A Taipei councilor used sign language yesterday to question the head of the Bureau of Labor Affairs about the city's lack of interpreters for the hearing impaired.
DPP city councilor Chiang Kai-shih (
"The Bureau of Labor Affairs needs to do more to ensure that the city's deaf do not have their rights violated because of a the lack of sign-language interpreters," Chiang said in the verbal portion of his speech.
"Because there are not enough sign-language interpreters to help out in places such as hospitals, police stations, court rooms and city government offices, [the deaf] are often doomed to be taken advantage of and treated like second-class citizens," Chiang said.
According to Chiang, there are roughly 120,000 deaf people in Taiwan, but just 100 certified interpreters capable of sign language nationwide.
"Taipei City has a deaf population of about 12,000 but just 14 certified sign language-interpreters available to them," he said in signed comments that were translated by an interpreter.
That compares to 4,500 certified sign-language interpreters available to 9,000 deaf people in Switzerland, Chiang said.
The US, with 3.5 million deaf people, has 12,000 certified sign-language interpreters.
"Taiwan, without a doubt, is in serious need of certified sign-language interpreters to provide help to the nation's deaf," the city councilor said.
Chiang asked the city to beef up programs to train sign-language interpreters.
Cheng Tsun-chi (鄭村棋), director of the city's Bureau of Labor Affairs, said the bureau has a program to train sign-language interpreters, but many fail to become certified.
"Program participants are certified as sign-language interpreters after 200 hours of training courses and after passing an exit test at the end of their training," Cheng said.
"But despite a large number of participants in the program, it's still difficult to produce a sufficient number of certified sign-language interpreters because only a handful of the trainees make it to the end and pass the exit test."
Cheng said that the bureau has been training some police officers and hospital personnel with a basic knowledge of sign language.
In addition to demanding more help for the city's deaf, Chiang yesterday also called on the public not to be prejudiced against the deaf.
"One annoying and impatient look from you can often hurt them deeply," Chiang said.
"On the other hand, a smile and being patient [when trying to communicate] can really brighten up their day."
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS