GRANVILLE, St James — Administrators of Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf’s (CCCD) Montego Bay campus, whose hearing impairment has made it difficult to navigate the customer service lines of two utility providers, are hoping someone will listen to their plea in time for classes to start in three weeks.

A visit to the location in Granville, St James, revealed Internet wires hanging precariously in the yard and downed electrical poles — the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl — which impacted sections of Jamaica on July 3. The unrepaired damage has made it challenging for teachers of the charity-based organisation to prepare for the new school term.

Principal Rhonda Hamilton-Davis said they have been trying to get the issues addressed over the last couple of months. However, it has been challenging communicating with telecommunications provider Flow and the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS).

“Remember, we are the deaf community, and some of our administrative staff are deaf,” Hamilton-Davis told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

Founded in 1958 by a Canadian couple, CCCD also has campuses in Kingston and Manchester. It also operates the Jamaica Deaf Village where members of the deaf community can live, work, and worship together. Its campuses are seen as a vital part of its service to Jamaica’s deaf community. The principal of the Montego Bay location is frustrated that their needs are not being met.

“Our office manager is deaf, and she can’t call Flow or she can’t call JPS. She has to use the chat line or the WhatsApp line to communicate with them. [These are lines] which they promote as efficient, but I’m not quite sure that is so because we have extreme challenges when the deaf have to try to use those chat lines to communicate,” she added.

Hamilton-Davis said despite several attempts to get the issues addressed, the utility providers’ response has been slow.

“There is power on certain parts of the premises but to the dorms, especially the staff dormitory, there are problems with the power lines being reinstalled,” she explained.

She chided the utility companies for what she views as their failure to consider the special needs of their clients who are hearing impaired.

“I think they have just grouped us in with everyone else even though we are still serving a community that is a minority, that has been underprivileged, under seen, under heard, under cared,” the school principal remarked.

“We’ve been just bunched together, which is so unfair,” she continued.

Hamilton-Davis said the school has done what it can to get the plant ready for the restoration of electricity, but now they need the light and power company to act.

“It’s a partnership, we have to put in our poles and they have to come in and deal with the high tension wires, etc,” she said.

As the date for the new school term looms closer, her worry heightens that they will not be ready in time to welcome a new batch of students. Many of the previous batch of 40 students have graduated.

“We would like everything to be up to date and to get certain levels of support to ensure that the staff is happy. [We want to] ensure that the Internet is up so they can do their preparation, anything that is possible to make sure that the campus is good again,” Hamilton-Davis appealed to Flow and JPS.

“How long should we wait [for repairs to the Internet] and the power lines. We must be able to get some assistance as a special education community, a minority community,” she urged.