The SAPS Language Management Subsection has just successfully coordinated the first two courses in sign language for SAPS employees in cooperation with the Tswane Sign Language Centre.

What is sign language?
Sign language is a language of signing, body movement and facial expressions.

Is it indeed necessary that we learn sign language in the SAPS?
Sign language belongs within the realm of language, communication and human rights. At least 600 000 deaf people in South Africa use South African Sign Language (SASL) as their primary medium of visual/face-to-face communication. SASL is a fully-fledged, natural human language, equivalent in all ways, structurally and functionally, to every other human language that has been studied.

If deaf people are forced to speak and lip-read a spoken language, their use of sign language is suppressed. This is a violation of their human rights. Deafness is only a communication disorder when the language of deaf people is the subject of oppression. The deaf see themselves as being discriminated against on the basis that the wider hearing society has classified them as disabled, because of the outmoded view that deafness is a medical disorder rather than a condition which necessitates the use of a different language modality.

Culture of the deaf community
Linguistically and culturally, the South African Deaf form a community with a sense of identity that transcends all loyalties based on ethnicity, colour, religion, race or spoken language. The primary identification of the deaf is that they are deaf. South African Sign Language is the lynchpin of this identity.

Communication between the deaf and the hearing
The South African Deaf Community does however, interact actively and intimately with hearing people, whatever their community. Ninety per cent of deaf children are born to hearing parents while the other 10% are born to deaf parents. Therefore, deaf and hearing people live together in families, they often play together, work together, worship together, they may have the same broader political concerns, they enter into disputes which may require the intervention of legal officers, deaf people consult doctors, go to court and generally engage in commercial and social life.

However, human interaction between the deaf and hearing is often hampered by poor communication. Hearing people communicate linguistically by means of speech which requires the use of sound. Deaf people communicate linguistically by means of signs which required the use of vision and space. These different modes of communication result in a different approach to the world. In some sense, the way in which deaf people perceive, respond to and manipulate the linguistic world is different from the way hearing people do.

It is imperative to bridge the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing in South Africa, and for this reason the curriculum to teach SASL as a second language has been developed. The curriculum is for use by adult learners and specifically for professionals who deal with deaf people in their daily work. As SAPS members and employees who deal with the members of various communities, it is imperative that we are trained to communicate also with the deaf members of our community.

More about the course
It is a basic course in sign language which is presented over a period of four days to groups of approximately 15 people. The groups are kept small so that individual attention can be paid to each learner’s progress. Learners are taught how to sign the 26 letters of the alphabet, with which you spell the names of people, do introductions, give the names of places and concepts and all the words that one may not have signs for. Interestingly enough, signing the alphabet is not sign language in itself! You will also be taught about all the misconceptions and problems with lip-reading and how signs sometimes may seem impolite to hearing persons, eg the sign indicating a hooked nose, but it is acceptable among signers as a clear, visual identification. Most importantly though, you will be taught to sign so you will not have a communication problem next time you meet someone with a hearing impairment.