Poor literacy among the deaf in Malta

The situation for the deaf in Malta is "not that good", according to the president of the World Federation of the Deaf, Liisa Kauppinen from Finland, who highlighted that the vast majority could not read and write.

Poor literacy meant the deaf could not further their education. Indeed, there were no deaf people at the University of Malta.

Other repercussions were employment problems - many could only have manual jobs - and equal opportunities were lacking.

Dr Kauppinen yesterday attended the first national conference by the Deaf People Association on Il-Lingwa tas-Sinjali Maltija (Maltese sign language) held at the Coastline Hotel, in Salina.

The launch of the first section of the Dictionary of Maltese Sign Language in print version and on CD was a major step ahead and an accomplishment for Malta because not every country had its own dictionary, Dr Kauppinen pointed out.

The dictionary, sponsored by Vodafone, is the fruit of six years of research by the association and the Institute of Linguistics at the university.

Dr Kauppinen said the federation intended to support Malta in improving the standards and use of sign language.

Malta needed to develop its interpreter training programmes and services. It was only recently that the association, with the assistance of the government, employed its first interpreter.

Dr Kauppinen also stressed the need for family programmes, which would help deaf children lead a normal life.

With adequate support, these children could grow up to live a good life and their parents needed to be reassured that this was possible, she said.

The coordinator of the Deaf People Association, Alfred Bezzina, said thousands of liri were spent on cochlear implants, but not on services that would improve the quality of life for the deaf.

He mentioned the lack of teachers for the deaf and that some were not trained or fluent in sign language. Deaf children in mainstream schools were accompanied by facilitators, who did not know sign language, when the children should be assisted by a language support worker as was the case overseas.

Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the event was a sign of progress in the field.

He said the deaf should be bilingual - sign language and the spoken word - and decisions were required to recruit and train the necessary staff to achieve this.

Access to secondary and tertiary education for the deaf depended on the development of sign language and related services, which Malta was lacking, Dr Gonzi said.

He stressed the importance of IT for the deaf, without which they would be even more excluded.

Malta still needed to work on subtitles and sign language for TV programmes and, most importantly, information and services over the internet.

The Social Policy Ministry was in the final development stages of a strategy to offer a number of services over the internet to people with a disability, Dr Gonzi said.