An Exception to the Rule A Deaf Professional’s Journey from Tanzania

Personal Background Deafness background  Late deafness and its “positive” impact Education attained in Tanzania  No interpreters  No support system  Attitude and taboos Education attained in the U.S.  Benefits of using Sign language  Deaf-friendly community and university Experience and struggles as the only deaf student in secondary and high school, with no support system

Challenges facing Tanzania Deaf Community Access to information Disabling attitude and taboos Education HIV/AIDS

…Challenges Access to information  Impact on HIV/AIDS awareness  News media – no closed caption (except for few select interpreted programs on one local TV station)  Role of spoken languages in media and information dissipation.  Deaf community’s fluency in spoken and written languages Challenge: How to make available information accessible to the deaf people?

…Challenges Education  Only 9 primary schools for the deaf  Only 119 deaf children are in Primary School (as of 2005)  Only 8 secondary schools accept some deaf students. (No secondary school for the deaf)  Only one Vocational Training school accepts deaf students  Post-secondary education is very rare if not non- existent  Lack of interpreters and qualified teachers for the deaf

…Challenges Disabling Attitudes & Taboos  Old beliefs  disability is a curse  A deaf person is hardly considered a productive member of community  Patriarchal and paternalistic  Misconceptions about deaf people and deafness  Low expectation from family and society  Deafness is an invisible disability – often overlooked by hearing society

…Challenges HIV/AIDS  The first ever deaf HIV/AIDS conference in Africa Representatives from all over Africa (West, South, East, Central) Gender violence -- disabled women are at higher risk Assumptions and misconceptions about deafness and deaf people Linguistic and attitudinal obstacles Confidentiality Government policies  No training materials designed for the deaf level of understanding or in Sign Language Challenge: How to influence decision-makers to be aware of deaf and disabled issues when planning for HIV/AIDS training and support?

Millennium Development Goals Source: World Bank ( andhttp://siteresources.worldbank.org/TANZANIAEXTN/Resources/10.htm zania&SelectedCountry=TZAhttp://devdata.worldbank.org/idg/IDGProfile.asp?CCODE=TZA&CNAME=Tan zania&SelectedCountry=TZA) No mention of disability issues

Milestones First deaf Africa conference on AIDS/HIV Few schools have been established  9 Primary Schools for the Deaf  8 Mainstream Secondary Schools  Sign Language Training Tanzania Association of the Deaf - CHAVITA (est. 1983) Formal establishment of Tanzania Sign Language (TSL) Formal recognition of TSL by the Parliament Limited interpreted TV programs (ITV television) NB: This is just the beginning. More work and support is needed if the deaf Community is to be uplifted to the economic, social and technological level of the mainstream

Summary Given opportunities, deaf people can be productive members of Tanzania workforce Before that can happen, stakeholders such as government, must make efforts to include deaf and other disability issues in economic planning World Bank and other organizations can help to encourage government in such efforts It is not lack of information, but “inability to access information” that make a deaf person lag behind in this information age.