Sponsored Article By Comr. Yusuf Kumo, Gombe

For years now, the Deaf Community have been facing a number of challenges, ranging from bad leadership as a result of incompetence, selfishness, ethnicity, regionalism and religious sentiment which is the backbone of our backwardness because we hardly come together to support the right men for the Job. We vote based on religion,region and ethnicity and unfortunately those we voted for hardly do anything to even their ethnic or religious group let alone the majority. Is this not enough lesson for us to learn and vote people with ideas and ability to deliver? People who can sacrifice their times, money and resources to move our Dear Association forward. People who can promote/ protect the rights,welfare and interest of our members at the National level?

2015 General election should be enough lesson for many of us to learn, because the same people who use religion and regional sentiment to ensure Buhari’s victory against GEJ are now the same people complaining that Buhari neglected the North in favour of the southwest and bla bla… This alone is enough lesson for us to learn. When we vote for people like Hon Chidi/Haruna who are detribalized Nigerian, competent, knowledgeable and most importantly who work with the Federal government and international community, I bet you, a lot of opportunities will come our way.
The Hon.Chidi I know will not only use his personal money to develop and resolve some of the challenges facing NNAD but he will also bring a lot of International partners to support the progress of NNAD.
Haruna Tsafe on the other hand, being close to the FG ,working and bases in Abuja, Nigeria is a big plus, whenever NNAD’s attention is urgently needed, he can represent us without delay.

Likewise Mr Muntari Magaji who is working with SGF, the aspirant for the post of Public Relation Officer. We need people very close to the FG and international community that can bring a lot of opportunities to our Dear Association and I think Hon Chidi Topaz Olujie, Haruna Tsafe Muntari Magaji, Suleiman Ujah et al are the way out.

The views/ opinions above are not from The Qualitative Magazine but that of the writer and the sponsor of the article.

Globally, the novel coronavirus pandemic has increased citizens’ dependence on government, the health care sector and the media for care and information. In this report, ENE OSANG writes on its impact on hearing-impaired women.

“Imagine the pain of seeing one of our women sending her naked body video/pictures in exchange for cash and another agreed to sell her body in exchange of food to feed her children. Imagine how a deaf woman who just lost her husband weeping daily on how she will be able to feed her children at this difficult time? Imagine thousands of our women who solely depend on trade with no other means to feed or support their children. Imagine someone without voice or hearing speak up when in need?

“Our women are hopeless, rejected and neglected by the society claiming to have support for them and the effects of lockdown have deeply affected their mental and psychological well beings as well.”

The above were lamentations of the executive director, Deaf Women Aloud Initiative (DWAI) and chairperson, Abuja chapter of the Deaf Women Association of Nigeria (DWAN), Mrs. Hellen Beyioku-Alase, a 40-year-old mother of four (all boys) and strong disabilities’ rights advocate.

Beyioku-Alase described the coronavirus pandemic as “a very trying period for deaf women” in particular as they are not adequately captured in most of the responses and government intervention so far.

Speaking exclusively to this reporter via WhatsApp chat she said, “Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the way of life,” expressing concerns on health care accessibility should a deaf woman need care or is infected this period.

Communication barriers

Hearing impairment is obviously one major challenge faced by the deaf amongst many others, making life very difficult for them especially when they are sick and need to access healthcare facility.

The DWAI in its efforts to break the communication barriers between the deaf and health care providers is in the process of developing a sign-language glossary and, therefore, embarked on massive campaigns through workshops, seminars, and visits to hospitals across the federal capital to seek inputs of medical practitioners in the glossary so as to enable them access health care without much difficulties but this move is still in the process of yielding any meaningful result.

As the world is faced with the coronavirus pandemic; a great health challenge, people all over are dependent on the media for daily information, briefings, updates and safety measures to prevent them from getting infected.

For the deaf, sign-language interpreters is the best way to adequate information except for those who can read even though written information on television is as transient as the spoken words and is very difficult to grasp all messages.

It is as a result of this and the need for all to be informed and stay safe that the deaf women are lamenting over the lack of specific attention to their plights of hearing impairment to adequate information when  the disability bill has been passed into law by the federal government.

Beyioku-Alase said, “Covid-19 has adverse effects on deaf women all over the country and this is due to barriers in accessible information. In Nigeria today, the numbers of persons with Covid-19 cases keep increasing daily and citizens tune into their TV or radio sets to watch or listen to nightly news to get daily briefings of updates on the global health pandemic that is affecting our nation, but the deaf community is being left out except during the presidential task force media brief when there was a sign-language interpreter. 

“In the midst of a fast-moving outbreak where government and non-government officials use different technology, radio and TV jingles to get health information across to her people, the deaf are left behind to struggle for information.”

Continuing, she said, “The deaf do not have adequate access to information through the media, community and appropriate government channels. The absence of sign-language interpreters and failure of the public to accept and accommodate the usage of sign-language as part of their official meetings with deaf people has made things very difficult for us to be accepted in the society.

