Sign language proficiency must: Experts

Sunit Dhawan

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Tribune News Service

Rohtak, December 11

Experts in the realm of education for children with special needs laid emphasis on the prevalence of sign language not just amongst special educators, but also for the common people so that they can interact with speech and hearing impaired individuals independently and help them become part of the mainstream of society.

Addressing participants on the second and concluding day of the international conference on ‘Deaf Education: Challenges and Way Forward’ at Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts (PLCSUPVA), Dr Raj Nehru, Vice-Chancellor, Vishwakarma Skill University, underlined the significance of mainstreaming hearing impaired students by the way of special education and grooming.

“Deaf education is a complex issue. It can’t merely be addressed by regular means. Special children have special needs and therefore, they need special education. This also means that institutional intervention becomes necessary at a very early age in order to make the children with special needs ready to compete and excel in the mainstream world,” he maintained.

Sibaji Panda, the organising secretary of the conference, observed that society needed to look at the hearing impaired community as a linguistic minority, as mandated by the Constitution of India, and should establish more schools and institutions for hearing impaired children which have provisions of sign language.

“That way, we will have more hearing impaired teachers. From research findings, it is evident that hearing impaired teachers and professionals are more effective in delivering curriculum of hearing impaired children,” he asserted.