National Association of the Deaf Education Position Paper (Draft Copy)

Introduction
Some General Facts
Indian Sign Language
Current Situation of Deaf Education in India

4.1 Principals
4.2 Teachers
4.3 Deaf Staff
4.4 Students
4.5 Communication

Choices That Are Available

5.1 Cochlear Implant
5.2 Oral Method
5.3 Cued Speech
5.4 Sign Language
5.5 Total Communication
5.6 Inclusion
5.7 Special Schools for the Deaf
5.8 Bilingual Education

International Standards
The Current Progress Made in India
The Way Forward: N.A.D. Recommendations

8.1 Communication and Consultation
8.2 Early Intervention
8.3 Sign Language
8.4 Training of Educators for the Deaf
8.5 Education for the Deaf
8.6 N.A.D Recommendations for Deaf Education

Conclusions

1. Introduction

The National Association of the Deaf (N.A.D) is representative of the Deaf community in India; an organisation that is of the Deaf, by the Deaf and for the Deaf. It is a recently established organisation, yet it already consists of a body of at least 2,500 members from across India. N.A.D is a voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit making organisation. The aims of the organisation are to promote the rights and quality of life of Deaf and hard hearing individuals in India, to foster a united front of Deaf people across the different states of India and to promote equal rights at all levels and in all fields of life. The Executive Board consists of 12 Members, who are elected by a democratic process every 12 years. We also have a state level working group in every state, and are in the process of having other Deaf organisations become affiliated to N.A.D

N.A.D believes that there are more hearing disabled persons in India than the 1,261,722 persons that are listed in the 2001 Indian census. We believe that there is a high undercount of disabled persons due to the high stigma which is attached to being disabled. While this is a worldwide problem, it is of particular concern in India. Furthermore in rural areas a hearing disabled person may often be classified as intellectually or mentally disabled due to ignorance and a lack of understanding.

The current status of the education of the Deaf in India today is extremely poor. Oralism is still the prevailing method of educating the Deaf. Deaf children are not taught in Sign Language. The current system of education in India does not prepare Deaf children to lead productive lives. This emphasis on the development of oral skills undermines much more important goals, such as development of a language, cognition, social skills and emotional maturity. The main problem is a total lack of meaningful communication between the teacher and student – the key to education of all children, Deaf or hearing. N.A.D believes that it is imperative that the present education system is shaken up from its roots and a new system is implemented.

Some comments from Deaf leaders about education:

"At school I was taught to speak. We used Sign Language amongst ourselves but I was made to wear socks on my hands. I had to wear the girl’s uniform and was paraded around the school because I was signing. I did try to speak, but what I am talking of is the suppression of language".

"My education was very bad. The teacher didn’t really communicate and none of the class could understand the teacher. We were just copying. In my Deaf school the teacher used to sign a little, but we mainly used to copy things off the board - and the teacher would speak to us".

"When at the Deaf Way we do Awareness and Health Education for Adult Deaf – nobody has learnt anything in schools since grade 5. Deaf children don’t have a clue what blood is. They don’t understand about basic bodily functions. It is nil – less than nil. They know all the wrong things. Their education is not happening".

"Learning and understanding what we were taught at school was very hard. The teacher used to give us exams, but would always give us the answers to the questions. If we didn’t know the answer then the teacher would write on the board and we would just have to copy it out. For any comprehension that we did the teacher would write the answers in brackets beside the questions, so when it came to the board exams it was a nightmare"!

"In general all Deaf people need serious help. They have 10th grade passes, but are still unable to string together 3 sentences. Their grammar is inadequate in both English and Hindi, and only a handful of Deaf persons are able to speak. This small number, 2%, is called the success rate. This should instead be considered as 98% fail rate"!

N.A.D as a newly established organisation, has decided to write a position paper on the education system for the Deaf in an attempt to initiate changes in the current system. The aim is also to have one document detailing the current system and suggestions for possible change. N.A.D recently held a National Consultation of Deaf Education and so the opinions of many prominent persons within the field of Deaf education will be taken into consideration in this paper.

2. Some General Facts

It is a common fact that education of the Deaf worldwide is not as it should be. Deaf children lag behind their hearing age mates substantially, in all measures of academic achievement. On average, Deaf children read at 4.5 grade level after 12 years of schooling, and this is in Western nations. The figures are unknown for developing nations. This is due to a failure of systems that are responsible for educating Deaf children.

