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Presidential election 2008: 7 days to go: FEATURE: Hearing-impaired gain access to election news

With the help of sign language translators, the presidential debates and policy forums this election year reached a total of about 11,000 hearing-impaired people, but their right to know what most people take for granted has not come easy.

The service was only provided in Taiwan beginning in the late 1990s.

During the 1998 Taipei mayoral election, Wu Chiu-nan (吳秋南), head of an association of sign language translators, took the initiative to call the television station responsible for broadcasting the political debates and asked the station to provide the service.

"Why can't hearing-impaired people get instant information like most people?" Wu recalled asking the station.

She offered to provide simultaneous translations of the debate for people who were hearing impaired and her idea was welcomed by the TV station.

Such services later became more and more regular in the country, but are still limited to important political occasions.

In some other countries, people who are hearing impaired can simply press a button to access instant subtitles of most TV news programs.

The mechanism, called Teletext, is not yet available in Taiwan, but to protect deaf people's rights, the government may take action by encouraging more TV stations to provide programs with sign language translation.

The job of a sign language translator is not easy, especially in a multilingual society such as Taiwan.

"The biggest difficulty in real-time translation is to understand different dialects," said Wang Xing-qiang, a certified sign language translator, saying that many political figures like to speak local dialects in their speeches.

She said that one time she translated at a campaign rally for an indigenous candidate for a legislative seat, who talked about his visions in his tribal tongue. As Wang did not understand a word, she could only stand still.

"When a [political] candidate launches a new idea, sign language translators must react fast," Wang said.

She cited a recent experience when a candidate talked about the "one-China market." Wang said she not only had to translate the new term word-for-word, but also explain its meaning in a short time.

Despite the challenges, Wang and others in her profession have faith in the communication tool.

"Sign language may have its limits, but even the tone or manner of the speaker can be translated by the force of your gesture and your facial expressions," she said.

There are 138 certified sign language translators in Taiwan, Council of Labor Affairs figures show.

"It's still hard to meet the demand," Wu said.
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