“At this difficult time even with the ratification of Nigeria Disability ACT into law, videos regarding Covid-19 on Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) website lack access to vital health care information for sign-language users who are deaf and this can endanger lives.”

Govt’s palliatives

President Muhammadu Buhari in the past weeks announced palliative measures such as food distribution, cash transfers and loans repayment waivers to ease the pains of the restrictive policies.

The president also directed that the current social register be expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households to enable support to additional one million homes with its social investment programs, assuring that the Presidential Task Force will do whatever it takes to support citizens especially the vulnerable throughout the period.

Beyioku-Alase hailed the government efforts to cushion the effects of pandemic, but expressed dissatisfaction over “the manner the palliatives are being distributed.”

“Government is trying despite the little resources available to combat this sudden outbreak such as ensuring policies and emergency directives reach citizens through the media, as well as equipping our hospitals and training of health workers with necessary facilities to accommodate Covid-19 patients. 

“However, it is imperative to note that the supportive measures put in place by the government and its agencies excluded most civil society and community-based organisations for the people with disabilities. Generally, no adequate attention has been given to persons with disabilities in this trying period, especially to most of us who rely on one form of trade or the other to support ourselves,” she said.

She said further that, “Since the distribution of palliatives to the vulnerable during the lockdown period, none of our deaf women has been considered to benefit from that except a few individuals who have close contacts or relatives with the government.

“In fact, the palliative measures put in place by the government for vulnerable failed to capture many persons with disabilities. The relief materials, conditional cash transfers, and foods items promised by the government for the vulnerable excluded millions of persons with disabilities, especially the deaf, across the country, but we are hoping that government would reconsider their stance to include persons with disabilities. 

“Also, the Ministry of Women Affairs has not assisted any deaf woman at this period. Despite the efforts of the ministry to invite several disabled people’s organisations on a roundtable discussion on the distribution of relief materials, deaf women and its organisation were left out with no representative. 

“Those who claim to represent the ministry and the government have captured most of our names for more than five times, but nothing has so far been distributed to our group and many other persons with disabilities.”

How they’re coping with lockdown

Beyioku-Alase decried the hardship most deaf people go through, saying that life has particularly become more difficult for deaf women who are also caregivers during the lockdown and has continued.

“The majority of deaf women who are mothers, widows with children are dying in silence because their main source of livelihoods was forcibly taken away from them with no hope to feed their families. The five-week lockdown and social distancing placed all over the country have made things worse and difficult for deaf women and this has led them to seek help outside their homes.

“I have been daunted with several texts, WhatsApp messages and video signs to help them with the little I can or with food or cash to feed their children. As a concerned mother, I have exhausted the little savings in my account to assist them at this trying period and that is why our organisation (Deaf Women Aloud Initiative) and with the support of few individuals initiated the Covid-19 Food Bank for Deaf Women.

“The food-bank has assisted the first batch of 40 poor deaf women who are mainly widows, single mothers with children who find it difficult to feed themselves. We are still looking up to several organizations, individuals and friends to help, support and empower deaf women to kick out hunger at this difficult time in the next batch. 

“Deaf women face daily discrimination, stigmatisation, isolation, abuse and malnutrition. They are living in hopelessness, rejected and neglected situation and the impact of lockdown has deeply affected their mental and psychological well beings.”

Lockdown relaxation

Beyioku-Alase also faulted the decision by the federal government to relax the lockdown order, describing the move as “very risky” considering the daily increases in the number of persons with Covid-19 cases, and the lack of obedience to safety measures.

“Millions of people are not observing the precaution measures put in place by the government so this is not the best decision.”

Expectations

She appealed to government to include the hearing-impaired in Covid-19 decisions and interventions while stressing the need for sigh-language interpretation on all TV stations.

“There should be sign-language interpreters during evening News for the deaf people to be adequately informed of what is going on around the world. Government should take into consideration and prioritise persons with disabilities in their plans, policies and emergency directives. They should consider putting an end to communication/language barriers for the deaf people by promoting sign-language usage in their official matters as well as ensuring that deaf women or their organisations are adequately represented for equality and accessibility.

“Government should put proper accessible hand-washing and sanitisers for public usage and enforce the use of face masks. Women, including those with disabilities, across the world today are standing up for their rights to make decisions and be accepted by the society for their socio-economic, health, policies, employment and growth. Unfortunately, for deaf women, opportunities to make their own decisions, participate in formal and informal matters are, sadly and often absent.

“Our societies today discourage deaf women and girls from taken decisions or participate in matters that concern their well-beings and they (societies) prefer to deal with family members, spouses, or medical personnel, government official on anything that concerns them instead. 

