Goud assures land for sign language school

HYDERABAD: At the lobby, outside the auditorium of Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan where the sports minister assured a deaf audience with the help of an interpreter that he would try help them acquire an acre of land for the setting up of a sign language academy.

“I do feel for them, it's their bad luck that god didn’t give them the gift of hearing. I will try and talk to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to allot one acre for setting up a sign language academy,” said T Padma Rao Goud, minister of sports, youth affairs, excise and prohibition.

From the quiet lobby from where the deaf were watching, a bespectacled and lanky 16-year-old Sai Rahul said, “Sometimes I feel it’s better to be deaf, they don’t have to hear everything. The deaf have a world of their own.” Rahul is not deaf, but both his parents are. “The biggest challenge the deaf face in their life is their inability to communicate with people, I learnt sign language when I was a child like how one learns Telugu or Hindi.”

But, Rahul is undergoing training at the Deaf Enabled Foundation who organised the 59th International day of the Deaf celebrations. “I am learning new signs. Just like how languages differ, so does sign languages, so I need training,” he added.

Ramana A is another 17-year-old, who can hear but is taking the course so as to communicate better with his deaf parents. “The sign language in India uses both hands, but international sign language uses only

one hand to communicate, and is also much easier than using both hands,” he explained.

“When I go outside home I feel left out,” said G Sridhar who is deaf and aspires to start his own business solutions firm in the city.

“I have been trying hard to get a job but I always get rejected due to my inability to communicate,” he added.

Language is constantly evolving and we try to teach what is easy and all that will make their lives a little easier, said a spokesperson for Deaf Enabled Foundation.

They have been able to use the best of technology for themselves and most of them video chat using WhastApp or Wechat to communicate, she added.