Disability is not Inability

:: How do we communicate with deaf at night.

The deaf use their eyes to hear. light is therefore an important aspect of communication. a deaf person must be able to see what the other person is saying. In relationships you have to develop cues that help in case of say darkness.

In a relationship say a family in which both husband and female are deaf, it is usually advisable to have a thrid person most likely a child who can hear. Many deaf families the children have developed skills to assiist their parents in various house communication roles. Quite a number of families of deaf parents the child interprets TV news or programmes.

Children learn to communicate in Sign language at an early age, an take up this role. They will hear when there is a knock on the door. They will interpret in communicating with the outside world say neighbour, shopkeeper etc. They play an important role in say telling the mother the baby is crying.

Many a deaf people have a patent fear for darkness. This is especially true among deaf girls or women. The dark has its demons that perpetuate fear of the unknown. This is made worse by the fact that you cannot hear anything approaching.

Those who live in towns have a bigger fear than those who live in the village. Those who live in the village have a more definite fear. It is either of a man or an animal in the darkness. But they have learnt to walk at night with some skills.

Men who are deaf are more fearful of the animals or police or robbers.
Many police assume the person they are talking to can hear. They use alot of voice based commands to instill fear. this does not work well with the deaf and many a police think they are stubborn.

There have been cases during the course of raids by police to fish out the so-called Mungiki in areas like Dandora or Kayole where some of the houses raided were occupied by deaf person who was asleep. Its hard for a deaf person to communicate at such situations. They did not hear the commands to open the door, they did not hear the door being broken into, some do hear the loud bang. Then the confusion of police brutality and lack of communication amid darkness.

The police need to learn sign language, but also society including neighbours in many a community need to learn some signs. many a deaf would help you get the basics if you care to become friends.

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