Great Win for Deaf Community: Priest on Recognition of Sign Language in South Africa

“The government is now accepting the fact that these people need help. It is wonderful,” said the member of the Order of Preachers of Southern Africa (Dominicans) based in Eswatini. 

Fr. James said while SASL has been offered as a subject in schools from preschool until the final year of high school since 2015, deaf students in tertiary schools are still experiencing challenges in accessing education.

“We are hoping that with SASL now being made an official language, it will be easier for deaf people to access tertiary education,” he said and explained that accessing tertiary education has been a challenge for deaf students as they have to pay for full-time interpreters and tuition.

“We are hoping that universities will have facilities for deaf people,” he said. 

He also said that making SASL an official language is a great milestone for the Church in the three SACBC member nations, Botswana, South Africa, and Eswatini. 

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“It will help a lot in raising awareness, and for people to begin to learn sign language,” he said, adding that SASL “will be a great support in raising awareness in the Church in regard to the needs of deaf people.”

He said, “Often people are not aware that we have deaf people in the Parish, and if they do they don’t know how to communicate with them.”

Fr. James said that with more people trained in sign language, many deaf people will  benefit from translation services in churches, adding that sign language classes were ongoing in various Parishes within the Catholic Diocese of Manzini in Eswatini.

South Africa is the fourth African nation to recognize sign language as an official language after Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.