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."
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