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Campaign raises hearing loss and Deaf awareness

07 October 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Deaf awareness Campaign 2024 — Boipelo Leteane, Amahle Jemane, Zinzile Sibiya (Speech-Language Pathologist at UAH), Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, Andani Madzivhandila, Yolanda Nzume (Administration Clerk at UAH) and Dr Phindile Shangase at the Deaf Awareness Campaign at the UFS.

The Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), in partnership with the Division of Public Health at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently held their annual Deaf Awareness Campaign with much success.

The campaign, which is the brainchild of Andani Madzivhandila, a Cochlear Implant MAPping Audiologist at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), is in its second year and was attended by Deaf students from the UFS, community members and academics from the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, including Dr Phindile Shangase from the Division of Public Health at the UFS in collaboration with UAH Speech Therapy and Audiology staff.

Purpose of the event

The event took place on 28 September 2024 in the foyer of the Francoise Retief building. September is the International Month for Deaf People. The Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Med-EL assisted with some sponsorship to make the event a success. Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, the Assistant Director for Speech Therapy and Audiology at UAH, opened the ceremony and highlighted the importance of Deaf Awareness Campaigns in general and further elaborated on the World Federation of the Deaf theme for 2024, which is “Sign up for sign language rights”.

Dr Shangase shared her experiences and challenges of living with hearing loss and how she manages it, and further elaborated that the purpose of the event was to raise awareness of the different types of hearing loss, especially deafness. It was also to raise awareness of the challenges encountered by Deaf people and to discuss available technologies to assist those with hearing loss as well as those who are born profoundly Deaf.

The event is organised to share experiences from professionals, those with hearing loss as well as the Deaf community, to share experiences on coping and managing life with hearing loss as well as deafness. The organisers try to educate the public about Deaf culture, sign language and the experiences of Deaf people and to help combat stereotypes, stigmas and misconceptions surrounding deafness. The event is also to promote inclusion and encourage equal access to education, employment, healthcare as well as breaking down communication barriers and address systemic and social barriers that hinder Deaf individuals’ participation.

Sharing lived experiences

According to Dr Shangase, the event highlighted the progress as well as gaps in support interventions for those who live with hearing loss and deafness. Says Dr Shangase: “Availability of technologies was highlighted as facilitating different forms of participation for those with hearing loss and deafness. However, it was clear that most of the available technologies are not being adopted in workplaces as well as in communities.”

Boipelo Leteane, a parent of a two-year-old child who was born deaf, shared her experiences and her journey before and after her child had undergone a cochlear implant, while Madzivhandila shed some light on the challenges faced by healthcare professionals when hearing loss/deafness is diagnosed and needs to be managed.

Amahle Jemane also shared her personal experiences and challenges she faces daily as a signing young female in South Africa, where the majority of the population use spoken language, and she uses South African Sign Language (SASL).

News Archive

Lecture on interpretations and translations of San place names

2011-09-23

Prof. Peter Raper, recently appointed as Honorary Professor: Linguistics, in the Department of Language Management and Language Practice at the University of the Free State, will deliver his inaugural lecture on Tuesday evening, 27 September 2011. His topic for the evening is “Interpretations and translations of Bushman (San) place names”. With this inaugural lecture, he also introduces an interesting one-day international colloquium on the theme: “Name-change planning – striving towards authenticity”.A panel discussion about street-name changes in Bloemfontein forms part of this colloquium and promises to elicit a stimulating debate.

Prof. Raper is probably better known for three popular place-name dictionaries, Streekname in Suid-Afrika en Suidwes, published in 1972; the Dictionary of Southern African Place Names, published in 1987, updated in 1989 and published in 2004 with some additions as New dictionary of South African place names; and Hottentot (Khoekhoen) place names, a dictionary compiled in collaboration with the famous Prof. G S Nienaber (a former Kovsie). In fact, Prof. Raper’s work is a continuation of their world-renowned series, Toponymica Hottentotica, which was published between 1977 and 1981. It is generally regarded as the most authoritative work on Hottentot place names. His current interest in Bushman place names builds on this pioneering work and is actually also a re-evaluation of the underestimated role of the Bushman with regard to place naming in South Africa up to now. His work offers a new perspective on what could be regarded as the “first” or earliest names of places in South Africa and brings a sobering perspective to the current debates regarding place-name changes where various claims are made about “who has given the name first”.

However, Prof. Raper is also known for his role in the standardisation of place names, both nationally and internationally. In South Africa, he has served on the South African National Place Names Committee (1972-1999), the South African Geographical Names Council (1999-2002) and, since 1981, on the Names Society of Southern Africa. Currently, he is an honorary member of this association. Since 1984, he has also been serving on the United Nations Group Experts on Geographical Names and has even been the Chairperson of this Leading international standardisation body (1991-2002).

Apart from this, Prof. Raper regularly publishes his research on geographical names in a variety of academic journals and still participates in the most important national and international conferences on names on a regular basis. Prof. Raper is honoured as South Africa’s foremost names expert.

His inaugural lecture will introduce a colloquium on names planning, presented by his host department. Experts from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and the USA are participating in the proceedings, amongst others, the current Chairperson of the Names Society of Southern Africa, Prof. Adrian Koopman (University of KwaZulu-Natal).

RSVP: Joy Maasdorp on +27(0)51 401 2405 or maasdorpjh@ufs.ac.za before or on Thursday, 22 September 2011.

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