According to World Health Organisation (WHO), hearing impairment and deafness are serious disabilities that can impose a heavy social and economic burden on individuals, families, communities and countries. Children with hearing impairment often experience delayed development of speech, language and cognitive skills, which may result in slow learning and difficulty progressing in school. In adults, hearing impairment and deafness often make it difficult to obtain, perform, and keep employment. Both children and adults may suffer from social stigmatisation and isolation as a result of hearing impairment.

The burden of hearing impairment and deafness falls disproportionately on the poor, because they are unable to afford the preventive and routine care necessary to avoid hearing loss, or to afford hearing aids to make the condition manageable. Hearing impairment can also make it more difficult to escape poverty by slowing progress in school and the workplace, and placing people in social isolation.

The cost of special education and lost employment due to hearing impairment can also impose a substantial economic burden on countries.

According to 2005 estimates by WHO, 278 million people worldwide have moderate to profound hearing loss in both ears; 80% of deaf and hearing-impaired people live in low- and middle-income countries.

The number of people worldwide with all levels of hearing impairment is rising mainly due to a growing global population and longer life expectancies.

Fortunately, the development of sign language has tremendously helped the deaf to communicate and live a more normal life.

The written history of sign language began in the 17th century in Spain. In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (‘Reduction of letters and art for teaching mute people to speak’) in Madrid. It is considered the first modern treatise of Phonetics and Logopedia, setting out a method of oral education for the deaf people by means of the use of manual signs, in form of a manual alphabet to improve the communication of the dumb or deaf people.

From the language of signs of Bonet, Charles-Michel de l’Épée published his alphabet in the 18th century, which has survived basically unchanged until the present time.

In this regard, it was a most wise decision by those responsible to have conducted a sign language training course for law enforcement officers because we do have a significant number of persons who suffer from this disability and therefore it is inevitable that the police at some time will be forced to be in contact with some of them.

VSO volunteer, Mrs. Kate Stevens, who is one of the trainers and works with Special Needs Education at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), said the ongoing exercise is important.

She said it is about understanding people in the street, in this case deaf people who are part of society and deserve the same respect as others.

“Deaf persons have rights too, and Police officers are the ones who serve the people, so, to support them, they must understand them,” Ms. Stevens said.

Some other pertinent observations were also made by other organisers of the training. Mrs. Denise Walcott pointed out that deaf persons communicate in different ways but, regardless, they are all unique.

They have skills and can contribute to the development of a country, if given the chance and that is why the Police must be trained as it promotes awareness that they can fulfill their potential, she said.

Director of the Support Group for Deaf Persons, Mr. Leon Walcott said this initiative is a breakthrough that represents the willingness of the GPF to understand more about an important set of people in society.

This is a good start and perhaps the possibility of expanding the training to other agencies and organisations involved in serving the public should be examined.

Reaching out to all sections of society is the essence of the democratic process.