MACODA advocates for sign language as official language in Malawi

Malawi Council of Disability Affairs (MACODA) says sign language is fundamental in terms of accessibility and access to information for disability inclusive communication and is key in bridging the gap between deaf persons and the larger public.

The organisation’s Director General George Chiusiwa urged the public to be agents of change in appreciating sign language as a formal and official language and called on them to embrace the Malawian sign language which is now a government strategy.

Government agencies like the Ministry of Education have been in capacity building exercises to ensure that teachers in schools are technically aware of sign language.

“This should even extend to other public institutions and of course the larger public. It is important to state that we need to talk about accessibility with respect to deaf people and the consideration should be sign language.

“Efforts should be made, a lot of investments have to be made at all levels; the community level, the district level and at the national level. As MACODA we are also urging local government authorities to ensure that they are investments, financial investments into capacitating various actors with respect to sign language technical capacity building.” explained Chiusiwa

Despite the education sector faring well in terms of sign language through sign language interpretation and capacity building, the picture is however different in various sectors such as access to justice and health.

“Access to justice has been quite difficult and challenging for persons with disabilities, what it happening in the health sector is quite deplorable and undesirable, and we need also to consider that sign language should be an issue of fundamental human rights entitlement in all aspects of life talk about employment, education, access to information”