life.
The Carel du Toit Trust is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation established in 1988.
The trust works to realise our vision of a world where children who are deaf have universal access to early identification, appropriate hearing technology, audiological support, therapeutic services and ultimately functional spoken language.
Bell (PhD in Education, MBA) was appointed as the director of the Carel du Toit Trust . She has worked as a member of the Global Co-operation on Assistive Technologiesteam at the WHO, aiming to make high quality assistive products accessible and affordable, especially in low-income countries.
She is a mother of a daughter born with a profound hearing impairment. Diane’s PhD thesis focused on students with hearing impairment in higher education.
She also serves as a member of the South African Presidential Working Group on Disability.