Women should make best of situations, says sign language interpreter

Deborah Ocheni

Miss. Ozomah Ruth Taiwo, 26, a sign language interpreter, has urged all Nigerian women to do everything within their powers to ensure they utilize any situation to their advantages.

She stressed that it was always better for a woman to make lemonade when life hurls lemon at her. She said that when people mocked her parents because they were deaf, she has stood up to the bullies. Taiwo revealed that her childhood’s experiences caused her to be a strong woman, charting her own path and breaking barriers.

Taiwo said that in order to be able to communicate with her darling parents, she learnt sign language interpreting without any formal education to learn it. Today, Taiwo is using that same sign language acquired as child to work for payment.

She said that her childhood was spent fighting tirelessly to protect her deaf parents from abuses suffered by persons with disabilities (PWD) in Nigeria.

She said: “The challenges I faced while growing up weren’t too much of a drama. Although I got weird questions from here and there, about my parents, and how we coped as children of deaf parents. Having deaf parents wasn’t really a big deal for me. I'm also most grateful to my parents because they are educated and that really helped us.”

Recollecting her journey to becoming a sign language interpreter, Taiwo said it all started when she was just a child.  She said: “I've always been a sign language interpreter. I started by being an interpreter for my parents. This is because my siblings and I were the ears and voices of my parents. We communicated for them whenever they needed us. I’m proud to be a sign language interpreter because it helped me to defend my parents from abuses and the stereotyping that deaf people face.”

Taiwo identified communication barrier as one of the major problems deaf people face in Nigeria. “The gap is so wide that it will take a lot of energy and awareness to fix it. Information is the key, and without it, one is completely lost,” said Taiwo.

She calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria to consider bridging the communication barrier as is being done in other climes.

She said: “Deaf people need captioning, subtitles and most importantly, they need sign language interpreters in all platforms. This will ensure free flow of communication between the hearing and deaf communities. With this, the deaf will be carried along and then they will have a sense of belonging. As a child of deaf parents, my siblings and I were humiliated while growing up. Other children looked at my siblings and I as weird because our parents are deaf. We were mocked and insulted. We were bullied and other children would go as far as putting a leaf in between their lip. It was hurtful to us, but my parents were strong-willed and went to great length to protect us.”

Taiwo further said that sign language interpretation was something she did with passion. She described it as her Mother’s Tongue, and her first means of communication. She also mentioned that it was a very lucrative career.

She added: “One gets developed while having more understanding in the deaf community, and all that it entails. A lot of wrong mindsets and perceptions will be corrected while acting as an interpreter. It's also lucrative in the area of getting lots of opportunities to travel locally and internationally, also, new cultures and traditions are learnt.”

She explained that one erroneous belief, which she had always seized any opportunity to correct was the incredible view that a deaf couple will automatically give birth to children with speech and hearing defects.

Taiwo said: “There’s absolutely no truth in such talks! Deafness is not genetic! It can happen to anyone by accident or sickness, or other means. So having a deaf marrying a deaf is so beautiful and healthy. The deaf can't hear, that's the only difference between them and hearing persons. They are humans that have the rights to enjoy the pleasures and opportunities life has to offer. It’s all right and beautiful for deaf and deaf to build a home and have a family. I'm a living example; my parents are deaf, but I can hear and speak.”

Taiwo, who graduated  from the University of Olabisi Onabanjo, Ogun State, where she studied French Language, said her parents were so passionate about the successes of their children.

She added: “I will say that deafness is not a cause for a parent not to perform his or her duties in the home or towards their children. It is, however, how a parent chooses to discipline and trains up their children that the child will grow up to be. Deaf parents are capable and good channels to train up their children. Let us give them the chance and opportunity to show their children love, support and have a parental care that all children deserve. Deafness is not a barrier to one's life and success. Deaf people have a life to live and do have relationships, and should be allowed to raise their children instead of taking their children away from them.”

She noted that over 10 million Nigerians are deaf or hard of hearing.  These Nigerians suffer discriminations and social exclusion because of difficulties in communicating, said Taiwo. She added that 90 per cent children are excluded from school for the same reason.

She stated: “Studies have shown that deaf children in Nigeria are the least developed, the most isolated and marginalized. This stigmatization no doubt is traceable even to their caregivers and immediate family relations, leading to a total human resource development deficiency. This invariably affects the development of the Nigerian sign language, as a minute percentage of Nigerians use sign language, both among the hearing and deaf. The sign language used in Nigeria, which is regarded as American Sign Language by deaf instructors, sign language interpreters and deaf persons in the country therefore technically endangered. This continues to fan the embers of unconscious stigmatization of the deaf persons in the country because there is little or no communication between them and the hearing outside the deaf communities. There are few trained individuals – the sign language interpreters-who can communicate with the deaf.”

The founder of Deaf Resource Centre (DRC), Timothy Tinat, said that he was challenged to learn sign language as a result of his late elder brother, Engineer Jonathan Tinat, who was deaf.  Timothy implored Nigerians to learn sign language as basic skill for employment.

He added: “According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), we have over 10 million deaf people in Nigeria. In fact, inclusion of sign language in the national syllabus and adoption of sign language as national language is long overdue. As an interpreter of sign language, I worked twice with former President Goodluck Jonathan and I’m presently working with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 as sign language interpreter. Therefore, once you learn sign language as a skill, you will never run out of a job. You can work as an interpreter in the hospital, school, or other places. The importance cannot be over-emphasised. I implore government, especially the National Assembly, to look into the situation.”

The National President, Educational Sign Language Interpreters Association (ESLIAN),  Oladipupo Omobosola, stated that it was high time Nigerian education policy makers and other related educational agencies in the country ensured that sign language interpreting attains its rightful place in the Nigerian educational and professional system.

According to him, the development of deaf education in the Nigerian school system at all levels had become inevitable, hence the need for professionalizing sign language interpreting in the country.

He stressed: “The development will help stakeholders in the system to participate meaningfully in nation building. It’s my aspiration that sign language interpreting in Nigeria is professionalised, not only in principle, but in practice. It might interest you to note that this profession is about the only academic one that has not been professionalised.”

The Deaf Women Association in 2015 staged a protest in Abuja, demanding that sign language interpreters be provided in hospitals. To this end, the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Professor Temitope Alonge, said the government should consider employing graduates of special schools in hospitals to ease communication between doctors and the deaf. He disclosed that UCH already has such interpreters.