“I, therefore, urge the government of Nigeria to prioritise needs of persons with disabilities in their plans and responses to Covid-19. Lockdown has partially been lifted, the way forward for Deaf women is to be empowered again with necessary tools and cash to enable them have something to sell or trade so that they can generate incomes to feed their families without depending on anybody or go back to alms begging or prostitution. 

“Tools like sewing machines, hairdressing dryers and tools, grinding pepper machine, and cash from #20,000 and above will help them individually back to her feet without difficulty because most of what they save must have gone into feeding their family during the difficulty time.”

Whether we like it or not, remote learning is now the new normal in the education sector across the world. It doesn’t matter whether Nigeria is still struggling with it or not. Even, in several other aspects of our lives, we are gradually getting used to doing things remotely. COVID-19 has thrown up challenges and technology has been deployed to tackle them. For example, some banks held their Annual General Meetings virtually in the midst of the total lockdown in most parts of Nigeria last week. The judiciary also sat remotely and gave a few judgements. I learnt the Institute of Chartered Secretaries had also proposed that virtual annual general meetings should be incorporated into the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

To show that remote operation is becoming popular, some companies are contemplating incorporating it to their system post COVID-19. Such companies believe that working remotely will conserve man- hours wasted in traffic, especially in cities like Lagos; reduce expenses on diesel; data subscription; and so many other things.

Despite the fact that both the federal and state governments were initially confused as per their next line of action when they hurriedly closed schools to prevent the spread of corona virus pandemic, they have also come out of their initial shock. Now, they are coming up with different alternatives to learning, never mind that none of these is proper online learning. At least, they are now doing something. Sadly, however, nothing much has been said so far in the area of providing learning alternatives for Students with Disabilities.
In fact, none of the commissioners of education at a zoom meeting organised by the Concerned Parents and Educators Initiative (CPE) last Sunday, spoke a word as regards their efforts at helping SWD to continue their learning like their non-disabled mates. It was as if special needs children were never part of the equation.

We know that many state governments are now using radio to teach. Lagos State government is even planning to buy 300,000 transistor radios to enable its indigent students to have access to its radio lessons. But what is the use of a transistor radio to a deaf and dumb pupil? Likewise Ekiti State government has been reaching its students through the television but again how much of learning can blind students get through the television?

Is this an indirect way of saying that students with disabilities in Nigeria are not important? As it is, it is difficult to state the number of students with disabilities in the country due to absence of data. The World Health Organisation has however said that of the one billion persons with disabilities worldwide, 150 million of them are children. Since Nigeria is home to thousands of special needs children, I think it is safe to assume that it would have its fair share of the global statistics. Should these children be left behind, more so when they are also Nigerians that should be enjoying the little attention being given to their mates across the country?

Government has to create real learning opportunities for students with special needs. I think part of Nigeria’s problem is the Federal Government’s decision to create special schools for SWD in 2004. We still have the school for the blind and the one for the deaf. The country is still in the era of segregation when others have long embraced inclusion. Unfortunately, this segregation policy is further stigmatising SWD by making them to be more aware of their disabilities than their abilities. This idea of segregation is probably why governments at all levels are not including them in their plans.

Inclusive education is a core part of UNESCO’s fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) and the 2030 Education Agenda. It respects the needs of every child and discourages discrimination of any kind against children irrespective of their physical, mental, or emotional challenges. Lagos State claims to have 41 inclusive schools but I guess the state is probably practising integration, which of course, is better than segregation. At the same time, it is not enough to put SWD with non-disabled ones in same class and describe this as inclusion. Inclusive education goes beyond this. From what we are seeing now, it is obvious that Lagos State needs to do more in terms of providing support for these children and taking care of their interests.

Agreed, creating alternative learning platforms for special needs children has its own peculiar challenges. For instance, e-learning platforms for physically-challenged students are not very common. Besides, most of the accessibility settings for online learning might not be useful for them, because they were not designed specifically for education purposes. For example, graph charts and mathematical models may still not be correctly deciphered by a text-to-speech software setting, so it may not provide the correct output that a visually impaired student requires for understanding. Just as hearing impaired students will not only need visual aid, but they may also require special attention in terms of sign language instructors, hence the reason why a learning programme on radio may not be useful to them.
These challenges notwithstanding, there are still some assistive technological items specially designed to help people with vision loss or other disabilities. The most important thing is for government to have the political will to help these children, if it does; I believe a lot could be achieved. After all, migrating online also poses its own challenges for non-disabled children and everyone is still trying to forge ahead regardless of the problems.

This is probably the best time for the Federal Government to formulate a national policy on inclusive education. Since COVID-19 is teaching us to do things differently, government should also seize the opportunity of the pandemic to effect positive and lasting changes in its education sector. It should be intentional about helping students with disabilities to thrive along with their non-disabled mates. Government may have to train teachers and provide the needed resources to support inclusion education. But the investment is worth it. Meeting the learning needs of all categories of students is very important. (The Cable)