Attention, the deaf also watch TV!

Preparations are in very high gear across the country for the commemoration of the International Day for the Handicapped coming up in the early days of the month of December.

There are worrying statistics about the number of persons with disabilities in our country with figures going as high as ten per cent of the population. Quite high indeed!

When one observes the grave state of deprivation in which many of our handicapped people live, it is difficult to fathom the marvelous work being done on the field by social workers whose limitations only come by way of difficult financing.

This situation notwithstanding, government has continued to show concern even if simply through the political will of addressing the problems of the handicapped best manifested by the creation of the Ministry of Social Affairs back in 1975 and which remains one of the ministries to have kept to the initial mission assigned to it at its creation some 39 years after.

The occasion of the International Day of the Handicapped however begs for some concern for a category of handicapped people so often ignored. We are talking here of the deaf and dumb.

Even if one high-level government-run institution exists in Yaounde, several other such institutions are run purely by non-State institutions or persons of goodwill with the best known found in Kumba, South West Region, and another in the Biyemassi neighbourhood in Yaounde.

This means very few possibilities exist for the large numbers of affected persons to get any form of education through specialised teaching methods while a similar number is excluded from mainstream national activity simply because of their inability to hear.

This is an important part of the national population which could have probably contributed significantly to national growth if their inherent skills were tapped through adequate training or getting them participate in the same way as other citizens in national life.

The high success rate registered by trainees from institutions for the dumb and deaf in public examinations is rather encouraging and should encourage a more resolute posture on decision-makers when it comes to addressing the plight of the deaf and dumb. Public neglect of this category of disabled people jumps on the eye, especially when it comes to television programmes.

While in other countries with the same level of emancipation as Cameroon, there is an effort to ensure that most programmes are made available to the deaf by placing sign language experts on one side of the the TV screen to translate messages for the deaf, such initiatives are still a veritable luxury in Cameroon.

Public television and even the most-widely viewed channels still do not have special viewing facilities for deaf viewers. Even during the most important moments of national life such as presidential addresses or messages, election campaigns and debates in the Parliament, the nation’s deaf have been kept out of touch. And yet, technology has made it very easy to get these other potential viewers on board.

The recruitment of a few more specialized staff will not certainly overstretch the budgets of television stations and even if it were to be so, that could be considered as their own contribution to the national solidarity Cameroonians are in search of.

In the wake of the feet-dragging observed in the different TV stations about this matter, government can also step in by providing the necessary material, financial and human resources to help promote this inclusive social policy. After all, it is already doing so by emphasizing that public buildings, at their conception stage, take into account the fact that users of same may include physically-challenged persons.

And if what is good for the goose can also be good for the gander, the same conditions can be required of TV stations so that they can obligatorily recruit sign language experts for their information and other mass education programmes.