Disability is not Inability

:: NEWSLINE in Civic eduaction deal

Thursday 5th 2007 goes down as the eve to easter in which we celebrated the beginning of a truly inclusive Kenya society. The beggining of a series of Civic education progrtamming interpreted in Kenya Sign language is a new standard that not even South Africa or Uganda known regionally for better disability friendly efforts are yet to reach.

The NEWSLINE programme aired on Kenya Television Network (KTN) is reputed to be a leader in interactive debates ever since its inception. The popular programme working from an improved studio setting began over two years ago with equal participation that brought democracy to new levels in kenyan socio-political public dbeate.

Democracy is about citizens making informed decisions on how they want to be governed within an environment of monitoring and evaluation of the governor. With wider space brought by a more hands-off president, weaker political party structures and higher affinty of Kenyans to talk out their issues than to fight, the role of mobilisation of public opinion required a more representative forum.

What began with a forum in which citizen representatives of various sectors would come into a studio and work out their differences in voice and visual heated debates on Radio and TV before polling it in an election has discovered a way to include the last constituency in democratic discourse. KTN working with URAIA a funded national civic education institution with the objective of improving civic partcipation found the role of sign language in debate possible to empower those of us with hearing impairments.

The topic to begin with was in interesting one that is also solicits heated debate among the hearing impaired and persosn with disability in general. Does the society distribute resources equally?
The question was interestingly put by one of the participants living with a disability Ms Salome Kimata. She said that many of the governance structures do effectivly discriminate against person with disabilities both in terms of structures, access, services and representation. She gave the example of the Nationla Funds being established to distribute some form of finance to the Youth and Women. Though the PWDs are most vulnerable the fund catering for their needs has not been announced.

But the gist of the whole session was the fact that though not physically present a new constituency was silently following the heated but one sided debate. Those of us with hearing impairments were attentive to the fluent interpretation by one of the leading sign language interpreters in Kenya Aggrey Akaranga. The caption set at the bottom left of the screen was quite ground breaking.

Those of us with hearing impairments were attentive to the fluent interpretation by one of the leading sign language interpreters in Kenya Aggrey Akaranga. The caption set at the bottom left of the screen was quite ground breaking.

Ground breaking signs

Several issues came to mind as for the first time i didnt have to do the interpretation to by firends with whom we were watching the late night show.

* That for the first time some how the governement works would be expalined to perons with hearing impairments.

* That this civic education would solicit some form of desire to make more informed decisions during a voting session.

* That Political structures would suddenly see the relevance of the hearing impaired and indeed the disability community in general as constituents with rights and needs.

* That there would be more representation of these groups in various opinions that shape programmes and projects at variuos levels of development management.

* That the public awareness on issues related to inclusion and sign language would increase and reach levels that their opinion expressed is respected as equal citizens.

* That various types engagements of all perons with disability would be entrenched at different levels of opportunity expansion from constituency to national level.

More of a standard than an exception

While maybe the coming fibre optic cables, digital TV, cheaper mobile telephone costs would have to come for the next level of two way sign communcation through video messages sent through your mobile. The current sms interation is adequate. The onus is now to make such debates more of a media standard than an exception so that this constituency would feel at home participating in such debates.

It should be a law that all National events televised live should have a sign language interpretation. It is also wise that all these mobilisation be translated into some concrete programmes to improve the socio-economic and political structures to be more disability friendly.

This visibility will also help in improving the quality of Sign language especially in relation to civic education matters. This is an area quite a number of sinlge signs are not available. Many words had to be broken down making interpretation challenging. The need for more standardisation of civic structures vocabulary and concepts determines alot to what extent this would mobilise widespread internal debate among the deaf community.

Inclusion of the deaf in democratic process.

Internal debate is the necessary next step to mobilise various opinions that will inform civic choices in constitutional and general elections. I had to expalin a few issues in relation to various concepts. the understanding of modes of engagement at various levels is necessary. The need to build leadership from the disability community that can represent the interests of the community in national structures is only time away.

The Role of the media in ensuring that all newscasts are disability-friendly is quite necessary. there is also need for the government to give incentive to private media to be able to achieve this standardisation.

The programme also brought to fore the need to look afresh at the planned televising of parliamentary debate. The Bomas draft indicated targed to make sign language the thrid national language. Fresh look into the inclusion of this provision in other drafts is necessary. Finally that parliament need not only nominate PWDs representatives but also ensure all Hansard records are also in sign language.

The Role of the media in ensuring that all newscasts are disability-friendly is quite necessary. there is also need for the government to give incentive to private media to be able to achieve this standardisation.

The political parties bill that indicates at least five percent of its representatives should be persons with disability is also an effective way to rope in this constituency. This would especially be important if the Political Parties bill is passed with the provisions that the a) the political parties would be funded by public funds and b) that at least 5% of the representation of political parties at all levels should include Persons with disabilities.

Raising civic awareness has its implications and the time has surely come for the society to ensure that all citizens are represented not only in paying tax but also in compensation for inaccessible services. The Persons with Disability ACT 2004 need a time frame and the disability community is watching which political party will give us a realistic timeframe to implement the ACT.

Joel Omondi

disabilitykenya

Category: Inclusion, education

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