They also had an impact on the development of sign language in various institutions, including Unisa and University of Cape Town, and it is hoped this influence will extend to other institutions.
However, one must not overlook the fact that despite being a minority language, sign language already enjoys significant language rights. For example, the SA Schools Act recognised it as an official language in 1996.
The Use of Official Languages Act of 2012 provided another benefit that was not even enjoyed by the other 11 official languages; with this Act, state entities had to establish a language policy outlining the use of official languages for public communication, specifically if a member of the public chose sign language as their preferred language.
It also benefited from protection under the SA Sign Language Charter, launched by the SASL National Language Board in 2020, roughly three years before it became official.
On a human rights level – which is more relevant to those living with hearing impairments – making sign language official still had no significant effect on any of their human rights. This is simply because they already enjoy their rights. However, what the officialisation cost the Deaf community is the privilege to choose sign language as their language of interaction with the state – the very one that official languages do not enjoy.
This is thus a disadvantage to the Deaf community, considering that they already suffer from a lack of interpreters. Nicky Bezuidenhout highlighted that there was a “lack of access to crucial services like healthcare and justice due to a shortage of qualified sign language interpreters”.
Therefore, many deaf people rely on untrained or unqualified individuals, and mostly even family members, to act as interpreters.
This was mostly the case in my life, being a child of a deaf adult and having to interpret for my parents. And besides my proficiency in sign language, there was still the matter of a breach of confidentiality. This is a common problem for many people.
Therefore, more sign language interpreters are needed. Additionally, it is up to everyone to take it upon themselves to learn sign language through the various provisions that are available today.
The UFS, among a few other institutions such asWits, Durban and North-West universities, makes such a provision through its SASL short course.
Another way to learn is through mobile applications such as DEAFinition and the NID SASL dictionary. The previous platforms also offer inexpensive online courses. This way, one can be equipped with sign language fundamentals to at least be able to hold a conversation without the need for an interpreter.
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Language must be included in mainstream schools curriculum
It has been a year since President Cyril Ramaphosa signed off on the amendment bill to include South African Sign Language (SASL) as one of the country’s official languages. And one may wonder: What has changed since then?
After all, many individuals and organisations, including the Deaf Federation of SA (DeafSA), the National Institute for the Deaf (NID), and Deaf rights activists from the Deaf community*, believed that official recognition of sign language would lead to significant developments for the language and the Deaf community.
Since then, sign language has mostly benefited from exposure from the SASL Indabas that PanSALB held on March 9-10 2023 and another on February 1-2. These Indabas were aimed at “discussing the standardisation of sign language and mapping a way forward”.
They included several stakeholders, such as our own institution, the University of the Free State (UFS).
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They also had an impact on the development of sign language in various institutions, including Unisa and University of Cape Town, and it is hoped this influence will extend to other institutions.
However, one must not overlook the fact that despite being a minority language, sign language already enjoys significant language rights. For example, the SA Schools Act recognised it as an official language in 1996.
The Use of Official Languages Act of 2012 provided another benefit that was not even enjoyed by the other 11 official languages; with this Act, state entities had to establish a language policy outlining the use of official languages for public communication, specifically if a member of the public chose sign language as their preferred language.
It also benefited from protection under the SA Sign Language Charter, launched by the SASL National Language Board in 2020, roughly three years before it became official.
On a human rights level – which is more relevant to those living with hearing impairments – making sign language official still had no significant effect on any of their human rights. This is simply because they already enjoy their rights. However, what the officialisation cost the Deaf community is the privilege to choose sign language as their language of interaction with the state – the very one that official languages do not enjoy.
This is thus a disadvantage to the Deaf community, considering that they already suffer from a lack of interpreters. Nicky Bezuidenhout highlighted that there was a “lack of access to crucial services like healthcare and justice due to a shortage of qualified sign language interpreters”.
Therefore, many deaf people rely on untrained or unqualified individuals, and mostly even family members, to act as interpreters.
This was mostly the case in my life, being a child of a deaf adult and having to interpret for my parents. And besides my proficiency in sign language, there was still the matter of a breach of confidentiality. This is a common problem for many people.
Therefore, more sign language interpreters are needed. Additionally, it is up to everyone to take it upon themselves to learn sign language through the various provisions that are available today.
The UFS, among a few other institutions such asWits, Durban and North-West universities, makes such a provision through its SASL short course.
Another way to learn is through mobile applications such as DEAFinition and the NID SASL dictionary. The previous platforms also offer inexpensive online courses. This way, one can be equipped with sign language fundamentals to at least be able to hold a conversation without the need for an interpreter.
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Furthermore, we can only anticipate that since sign language is officially recognised, it will become more accessible in higher education institutions, as mentioned earlier, and will be included in the school curriculum, particularly for mainstream schools. As a result, more people will have the opportunity to learn sign language.
Nonetheless, it has only been a year and matters regarding language plans and policies often require a great amount of resources, with time being the greatest of all. We can only hope that its officialisation has indeed led to the cultural acceptance of sign language and the relevant community, promoting substantive equality and preventing unfair discrimination based on disability.
* It is important to make a distinction between deaf people who are deaf but do not identify as part of the Deaf community and do not use SASL (who are referred to with a lower case “d’’), and those who are deaf and are part of the Deaf community, making use of SASL as their first language (who are referred to using a capitalised ‘D’).
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