DeafSA

1
DeafSA

• Presentation to the
• Joint Constitutional Review Committee

2
Introduction

• DeafSA represents about one (1) million Deaf
  people in South Africa
• Recognised internationally by inter alia the
  World Federation of the Deaf (WFD)
• Founded in 1929
• Provides services to the Deaf community on a
  national level
• Registered in terms of the Non Profit
  Organisations Act
• 1994 DeafSA transformed
• constitutional change
• Deaf majority members serving on all the
  organisations management structures
• self-representation enabled DeafSA to be accepted
  as an ordinary member of the World Federation of
  the Deaf (WFD)

3
DeafSAs Mission

• To promote the interests of the Deaf and hard of
  hearing effectively on a national level in
  Southern Africa.

4
Purpose of Presentation

• To give effect to one of DeafSAs objectives as
  listed in our constitution, which is
• To pro-actively facilitate and successfully lobby
  for the acceptance, recognition, development,
  utilisation of resources/interpreter service of
  South African Sign Language, as a medium of
  communication with Deaf persons, as the 12th
  official language.
• DeafSA regards this objective as a key towards
  effectively promoting all other interests of Deaf
  people

5
Legislation

• DeafSA has thus far contributed towards the
  following legislation and codes of good practice
  
• Recognition of SASL as Deaf peoples primary mode
  of communication in terms of the South African
  Constitution Act No 108 of 1996.
• Recognition of SASL as a medium of instruction
  for the purpose of educating Deaf Children SA
  Schools Act.
• Education White Paper 6 (DoE 2001).
• Codes of Good Practice for People with
  Disabilities Telecommunications and
  Broadcasting Industries (ICASA March 2006).
• White Paper on an Integrated National Disability
  Strategy, whereby the disability in general is
  premised on the social model away from the
  previous medical model (Office of the Deputy
  President 1997).
• Codes of Good Practice on the Employment of
  People with Disabilities (DoL 2002).

6
Developing and Promoting South African Sign
Languagee

• Comprehensive business plan detailing the process
  of developing and promoting SASL with the
  ultimate purpose of having SASL recognised as
  the12th official language.
• National Deaf March during which a memorandum was
  handed to the Minister of Education to demand
  that SASL be used as a medium of instruction at
  all schools for the Deaf in line with the SA
  Schools Act - Educational Task Team (ETT) was
  established.
• Successfully registered the unit standard for
  SASL as an additional language with SAQA.
• Position Paper for SASL and SASL Interpreter
  Services.
• Training of SASL interpreters
• Registered course with SAQA (NQF Level 5)
• Accreditation of SASL Interpreters according to
  International Practices.

7
What is SASL?

• Visual language.
• SASL was developed naturally and Deaf people have
  used SASL to communicate for centuries in spite
  of its history of oppression by the wider
  society. SASL will continue to exist for many
  more centuries to come, in line with the saying-
• As long as there are Deaf people, there will be
  Sign Language.
• SASL is a fully-fledged natural language, which
  developed through use by a community of users
  namely Deaf people.
• It has its own grammatical rules (syntax).
• SASL is a true language
• SASL can express the entire range of human
  experience.
• Sign Language is not universal

8
Status Of Sign Languages Around The World

• WFD encourages the national federations of the
  Deaf (including DeafSA) to work towards official
  recognition of Sign Languages for the purpose of
  communication accessibility for Deaf people.
• The countries in which Sign Languages have been
  accepted, recognised and/or protected are listed
  below

Austria Hungary Spain
Belgium Ireland Sweden
Canada Italy Switzerland
Colombia Lithuania Thailand
Cyprus New Zealand The Netherlands
Czech Republic Norway Uganda
Finland Poland United Kingdom
Flanders Portugal United State
France Slovakia Venezuela
Germany Slovenia
9
Why Recognizing SASL as a 12th official
language?

