• With no proper understanding of sign language, people find it difficult to communicate with persons who are deaf thus bringing the communication barrier.
• Kenya is yet to fully embrace special education policies that specifically advocate for early assessment and adaptation of the curricula to help learners with diverse needs.
Image: FILE
Hearing loss can be challenging in educational institutions and place of work.
With no proper understanding of sign language, people find it difficult to communicate with persons who are deaf thus bringing the communication barrier.
Sina Namutei is challenged as far as hearing is concerned. She operates a business of selling sweets and biscuits along the GPO road.
She narrates the challenges she has been experiencing while trying to serve her customers best.
"Operating a shop while being deaf is tough. Most customers assume you can hear whatever they ask for. Some leave agitated not knowing the person who is serving them did not understand them," she said.
Namutei who uses sign language all through the interview explains how most of the time she is forced to use writings to explain herself to some of her customers who don't understand how to communicate in sign language.
Kenya is yet to fully embrace special education policies that specifically advocate for early assessment and adaptation of the curricula to help learners with diverse needs.
Such has led to isolation of hearing impaired persons who face double struggle to accommodate themselves in the world designed around hearing thus leading to lack of inclusiveness.
Johnson Mora, a hearing impaired person, confirms of how such has led to breakdown of their mental, physical and social health.
"I was once kicked out of a Matatu after I failed to agree with a tout who did not know that I was deaf and couldn't communicate effectively with him," he said.
He explained how no one in the Matatu seem bothered to understand him while some thought of him as rude and arrogant.
This, he says, broke his heart and called upon Matatu Owners Association to create awareness of how best touts can treat people with physical challenges.
Deaf psychologist Collins Omondi said that deafness is a condition and not a disability.
According to Collins, there is a big population of deaf people in Kenya and many of them are children under the age of five to fifteen .
"Many of these children suffer emotionally, watching other normal children play joyfully and communicating well destroys them mentally," he said.
Omondi recalls how growing up as a deaf child was very difficult.
"Personally, I was not born deaf but developed complication after along period of sickness at the age of seven," he said.
He also stated that his parents were not aware of his challenge and would punish him daily for not following instructions.
This pushed him to write a note to a friendly police officer in Kisumu, Kondele Police Station who came to his aid.
A solution was found and he was later taken to a deaf school.
Omondi, who is now a teacher and a psychologist, explained that the main challenge the deaf community face is communication as parents are not able to communicate with their children who are deaf and they may not be aware of their needs.
He noted that in a work space where one of their members is a deaf, it affects the person since communication will be a problem.
"The only reason to over come this challenges is to create awareness about sign language to the public so that us deaf people can fit well in Kenya," he said.
He also advised parents with deaf children to show up and learn sign language for them to communicate with their deaf children.
"We deaf people need sign interpreters ,to communicate with normal people hence I would wish the normal people to learn sing language," he explained.
Omondi suggested that the government should allow sign language to be one of the languages be taught in schools.
Last year, the Senate approved a bill that made it compulsory for all government institutions, the Judiciary and schools to provide for the use of sign language in all public places.