Good signs for the badlyaffected hearing impaired

50 people to be trained as sign language interpreters to fill the huge void in government departments

Hearing impaired people face many hurdles due to a lack of sign language translators in government offices, Social Services Department's senior sign language interpreter Chammi Nishara Dias said.

She said Sri Lanka has 25 special schools for differently abled children as well as many vocational training centres but the government has only six sign language interpreters including two experts.

“These people face many difficulties and are sometimes subjected to ill treatment by others who are unaware of their conditions. Simple tasks like getting directions while getting about is a tedious task for them,” she said.

Even in court, they face discrimination and face many hardships especially if they have to give evidence, she added.

However, with Sri Lanka becoming a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in February this year, the Social Empowerment and Welfare Ministry is working on empowering such persons.

The Convention makes it obligatory on the state to provide facilities including accessibility, security and equality before the law while prohibiting cruelty, discrimination and violence against the differently abled.

Ms. Dias said a committee will be appointed to look into the rights of disabled persons and the Social Services Department will launch a project with the guidance of the Social Empowerment and Welfare Ministry to train 50 sign language interpreters.

She said interviews were held to recruit people willing to be trained as sign language translators and they will undergo a training of one year during which period they would be paid a monthly allowance of Rs 20,000. The training programme will begin next month.