Kuwait joins International Day of Sign languages celebrations
Kuwait joined the world and international organizations in celebrating the International Day of Sign Languages, aiming to raise awareness in societies of the importance of these languages and the need to protect the linguistic identity of the hearing impaired and other users.
Preserving sign languages is part of linguistic and cultural diversity, the United Nations issued a resolution on December 19, 2017, adopting September 23 of each year as an international day to “raise awareness of the importance of sign languages in the full realization of the human rights of the hearing impaired,” as reported by Al Anba.
The day was chosen because it coincides with the establishment of the World Federation of the Deaf in 1951, an awareness organization that aims to preserve sign languages and cultural diversity for all the hearing impaired and sign language users in the world.
On this occasion, the head of the Kuwait Association of Sign Language Interpreters and consultant in the field of education and training for the deaf, Dr. Muhammad Al-Ramzi, confirmed that this global celebration has evolved over time to become a global movement aimed at uniting the hearing impaired and raising awareness of the issues they face in their daily lives.
He explained that Kuwait pays great attention to the hearing disabled through the educational, health, cultural, sports and religious services it provides, just like those with good hearing, indicating that it is the first Arab country to issue a special law for people with disabilities and the second Arab country to open schools to teach hearing impaired students when Al-Amal School was opened in 1959.
He stated that the total number of hearing impaired in Kuwait reached 3,398 for both genders, distributed across the six governorates, while the prevalence of hearing impairment in varying degrees among pre-school children is estimated at about 15%.
The Vice President of the International Federation of Deaf Football and sign language trainer Jaber Al-Kandari said that the International Day of Sign Languages aims to spread these languages around the world and to introduce them to people who can hear, and encourage them to learn sign languages as well.
