23 Mar 2017

People with hearing impairment are still not treated with respect, dignity and fairness by service providers.

Speaking at the HIV/AIDS sign language materials launch in Gaborone recently, Botswana Association for the Deaf (BOAD) project coordinator, Ms Shirley Keoagile said deaf people were seldom reached by HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment basic services prevention messages.

He said the messages were not accessible to people with hearing impairment because health practitioners lacked knowledge on how to engage with them.

She said it was important for people with hearing impairment to know their HIV status so that they could protect themselves, their partners and families in their relationships.

She highlighted that they had created a video to help people who want to learn the sign language.

Ms Keoagile further said government needed to create educational programmes to train and qualify Botswana sign language interpreters.

She encouraged Batswana to learn Botswana sign language so that they could be able to communicate and socialise with people with hearing impairment.

On other issues, she said they were benchmarking from South Africa to come up with HIV and AIDS sign language materials.

She encouraged health-care workers and community medical facilities to increase their accessibility work with deaf persons around HIV prevention and treatment.

For his part, NACA chief economic planner, Mr Robinson Dimbungu said perpetrators took advantage of people with disabilities and that such a vice led to new infections of HIV/AIDS.

He thanked BOAD for creating HIV/AIDS sign language materials because such would help to reduce communication barrier between people with hearing impairment and medical officers. ENDS