Editorial | Listening to deaf citizens

September, observed as Deaf Awareness Month, offers Jamaica an opportunity to examine how well the country is serving its deaf citizens.

Deaf Jamaicans may have the legal right to education, employment, healthcare, information, and participation in public life, yet they still encounter a system where communication itself becomes an obstacle.

The Disabilities Act, 2014 prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and establishes rights relating to education and training, employment, healthcare, access to public passenger vehicles, housing, and public facilities. Educational institutions cannot prevent a person from enrolling because of disability, and are required to provide appropriate support. Employers are similarly prohibited from denying qualified persons employment because of disability.

According to STATIN’s 2022 Census, 62,940 people age five and over reported some degree of hearing difficulty, including 8,844 who said they had great difficulty hearing or could not hear at all. Communication remains one of the key barriers.

The executive director of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), Dr Christine Hendricks, recently said: “We have 75,000 and more persons who are deaf or hard of hearing who may know sign language and would need to access information.” She has called for sign-language interpretation at public hearings and disability training across the public sector.

ADDRESS CHALLENGES

This newspaper had highlighted the experience of Celine Lobban, a deaf student who graduated from the University of Technology, Jamaica, but had to hire her own sign-language interpreter during her studies. Individual achievements shouldn’t be celebrated because people with disabilities overcame barriers that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

These challenges must be addressed.

The objective should be to create a system in which deaf students do not need exceptional determination or private resources to obtain an education. Government must ensure that schools and tertiary institutions have access to qualified interpreters, appropriate learning materials, captioned digital content, and teachers trained to work effectively with deaf students.

There is an established campaign for Jamaican Sign Language (JSL) to gain official recognition. In 2024, disability advocate Floyd Morris tabled a motion in the Senate calling for JSL to be recognised as an official language. Professor Morris has long argued that communication is fundamental to rights. In advocating for greater access to justice for deaf Jamaicans, he told the Jamaica Information Service: “We have to equip the staff to understand how to relate and how to communicate with these individuals.”

INCLUSIVE ECOSYSTEM

The government and policymakers should consider recommendations to strengthen the legislative and social framework to better serve deaf citizens and create an inclusive ecosystem:

– Mandatory communication access: Government broadcasts, election debates, emergency warnings, public-health announcements, and major public events should routinely include qualified JSL interpreters, accurate captions, and accessible digital formats.

– Expanded education and employment: Schools, universities, and HEART/NSTA Trust programmes should provide interpreters, captioned materials, assistive technology, and trained teachers. Employers must offer reasonable accommodation and create pathways into technology, entrepreneurship, creative industries, and remote work.

– Accessible public services: Hospitals, courts, police stations, libraries, transport services, and government offices should have clear accessibility standards, trained staff, and reliable interpretation services.

– Community-led inclusion: Clear targets for accessible broadcasts, interpreter availability, inclusive education, employment, and public-service delivery must be established, with deaf Jamaicans and their representative organisations involved in design and monitoring.

Broadly, what works for deaf citizens will benefit all persons with disabilities. Accessibility should be a standard feature of public life.

Vision 2030 includes a disability sub-sector strategy aimed at promoting full participation in economic and social life. This requires robust discussions and data-driven planning for implementation. The Disabilities Act took seven years to move from passage to implementation, raising concerns about the slow pace of making public facilities accessible. There should be measurable targets and periodic reports on compliance.

As Dr Hendricks said at the All-Inclusive Service Webinar in March: “If it is that people with disabilities are not included in our society, Vision 2030 would have failed. And, even if we move Vision 2030 to Vision 2050 or 2060 and people with disabilities are left out, we would have failed as a country.”

Jamaica can, and must, do better.