By Emmanuel Onyango
Earlier this month, the South African parliament unanimously approved a constitutional amendment to recognise sign language as the country’s 12th official language.
Legal backing will give it equal status as the other national languages - Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
Half of the country uses isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans as first languages respectively, with English fourth although it is the most dominant in government and urban areas.
“The deaf community now has recognition as a cultural and linguistic minority in South Africa. It is the first step to opening the door of what they have been looking for over the years,” Claudine Störbeck, the director at Centre for Deaf Studies in Johannesburg, told TRT Afrika.
When President Cyril Ramaphosa signs the amendment into law, as is expected, it will be a story of years of work led by campaigners, scholars, researchers and policy makers.
Advancing acceptance
At least 400,000 South Africans are known to use sign language, but the official number of those with hearing impairment could be higher as they have previously been grouped under people with disability.
South Africa’s constitution does not obligate government to use all official languages in administration. It sets the limit to at least three.
But official status for sign language gives the deaf community grounds to push for more inclusion.
“The community now has a legal position to say enough is not being done on the quality of government service to those with hearing impairments and to have more expectations especially in provision of education of the deaf,” Prof Störbeck said.
There are only 43 schools for the deaf in the country. Lawmakers noted as much when passing the amendment, with a statement from parliament saying the amendment would “advance the cultural acceptance of sign language” and grant equal protection to the rights of persons who are deaf and hard of hearing.
The official status of sign language will “ensure that the playing field is levelled for every learner to be taught and assessed on an equal footing”, said Umalusi, the agency in charge of quality controls in education.
“It implies that for teaching and learning purposes, the language must be allocated equitable resources,” it added in a statement soon after the amendment was approved by parliament.
Breaking barriers
In South Africa, news bulletins and government announcements on television are simultaneously interpreted in sign language.
But sign language interpreters are unavailable in most public offices. For instance last year the authorities in Western Cape Province confirmed to have no single sign language interpreter employed on a full-time basis.
The 2015 murder of a deputy principal at a school for the deaf saw trial postponed numerously due to unavailability of sign language interpreters.
It took six years for the suspects, who were both deaf, to be sentenced.
“The deaf community should be able to equally access justice and to be able to report abuse because most of them are usually targeted. Court cases have been known to drag because there were no interpreters,” Prof Störbeck said.
She added: “With official recognition, government will now have to commence development of a cohort of (public service) staff on use of sign language who can comfortably communicate in the language.”
Though campaigners hail the progress being made in achieving equality for people with disability, they say more work is still needed to ensure full participation of members the deaf community in public affairs.
Some say places like police stations and health facilities are likely to witness significant improvement in dealing with cases relating to deaf people as some of the existing communication barriers will be broken.
They also want private companies to be more inclusive by adding sign language during job interviews and their day-to-day running.
“Official recognition of sign language is not the end, there is still need for concerted effort in terms of implementation,’’ Prof Störbeck said.