• Often individuals and groups are treated
  unjustly and suppressed by means of language.
  People who are deprived of linguistic human
  rights may thereby be prevented from enjoying
  other human rights, including fair political
  representation, a fair trial, access to
  education, access to information and freedom of
  speech, and maintenance of their cultural
  heritage. Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination,
  ed. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Phillipson
  (Berlin 1995).
• Bill of Rights.
• Responsibility to ensure that Deaf people are not
  deprived of their human rights on the basis of
  their disability.
• SASL holds the key to a Deaf persons enjoyment
  of virtually all his/her human rights.
• While Deaf people are considered a minority
  group, at the count of one (1) million they are a
  much larger group than some of the users of the
  currently official languages.
• South Africa, as a caring society, can no longer
  continues to ignore such a large group.

10
Constitution of South Africa

• Not only committed to correcting the past
  marginalisation, but also to listen to the
  peoples outcry and compete as strongly as
  possible with the rest of the world.
• A quote of four (4) pertinent points from the
  preamble to the constitution is listed below
• ...Heal the divisions of the past and establish
  a society based on democratic values, social
  justice and fundamental human rights
• Lay the foundation for a democratic and open
  society in which the government is based on the
  will of the people and every citizen is equally
  protected by the law
• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and
  free the potential of each person and
• Build a united and democratic South Africa to
  take its rightful place as a sovereign state in
  the family of nations.

11
Recommendations

• A Task Team composed of representatives from of
  DeafSA and Department of Arts and Culture should
  be established with immediate effect for the
  purpose of monitoring the process of promoting
  and maintaining SASL, which includes
  implementation of various projects.
• Parliament should effect constitutional
  amendments so that SASL becomes a 12th official
  language with immediate effect or within a period
  of six (6) months calculated from October 2006.
• The Department of Arts and Culture should provide
  funds for the development of SASL training
  materials, which include visual SASL
  dictionaries. This process should start by not
  later than March 2007.
• The Department of Arts and Culture should provide
  the necessary funds for the development of
  curriculum for the training of SASL instructors
  so that SASL instruction becomes a recognised
  profession. This process is to start by March
  2007.
• The Department of Education should liaise with
  the tertiary education institutions for the
  purpose of revising the curricula for public
  service professionals such as Doctors, Social
  Workers, Paramedics, Police, etc., to include
  inter alia SASL and Deaf Culture. These curricula
  should become effective from 2008.

12
Recommendations (Continue)

• A comprehensive inter-departmental training
  programme for all the public service personnel on
  SASL and Deaf culture should be carried out with
  funding from each government department, with
  effect from January 2007.
• As a short-term solution relevant to point f)
  above, SASL interpreters should be made available
  at as many public service institutions, as
  possible, with immediate effect so that Deaf
  consumers can receive services in SASL. Funding
  for SASL interpreter should come from each public
  service institution.
• The Department of Arts and Culture, in
  partnership with DeafSA and private sectors
  should run a mass awareness campaign to sensitise
  the public at large on SASL and Deaf culture
  starting in January 2007.
• The Department of Arts and Culture should liaise
  with DeafSA on how to implement recommendation 7A
  of the White Paper on an Integrated National
  Disability Strategy, particularly the continuous
  development of SASL interpretation as a
  profession.
• The Department of Education should liaise with
  DeafSA with immediate effect to discuss ways of
  implementing recommendation 9B of the White
  Paper on an Integrated National Disability
  Strategy, for the betterment of Deaf education.

13

• Sign Language is a real language, equivalent in
  status to any other language. Deaf persons can
  sign about any topic, concrete or abstract as
  economically, as effectively, as rapidly and as
  grammatically as hearing people can. Sign
  Language is influenced by entirely equivalent
  historical social and psychological factors as
  spoken language - there are rules for
  attention-getting, turn-taking, story telling,
  there are jokes, puns and taboo signs, there are
  generational effects observed in Sign Language,
  metaphors and slips of the hand (Penn, 1993,
  p.12).

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