Promoting Pakistan Sign Language (PSL)
- Country:
- Pakistan
- Organisations involved:
- Pakistan Association of the Deaf (PAD)
- Synopsis:
-
During this project, the Pakistan Association of the Deaf (PAD) developed a number of books in Pakistan Sign Language which were aimed at helping deaf children, young people and adults. After developing the resources, PAD arranged a three day seminar on Pakistan Sign Language for representatives of all of Pakistan’s deaf associations and schools. It was the first seminar of its kind seminar in Pakistan. The main aim was to get approval of our work and input from the nationwide deaf community.
The project started in 2000, when the Pakistan Association of the Deaf realised the need to standardize Pakistan Sign Language and to produce educational material in Sign Language. After that meeting a sign language committee was formed which consisted of 10 members. Some of these were sign language experts, others were interpreters, some represented the deaf community and we also included an illustrator to help us document the signs. The team consisted of eight deaf people and two hearing people. The aim of the committee was to work on the idea of publishing more and more books in sign language.
The first step was to produce a dictionary. During development of this dictionary we tried to get input from every available source. We collected as many existing signs as possible and tried not to alter any of these existing signs, unless there was significant conflict. The main problem was translating the signs we gathered into Urdu and English. Sign language has its own way of expressing particular ideas and these are not always easily translated into written languages. For example the deaf community uses many signs which were not known in Urdu or English. These signs are not equal to a word but to a whole idea, sometimes a single sign even expresses a whole sentence! In order to make the dictionary really useful, we decided to select the most commonly used signs for the dictionary.
After developing the sign language dictionary, we then focused on developing more material in sign language. We were particularly keen to produce books for deaf children as there are no books in Sign Language aimed at children. We developed two books, one Urdu quida and another in English. Both books contained an easy to use alphabet to help deaf children learn. This showed the sign for each letter of the alphabet, a common word that began with that alphabet and sign for that common word in Pakistan Sign Language. We believe this will not only make kids interested in the books, but also develop their sign language skills at the very start. It is very important for children to be able to express their thoughts and feelings in sign language.The third type of book we developed was for students. Most deaf students find it difficult to acquire reasonable writing skills in Urdu so we wanted to help deaf students to develop correct Urdu grammar.
Finally the Pakistan Association of the Deaf released a book of traffic signs in Sign Language. This is part of the campaign to change the government policy which makes it illegal for deaf people to drive. In Pakistan, the deaf community is still struggling to get their rights to drive.
It took more than a year to develop these five Sign Language books.
Following the seminar, which took place in April 2002, the sign language committee finalized the content of the books, and started looking for funds to get these books printed.
In the meantime, I was working with IUCN on the idea of "special portal". During
a meeting there the project leader, Mr.Sabhat Saeed Khan and I discussed the needs of sign language users and we decide to work on Sign language CD Rom as well as the "special portal". Then we called a meeting with PAD and started the project.
The CD Rom took around a year to develop which included the development of new signs for environmental terms.Finally in May 2004, PAD held a launch for the books and CD Rom. This was attended by deaf people from all over Pakistan. We also invited a number of people from the government and private sector as well as representatives from other disability organisations. Around 200 people in total attended the launch. Here are some of their comments:
PROFESSOR ANITA GHULAM ALI attended and commended PAD'S EFFORTS and she will support the PSL project and its research.
MR. ZAIGUM - CEO-PAK KUWAIT BANK appreciated PAD's efforts towards promoting Sign Language and the books will be a very good resource for deaf students and teachers. He works with the deaf in Islamabad and is very familiar with deaf people's abilities. He was full of praise for PAD and the good work it is doing to improve the quality of life of deaf people in Pakistan.
MR. ZAFFAR IQBAL, Inspector of Police, was very happy to be invited to PAD's book launching ceremony and was very impressed with the PAD PARK and the arrangements. He promised to support the DEAF Cause and also look into the old Traffic Laws which were discriminatory towards deaf drivers. He appreciated the SIGN LANGUAGE BOOKs and hoped that PAD will continue to do good work and he will support PAD whenever he can.
MRS. LAILA DOSSA gave an overview of PAD's workings and also highlighted DEAF people's problems in Pakistan. She also informed the audience about the problems faced by the parents of deaf children. She said that she hoped that deaf education would improve through the use of PAD's books and that deaf children will be able to learn to read and write in complete sentences. She welcomed all the participants from all over Pakistan.
- Issues encountered:
-
- There are still many more signs that need research to document them
- There are also common Urdu words that are not represented in sign language, so we had to develop new signs too
- Sign language is very important for deaf children, who may not be able to express themselves using other languages
- Recommendations:
-
- It is recommended that the impact of the Urdu grammar book on the written Urdu skills of deaf children be followed up. This is because it may be possible to provide further support for the teachers of the deaf who are responsible for teaching written Urdu to deaf students. It is recommended that PAD set up a research team to follow this up.
- In future, we think it is very important to encourage hearing people, both within the disabled community and elsewhere, to learn sign language. We hope that in future people will learn our language and be able to communicate easily with us.
There are currently no comments on this page.
