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Opinion: Acknowledge South Africa’s Deaf community by changing your perspective

23 September 2022 | Story Jani de Lange | Photo Rulanzen Martin

Opinion by Jani de Lange, Lecturer and PhD candidate at the Department of South African Sign Language and Deaf Studies, University of the Free State.

September is designated as the National Month of Deaf People in South Africa. This includes the International Week of Deaf People (19-25 September) and the United Nations-recognised International Day of Sign Languages (23 September). This month commemorates the first World Deaf Congress, held in Italy in September 1951, at which the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) was established. The purpose of this month is to raise public awareness about Deaf people’s concerns and successes, about hearing loss, deafness, Deaf culture, as well as sign languages – in our case, South African Sign Language (SASL). The WFD, as the international Deaf organisation, allocates a theme every year to guide Deaf awareness campaigns. This year’s is ‘Building Inclusive Communities for All’. Considering the recent proposed amendment to include SASL as South Africa’s 12th official language, and our yearly celebrations of our diverse heritage on 24 September, this theme is applicable to all South Africans, not only the Deaf. But how much do we really know about this minority group?

To me, the success of this group is evident in their fight for the recognition of SASL, especially with regards to access to quality education. The Deaf community of South Africa has been fighting for the recognition of SASL for many years. The pre-1994 policy of racial segregation was extended to children’s hearing status, which resulted in small pockets of Deaf school communities away from their hearing peers. The education system at the time promoted the use of oralism (teaching Deaf children to lip-read and denying the use of SASL), and many Deaf children did not go to school. Despite this, SASL continued to develop among the different communities. This resulted in different dialects of SASL, a language with its own vocabulary and grammar rules. This language is an integral part of any Deaf person’s identity, and functions as a marker of cultural membership.

SASL needs more recognition as a Home Language

The Schools Act of 1996 recognises sign language (not specifically referring to SASL) as “official” for the purposes of teaching and learning in Deaf Schools. Unfortunately, this stipulation did not necessarily change the educational prospects for this group. While SASL was used as a medium of instruction, it was not accepted as an exit-level Home Language subject. According to an article published in the ‘African Disability Rights Yearbook’ in 2016, this led to many dropping out of school at Grade 7. Some learners were able to attend hearing schools by making use of residual hearing or assistive devices, but they either dropped out, or completed Grade 12 with poor results. Only a small group finished with an endorsed certificate. In all these scenarios, the prospects for tertiary education and employment are limited. A step towards improving educational opportunities for the Deaf was achieved in 2009: A family wanted their child to eventually attend a tertiary institution. Given the drawbacks of attending a hearing school, they did not want to risk their child’s chances, so they took the Department of Basic Education to court. After the case was settled out of court, SASL was implemented as an exit-level Home Language subject in Deaf schools in 2013.

This year, the draft Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill was published to give the Deaf community what they have been fighting for over so many years – official recognition of SASL. But will this recognition contribute to the inclusion of the South African Deaf community in the mainly hearing world? Currently, the legal protection of the Deaf in South Africa is under the umbrella of disability. This view is vested in the pathological perception of deafness, which is the prevailing understanding of the hearing world. To build an inclusive society, it is necessary to look beyond the medical aspect of ‘disabled’ and see the use of SASL as a marker of another culture, a view propagated by the socio-cultural approach to deafness. There is a lot that hearing people do not know or understand about the Deaf community and their experiences. However, we can acknowledge this group of people as part of our already diverse country by being open to learning more and celebrating their successes.

As individuals, we can take time to determine how we ourselves could change to promote inclusion, rather than expecting people to change to fit into our own view of society.

News Archive

School of Medicine – heartbeat of the UFS

2015-06-24

Photo: Charl Devenish

During the past year, the School of Medicine at the University of the Free State celebrated several successes in the field of research and cooperation agreements. These successes allow the school to continue delivering world-class teaching to some of the country’s top students.

Earlier this year, a research team from the Department of Medical Microbiology under the guidance of Prof Felicity Burt, received a grant of R500 000 to conduct research on Congo fever (CCHF). Prof Burt is an internationally-recognised expert on Congo fever. The funding that has been awarded will be used to profile immune responses against CCHF viral proteins, and investigate mechanisms and strategies to enhance these immune responses. This study may contribute to the development of a vaccine against this deadly virus.

Prof Stephen Brown from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health’s expertise and commitment to paediatric cardiology gained him the title of Bloemfonteiner of the Year. Under the leadership of Prof Brown, the department has performed many breakthrough operations and procedures. The most recent of these, was the first hybrid procedure in the country which was performed in November 2014. The department also has an ultramodern hybrid heart catheterisation suite.

Prof William Rae from the Department of Medical Physics focuses on medically-applied radiation. Together with his department, they are looking at quantitative radiation dosages. The research is particularly crucial for the successful treatment of cancers. Through this research, it is possible to ensure that patients receive the appropriate radiation dosages in order to obtain the desired effect without the patient being affected negatively.

Dr Nathanial Mofolo, Head of the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine, is since 2006 involved at various levels of hospital management regarding quality assurance, patient safety, clinical and infection management, as well as administration. He is currently curator of internal medical students for four of the UFS’s teaching hospitals. His department is currently focusing on the National Health Plan, HIV and tuberculosis, teaching and learning, as well as service delivery in family medicine.

Prof Francis Smit manages the team that, to their knowledge, decellularised the first primate heart. The method has been applied successfully on rat and pig hearts by researchers in America. Recently the team also successfully cultivated beating heart cells ? those of a rat ? in their laboratories. The research is in line with what researchers in Europe and America are working on. In the long run, the research project aims to attempt ‘building’ a heart that could be used for the purposes of organ donation.

The UFS is also home to the only metabolic research unit in the country. The unit was established to focus research on obesity, type II diabetes, metabolic bone diseases and all related diseases. This includes diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, cancer, psoriasis, lymphoedema, fatigue, high blood pressure, gout, arthritis, fibrosis, skin disorders, PMT, migraine, insomnia, gall and kidney stones and related infections, and obstructive sleep apnea. The unit is a joint initiative between the UFS and Christo Strydom Nutrition. Mr Christo Strydom, a nutritionist and world renowned in the treatment of lymphoedema, invested R5 million in the establishment of this unit at the UFS. Christo Strydom is also the founder and owner of Christo Strydom Nutrition.

The School of Medicine at the University of the Free State is the only unit on the continent offering in-depth modules in clinical simulation. The Clinical Simulation Unit on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS, headed by Dr Mathys Labuschagne, is regarded as the flagship unit of the school and boasts high-technology equipment where students can practice their clinical skills before applying those skills in the real world.

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