Recognizing sign language, South Africa opens the door of hope for the deaf

The South African government 's official recognition of sign language is a major breakthrough, allowing deaf people like Bongumusa Manana to attend university.

The recognition of South African Sign Language is an important step towards realising the rights of deaf people. (Source: devdiscourse)

Bongumusa Manana, 19, who studies at Sizwile School for the Deaf in Dobsonville, Soweto, describes the South African government’s official recognition of sign language as a major breakthrough that has enabled him to realise his dream of going to university.

In July, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the recognition of sign language as the country's 12th official language, joining English, isiZulu, Afrikaans and others. The move is intended to protect the rights of deaf people and promote inclusion.

The leader stressed that South African Sign Language is “an indigenous language that constitutes an important element of South Africa's cultural and linguistic heritage”, with its own grammatical structure and vocabulary that is distinct and independent of other languages.

Manana shared in sign language that, in the past, deaf people faced communication challenges when going to the police station or taking a taxi and also had limited access to social services.

Currently, South Africa has only about 40 deaf schools and one deaf-accessible higher education institution, meaning the government needs to do more to make higher education accessible to deaf people.

Sign language activist Andiswa Gebashe said sign language is "beautiful and rich" but needs to be more popularized so that more people know about it and can develop it better.

According to the demographic research site World Atlas, only 41 countries in the world recognize sign language as an official language, including 4 African countries: Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The only deaf MP in South Africa's parliament, Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, said the country's recognition of sign language has been a long journey and deaf students are looking forward to the removal of barriers.

Now that sign language has become an official language, Manana “knows that I can go to university and I can make my dreams come true” and furthermore, he “can achieve anything”.

It is estimated that over 600,000 people use South African Sign Language.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cong-nha-n-ngon-ngu-ky-hie-u-nam-phi-mo-canh-cua-hy-vong-cho-nguoi-khiem-thinh-237048.html