The Ugandan Parliament, through Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, has pledged total support for all legislations tabled in favor of the People with Disabilities (PWDs) in the country, especially the deaf, to ensure that their conditions improve.
Rt. Hon. Tayebwa made the pledge in a message delivered by the National Female Member of Parliament representing the PWDs Hon. Laurah Kanushu, who represented him as the chief guest at the International Day of the Deaf celebrations in Sembabule district on Friday.
Tayebwa said they are well aware of the challenges facing the deaf, and will support any initiatives to address them.
“I am happy to celebrate with the disability movement and the deaf community, and as the Parliament of Uganda he commits to continue to support us”, She read.
At the function, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) in collaboration with Eight-Tech has partnered with the Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD), to launch the Digitization and Standardization of Uganda Sign Language and Digital Inclusion of the Deaf community in Uganda.
This is intended to alleviate hitches the deaf community face in communicating with other people including some false interpreters.
Hon. Kanushu said sign language should be taught to non-deaf people to enable them communicate effectively with the deaf community, tasking every government agency to recruit an interpreter for the deaf to facilitate access to services especially in health and inclusive education.
“The recruitment of sign language interpreters, Hon. Minister, in your docket of health we are doing badly, when it comes to sign language interpreters. When a deaf person comes to the hospital and is about to give birth, the midwife tells her to push, and she does not hear it, so Hon. before Asamo left the ministry he had started an initiative to get sign language interpreters for us, I want you to follow up because we deaf people give birth, get sick, go to hospitals but when we go there who interprets for us?”, she asked.
She also challenged lawmakers and other leaders to take responsibility of monitoring government’s programs to improve livelihoods of the PWDs.
According to Sembabule district chairman Mr. Patrick Nkalubo, Sembabule has about 20,000 deaf people calling on the government to establish more schools for such communities to access quality education.
“We have over 20,000 deaf people with more being born, we request that the government support us construct a specialized school for the deaf in Sembabule”, he said.
This year’s celebrations were held under the theme; Declaring Deaf People’s Human Rights; Innovations that Guarantee Access to Social Services and Empowerment.
By Juliet Kigongo.
