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General news for Friday, September 25, 2020
Source: universnewsroom.com
2020-09-25
Ghana National Association of the Deaf Calls for Sign Language Legalization
The Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) has called on the government to legalize sign language with a view to closing the communication gap between the deaf and the rest of society.
The Association says that sign language is unique like any other Ghanaian language such as Ga, Twi or Ewe, hence the need to assign it a language and facilitate its use to facilitate communication between the deaf and their counterparts.
George Pinto, a sign language interpreter for the Association, indicated that with this, students will begin to study Ghanaian Sign Language in schools as they do for other local languages when the Parliament successfully enacts this law.
Speaking on Campus Exclusive on Thursday, in celebration of International Sign Languages Day, he said: “By doing so, we will get the majority of Ghanaians to basically communicate with deaf people.”
“Today’s program is part of an awareness raising, we ask the government to back up Ghana’s sign language with the law. We want the legal recognition of the Ghanaian sign language to become one of the national languages and if it is done, basic schools will start to learn it just as they do with Ewe, Akan, Ga, ”he said.
He pleaded with Ghanaians to accept sign language as they do with other languages spoken in the country. For him, this will help integrate deaf people into public services and society.
Meanwhile, a sign language teacher, Emmanuel Addo Asare, revealed that potential people request his teaching only in cases where they realize that having knowledge of sign language will be advantageous for a particular purpose.
“My observation has been that someone will approach you to learn sign language basically because the person has an interest in using sign language for a purpose, but without that it is rare. Then someone will come to you to learn because the person is going to a disability program and they will need it, that’s why they want to learn, ”he said.
International Sign Language Day is a day commemorated on September 23 of each year as a unique opportunity to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of the deaf and other users of sign language.
In 2020, the World Federation of the Deaf issued a Global Leaders Challenge in the perspective of promoting the use of sign languages by local, national and global leaders in partnership with national deaf associations in each country, as well as other deaf people. . led organizations.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Sign languages are for everyone!”
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