When the world is silent… How deaf students suffer discrimination, dearth of interpreters in schools

“Dear uncle Wuni,” the letter written by a teenager to her mentor began. “It’s about my dreams,” she wrote. “Sometimes I sit down quietly thinking. I know my dreams and I want to achieve my dreams.” For Caro [not her real name] she is clear about what her dreams are but for her dreams to […]

“Dear uncle Wuni,” the letter written by a teenager to her mentor began. “It’s about my dreams,” she wrote. “Sometimes I sit down quietly thinking. I know my dreams and I want to achieve my dreams.”

For Caro [not her real name] she is clear about what her dreams are but for her dreams to come true, she needs an education. But her letter to her mentor is because she is considering leaving her school.

“It’s my wish to study science and become a doctor but they told me that I cannot study science and I cannot become a doctor because I am deaf?” She wrote. “Please explain to my parents about it. Tell them I can’t stay in this school.”

For Disability Rights Activist, deaf child advocate and counselor and the Director at Deaf Technology Foundation, Wuni Bitrus,  Caro’s plight is one he is all too familiar with. When Caro told him her dream, he knew it was difficult and told her so.

“So in JSS three the student prayed that her parents can afford hearing and other aids for her so that she can attend normal schools,” he told Daily Trust.

Her hopes were heightened when some philanthropists donated hearing aids but before she could get there, the aids had run out. But that was not enough to deter Caro.

“Much later, we took her to an inclusive school that offered science and she got admission. But on getting to the school, she found out that deaf students are not allowed to study sciences. She could not believe it and could not accept it,” Bitrus said.

Desperate, the girl had written to Bitrus, hoping he would find a way around her challenge.

Her father said that his wife’s work as a nurse has always fascinated their daughter, which inspired her to want to be a doctor. But since she has been barred from the science class, he said, she lost interest in school. At the beginning of the new term, they had to convince her to return to school. She goes to class with science text books and continues to read them even though she is not allowed to take the subjects in school.

The plights of deaf students in schools have been overwhelming and depressing but has been largely unknown to society, mainly because the students cannot hear or speak and there are not many people speaking for them.

Daily Trust investigation reveals that most deaf students, especially in secondary schools and tertiary institutions, are often discriminated against in terms or allowing them to study the courses of their choice.

It was gathered that most deaf students are not allowed to study science in secondary schools, while in tertiary institutions they are limited to studying special education.

Most of them struggle to access essential services.

Pantong Dashwet and Plangnan Dennis (both deaf) told our correspondent through writing that they find it stressful to communicate with doctors and nurses in hospitals, and that they have to resort to writing back and forth which is not only tasking but time consuming. Other times they said the communication barrier discourages them from going to hospitals.

For them, finding solution would mean allowing the hearing impaired study medicine and related courses.

But a major hindrance to this is that most schools do not have interpreters for the hearing impaired, which makes it difficult for them to understand lessons and lectures, something the teachers do not take into consideration when they set exams for them along with normal students.

Even the inclusive schools that are supposed to pay special attention to the need of the disabled have fallen short, according to Mr. Bitrus, who says failing to teach the hearing impaired a language they understand is causing frustration, forcing many of them to drop out.

“The ministry of education, responsible for issuing licenses for special schools should wake up and ensure that these schools provide accessible and enabling environment for the deaf child,” he said, while advocating for a “state of emergency on deaf education.”

“The government should also establish science schools for the deaf across the nation,” he said as he challenged Disability Rights Commission to live up to expectations and defend the rights of people with disabilities.

Rev Sister Virginia Ejidike, Vice Principal of Ganaka International School for Inclusive Education in Jos, said in their school, deaf students and other physically challenged persons study any course of their choice.

But even she admitted that they put the students where they fit in rather than where they prefer.

Ejidike said interpreting mathematics formulas for deaf students is a major challenge everywhere.

President of Deaf Students’ Association at the University of Jos and a Student of Special Education Department, Maryam Sajo, said they always find it difficult to cope without interpreters.

“Most times we collect notes from our colleagues to copy at the end of the day, but we often realize that they don’t jot down some key things the lecturers said since we are not hearing,” she said. “Those students only summarize the points because they have the opportunity of listening to the lecturers first hand.”

She laments that most lecturers don’t take this into consideration when grading their exams.

“If we fail they fail us. We are not given any preferential treatment whatsoever, and we all pay the same school fees,” she said.

According to her, they only have two interpreters, and it is often difficult for them to cover all the classes ranging from diploma, degree, masters and Phd classes. Their appeals for more interpreters have fallen on deaf ears, meaning the about 200 deaf students in the school will continue to suffer.

Reacting, the Head of Unit, Hearing Handicap at the University of Jos, Associate Professor Elemukan Isaiah Olayinka confirmed there are only two interpreters at the university while other universities boast of between 20 and 50.

“Lecturers with special skills in interpretation (sign language) usually interpret our lectures. To augment things also, we usually seek for volunteers who understands sign language and are in the same class with people with hearing problems to assist them. Nonetheless, the basic thing is the attitude of people towards them. It matters a lot. People should be friendly with them and always interact with them,” he said.

He thinks because of their special needs, the budget for special education should be 10 times that of others but the system is not “formidable to do that.”

“Apart from interpreters, we also need ‘note takers.’ that is someone that will be taking notes for them. These note takers would go to the class with them like they are also students, note down the lecture and explain everything to them after the class. Note takers are different from interpreters,” he said.

Plateau State Disability Rights Commision Chairman, James David Lalu said he suffered a lot when he was in school as a result of all the aforementioned challenges faced by deaf persons.

Lalu who is also deaf, and communicated through an interpreter, said he had to improvise while in school to meet up with his academics.

He also mentioned the variations in sign language from one state/region to another as a challenge affecting the hearing impaired.

Another major challenge is deaf students failing Oral English because they cannot get the particular understanding of a question due to inconsistency in signing.

Lalu said there is remarkable improvement in some African countries where they have considerable laws and institutional framework that enforce the rights of the deaf and by extension of people with disabilities.