DEAF COMMUNITY ASKS FOR “UNIFORM PROCEDURE AND NOMENCLATURE”
Along with the rest of the world, the deaf community in Nagaland would also be celebrating the “International Week of the Deaf People” (IWDP) from September 20-26 by creating awareness on the deaf and their ways to the general public.
This year, the theme “celebrating the thriving deaf community” focuses on how the global deaf community is thriving in a predominantly hearing world.
In a press release, audiologist & speech language pathologist, Dimapur, Christina Walling-Zhimomi said that deaf community of Nagaland also thrived wherever they were, be it in school, at home or at work.
Informing that the deaf culture in Nagaland began in 1987 with the establishment of Deaf Biblical Ministry in Dimapur, Christina informed that it began with the education of nine deaf children at a time when they were deemed unteachable and uneducable by society.
“These children were the first Deaf in Nagaland to receive education, and with education came understanding, acceptance and a realisation of self-identity”, she informed.
It may be mentioned that over the last three decades, members of the deaf community in Nagaland have grown and presently they have over 200 members across Nagaland.
While highlighting the derogatory terminologies used towards the community for decades, Christina said that a disability certificate issued from Mokokchung said “deaf and dumb”, one from Kohima said “mutism” and another issued from Dimapur said “deaf and dumb with bilateral profound hearing loss”.
“Though the certificates of these different individuals have used different terminologies, all these individuals are in fact just Deaf”, she stated.
In this regard, the community urged the responsible department to come up with “a uniform procedure and nomenclature” to be used in all the districts.
The release also requested the department to develop a standard assessment procedure and a uniform nomenclature for all 21 disabilities listed in RPwD Act 2016, following national guidelines and to create awareness among the medical fraternity in Nagaland.
The state deaf community expressed hope that the issue would be taken up and that corrective measures would be put into action at the earliest, as they had “been subjected to these derogatory terminologies for decades.”