15 May 2013

Service providers should remove any obstacle that may hinder people living with disabilities (PWDs) from performing to their level best, Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Dr Gloria Somolekae has said.

Officiating at the sign language training workshop this week, Dr Somolekae said through their day to day interaction with other people, it was clear that PWDs had the talent and potential that could be brought to the surface.

She said although government had made an effort to provide interpreters for television news, a lot still needed to be done since there were numerous programmes which PWDs did not benefit from as they had not been interpreted.

 She said this was a challenge, which should be conquered, therefore it was imperative for service providers to create a  conducive environment for PWDs.

Dr Somolekae stated that service providers’ knowledge of sign language could help them offer better and more dignified services to people with hearing impairment. 

She said people with hearing impairment communicated through sign language, which many people were not conversant with and as such they faced many challenges in trying to get services.

Dr Somolekae further noted that  because hearing impairment was not obvious and was by nature hidden, those suffering from it were either neglected or side-lined. 

This, she said, resulted in people with a hearing impairment living in a lonely world, especially when no one understood their language.

For his part, coordinator of the Office for People With Disabilities, Mr Thomas Motingwa, said issues concerning PWDs had been left behind and for them to be taken on board, there was need to know their language and be able to talk to or with them.

Sign language, Mr Motingwa said, was a language in its own right, which was used by people with hearing impairment to communicate. He said just like any other language, sign language was important and could be learnt and used as a means of communication. 

“If we could all know how to use it, life will be easy for our sisters, brothers, friends and relatives who are hearing impaired,” he added. 

The five-day workshop, which was facilitated by the Botswana Society for the Deaf, was to enable Office of the President staff to learn sign language, promote deaf integration into the mainstream society and promote confidentiality and Botho among people with hearing impairment .

The workshop also aimed at breaking the communication barrier between people with hearing impairment and others, promoting better service provision to PWDs and ensuring that disability issues were mainstreamed to all sectors and services. ENDS