2. D EAF C HILDREN AND T ELEVISION : A Study of deaf children’s access to information television in Ghana

3. B ACKGROUND  In the quest to attain development in Ghana, access to information is an issue of great importance. Disability should not be a hindrance to people getting access to information because without enough information, the goal to attain development in Ghana would be highly flawed.  Television program is the image, sound or content of a combined audio and video broadcast.  Deaf children in Ghana are left out in most if not all television programs in Ghana. The only provision that the state owned television station has made is to provide sign language interpretation during special state programs and major news bulletins.

4. P ROBLEM S TATEMENT According to Article 7 of the UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities, “States Parties shall ensure that children with disabilities have the right to express their views freely on all matters affecting them,…and to be provided with disability and age-appropriate assistance to realize that right.” (UN, 2015). The question however is, how would these children realize that right if they have access to only certain parts of the media, and not all?

5. R ESEARCH Q UESTIONS A television programs specially designed for deaf children in Ghana? How can programs be structured to benefit deaf children? What initiatives are both the public and private owned television stations taking to make their programs beneficial to deaf children?

6. O BJECTIVES The general objective of the study is to find out if there are television programs that benefit deaf children. Specifically, the study would like to find out how programs can be structured to benefit deaf children. What is hindering television stations to produce programs specially for deaf children.

7. T HEORETICAL F RAMEWORK & L ITERATURE R EVIEW Although there are not many studies conducted regarding deaf children and television especially in Ghana, studies in other parts of the world The National Deaf Children’s Society conducted a research in 2005, to determine what makes good access for children’s programmes in terms of subtitle and sign language provision. They displayed a wide variety of needs and preferences when it came to access to television. This research project set out to obtain feedback about deaf children and young people’s use and experience of access provision. It concluded that deaf children form an extremely diverse group.

8. R ESEARCH D ESIGN & M ETHODOLOGY Design: Considering the research questions, a combination of exploration and description would be used for the study. Approach: The research would be conducted in Ghana with a focus on both public and private television stations. Data Collection: A qualitative approach would be used to collect data. An extensive amount of data would be collected from secondary sources. Online databases, government databases; Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection databases, Ministry of Communication databases, theses and dissertations, journals, the Ghana Statistical Services databases, NGOs working with regards to deaf children, peer and non-peer reviews, international and local media are among the sources that would be reviewed.

9. D ATA A NALYSIS Data would be presented through qualitative description, graphs and tables, audio, video and thematic maps. The APA referencing style would be used to reference resources.

10. S COPE, T IMESCALE, J USTIFICATION & C ONTRIBUTION This research is to be taken in Ghana, among the various television states, in order to find out how they are working to help deaf children benefit from their programs. It should take at least a month to finish the research. This study sought to find out how deaf children can benefit from television programs in Ghana. The results can help stakeholders, especially, television owners to provide programs that can also benefit deaf children. In addition, the study would add to a body of information for researchers and other stake holders who are interested in helping people with disability get access to adequate information not only in Ghana but globally.

11. R EFERENCES http://joshuaproject.net/profiles/text/t19007_gh.pdf https://www.google.com.gh/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we b&cd=5&ved=0CE8QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uew.edu.g h%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2FADOBEA%2520DORA%2520L ARBI%2520FINAL%2520FINAL%25202.doc&ei=SeXlVOL0KaP R7Qb1- IG4BA&usg=AFQjCNH5IN_EKjY6OsSdlzfzjGtGbXWTZQ http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml file:///C:/Users/Alberta/Downloads/In_their_own_words__young_de af_people's_access_to_television._A_NDCS_report._.pdf