BASIC SOUTH

AFICAN SIGN

LANGUAGE

COURSE

Deafness the

Silent Killer

“The Silent Killer”, an article by the University of Bristol in a report called “Sick of it - How the Health Service is failing Deaf people”, states: ”Due to a lack of Sign Language communication, potentially life-threatening health conditions are being missed, and poor treatment is offered when a diagnosis is made” The ‘Sick of it’ report further reveals that Deaf people are twice as likely to have high blood pressure and four times as likely to be showing signs of diabetes. Yet, they are generally just as active as hearing people, with a similar level of healthy diet, and they tend to drink less alcohol and smoke less. This is due to one or more of the following factors: Wrong diagnosis, poor treatment, bad access, lack of information due to communication problems. All related to a lack of Sign Language communication. The situation is worst in South Africa: 98% of South African doctors, nurses, psychologists and social workers cannot communicate with deaf people in SASL. According to the Deaf Federation of South Africa only 6% of the South African hearing population can communicate with deaf people in Sign Language. Think about it, 94% of the South African hearing population cannot communicate with deaf people in Sign Language. Ignorance and lack of Sign Language communication are the main obstacles for deaf people. Imagine you are deaf, and on your way to a training centre in a rural area. It was already dark and you stopped at the wrong gate, got out of your vehicle to open the gate and when a security guard ordered you to stop, you didn’t stop, because you are deaf. The next moment a gunshot was fired and the bullet just missed you. This is not imagination. It actually happened to the first deaf teacher in South Africa. He almost got killed because of deafness!