THE deaf community wants signing to become a primary language in secondary schools and for teachers to learn Jamaica Sign Language (JSL) prior to employment.

These were some of the suggestions at the Jamaica Deaf Association (JDA) consultation with the deaf community at the Calabar High School in Kingston.

“We want to be equal to hearing people,” signed Damion Campbell, a deaf teacher, during the opening prayer.

The meeting was a follow-up from the previous consultation held more than five years ago on the same school grounds in November 1999.

Education was one of the major topics at the consultation, discussed by four focus groups.

The attendees at the April 30 meeting requested greater integration between hearing and hearing-impaired students at the pre-school level, special considerations for deaf children sitting national exams at the primary level, equal standards for hearing and non-hearing students in the curricula at the secondary school level and for adult education centres to be established in St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Montego Bay and Mandeville.

Another plea was made for more communication technologies for the deaf to be made more available and, in some cases, more affordable.

June Fearon, coordinator of hearing and technological services for the JDA, said that the high cost of hearing aids – priced at $38,000 to $92,000 – was a major concern.

Fearon pointed out that whereas health insurance provider Blue Cross subsidises eyeglasses, up to 40 to 50 per cent of the cost, it provides no subsidies for hearing aids.

“We can’t understand the disparity,” she said.

So, the JAD will be mounting a lobby of insurance companies for coverage on hearing aids.

Other communication requests were for special Internet cafes for the deaf and for TTY phones to be established in public places for emergency calls.

The TTY phones, also known as TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf), consist of a keyboard, a display screen and a modem. The phone ‘rings’ via a flashing light and text is transferred through electrical signals that travel on regular phone lines.

Fearon said that in the United States and in Europe, wherever there is a public phone there is also a TTY phone or access to an operator that is trained to assist the deaf or hearing impaired.

Over the past five years, telecommunications company Cable and Wireless has donated 25 TTY phones to emergency services in Jamaica. Iris Soutar, executive officer of the JDA, told the Observer that many of these phones are out of service, possibly due to lack of maintenance.

She said that though text messaging has assisted the deaf community, there is still a need for more TTY phones.

Another request was for more interpreters to be placed in every parish, especially for court cases and interviews.

The JDA has received complaints that of the few interpreters, several had limited signing skills. Soutar said that progress has been slow in training and recruiting local interpreters.

“Most of our support coming from the United States,” said Soutar. She said that volunteer interpreters have been recruited from Florida International Volunteer Corps, Peace Corps.

Soutar said one of the main obstacles is that JSL is not recognised as a language. The JDA has engaged in JSL training workshops and programmes to increase public understanding and use of the sign language.

Programmes have been conducted with the Justice Training Institute, National Housing Trust, Bustamante Children’s Hospital and the Dental Auxiliary School.

Other topics included youth issues such as CXC at all deaf schools, grants and scholarships; the need for hearing parents to learn sign language to communicate with their deaf children; greater advocacy and deaf community empowerment.

There was a desire from the attendees to build the deaf community and some suggestions were for leadership workshops and for deaf singles and family meetings.

Herbert Douglas, 56, believes that the deaf community needs communication, leadership roles and legal recognition to drive vehicles. Douglas is the first deaf person in Jamaica to have a driver’s licence; it was transferred from the United States. He has been driving for 31 years.

“That’s what the deaf people need,” signed Douglas, adding that it was difficult for the deaf in Jamaica because they had to walk or take public transport.

The JAD will be continuing internal consultations and collating feedback from the eight schools they operate, their administration services such as public relations and fundraising, and hearing and social support services. They plan to have a ‘Strategic Focus’ drafted for the period 2005-2009 by May 27.

Attempts to quantify the number of hearing-impaired persons in Jamaica have produced varying results. The JAD roughly estimates that 10 per cent of Jamaicans have mild to profound hearing loss.