The National Association of the Deaf Blind in Uganda (NADBU) wants all the information related to COVID-19 pandemic be transcribed and cater for individual differences.
While addressing the media yesterday, the executive director,NADBU,John Waswa said People living with disabilities are finding it hard to get critical and life saving information regarding COVID-19 pandemic.
He noted that since the pandemic has taken toll to every member of the community, there is need for the deaf and blind people to also get crucial information regarding the virus.
He expressed concern over the recently announced roadmap for the forth coming elections which states that that campaigns should be conducted through the media. Despite numerous calls from political actors rejecting this new normal,he said persons with disabilities especially the deaf and blind have been completely left out.
“Electoral commission needs to partner with us so that we can’t reach out to our members to disseminate information to all our members in accessible format targeting the individual communication need of each person,”he said.
He added that although, there is an existing effort to reach out to the deaf through sign language interpreters , Ministry of information and National Guidance should ensure the captioning of large print and braille format to cater those with reading abilities.
Juliet Wabukawo ,the chairperson of the deaf blind Association expressed concern over small prints run on the televisions.
“I love to read the words that are reading down but it so hard for me to get so close to the television to read those words, and even they run very fast so if the font is increased, I can be able to read them.the speed should also be reduced,”she explained.
On the wake of COVID-19 ,government issued key standard procedures which include mandatory wearing of face masks in the public but people with deaf blindness said they are not comfortable with the type of masks in the market because of their mode of communication which is lip reading.
As the country joins the rest of the World to mark the deaf blindness week,the National Association of the deaf blindness in Uganda also launched a modified version of the face mask that caters for their needs.
“Any person which is willing to partner with us and produce more of these so that we distribute them to all our members in the general public, you are very welcome,’said Waswa
He also express the concern that they find it hard to carrying out social distancing since most of them depend on guides all the time.