In India especially, the problem is particularly serious with many prevailing problems in the education system of the Deaf. As a result this leads to their inadequate and insufficient education.

More than with any other child the education of a Deaf child is of paramount importance as a school plays a greater role in a Deaf child’s life. It is of immense value in order to equip each Deaf child with not just the adequate communication skills, academic knowledge and vocational skills to become independent and to secure a livelihood, but also contributes to his/her cognitive, social and emotional growth as well as personality development. However, the current system of Deaf education in India is wholly inadequate.

The National Association of the Deaf in India feels that there needs to be a change in the current system that recognises Deaf children's requirement for early natural language competence and for appropriate communication access to the curricular material.

3. Indian Sign Language

The urgency of the current system is that at present Deaf children do not have adequate access to the school curriculum, and the reason for this is that teachers of the Deaf, in both mainstream and special schools are not proficient in Indian Sign Language (ISL).

Deaf learners are disadvantaged further by not being able to acquire a language by hearing it spoken, in the same way as hearing children can. The majority of Deaf children have hearing parents who cannot communicate with their child in ISL. These children therefore need to be exposed to linguistic role models who can communicate with them in Sign Language, which is the natural language of the Deaf. Without such role models, this has serious implications for Deaf children in terms of the acquisition of concepts and the learning of a first language, their ‘mother tongue’. Not requiring a language can lead to communication isolation, low skills and discrimination due to stereotyping.

One of the main problems is that there are misconceptions about Indian Sign Language abound. It is a well-known fact that Sign Language is the common language of the Deaf. Deaf people essentially perceive the world through their eyes, so it is only natural for the Deaf community to develop and use a language that is based on visually perceived signs and symbols in order to communicate; vis-à-vis spoken languages that are based on sounds and characters. However hard the 'hearing' majority may try to 'normalise' Deaf children and attempt to compel them to learn lip reading and use speech, the fact is that wherever you have a group of Deaf individuals together, they will more than likely be using Sign Language to communicate.

Linguistic research that has been conducted across the globe in the past thirty years has demonstrated that despite the general view of Sign Language simply being a series of gestures and signs, Sign Language is in fact a genuine language. It has grammatical rules and a complex sentence structure, and anything you are able to say in a spoken language you can also express through signs. For clarity: Indian Sign Language is a natural language. It is not a code, or a set of signs that represent specific words of a spoken language, but operates on the principles of a visual-gestural language. It has its own grammar and idiomatic expression. The fact is; Sign Language is the bona fide language of the Deaf.

It is also worth noting that studies have now shown that the portion of the brain that deals with language starts atrophy by the age of three if it is unutilised as happens with most Deaf children. It has been evidenced that if a child does not acquire a language by the age of three, learning any new language will be extremely difficult; possibly even a memorisation task. This is known as the 'critical period' when a child's mind is ripe for learning a language. However, with the use of Sign Language as a means of communication, a Deaf child will be able to master a language on which he can base his academic learning. However, if a child is not introduced to Sign Language during this ‘critical period’ these children will not only have no language on which to base their academic learning, they will also be fighting to reverse this trend of atrophy when they start learning to communicate in a language.

Research into Indian Sign Language is currently being carried out. However, despite the different regional varieties and diversity in vocabulary that exists across India, it has been found that there is one common Indian Sign Language based on the fact that Deaf people communicate and understand each other countrywide.

Bearing this in mind it is essential to consider the importance of using ISL as the language of learning and teaching in the education of the Deaf.

With regard to language acquisition and mother tongue, consider the facts below:

It is a common understanding that a hearing child who starts school and is taught exclusively in a language that is not their mother tongue will have a considerable setback in their learning acquisition.

Now, imagine what it is like for a Deaf child, entering school and being taught in a language that he/she cannot hear, let alone understand!

4. The Current Situation of Deaf Education in India

In India today education of the Deaf is wholly inadequate. The main issue is accessibility. The method in which a Deaf child is to be educated should be a method that the child can understand. If oral language is not accessible to them, then this method is not going to work.

Government statistics themselves show a very poor proficiency and extremely poor utilisation of Sign Language for teaching the Deaf in India. A lot of schools are using the 'Total Communication' method which is a combination of signs as well as spoken language. As per government statistics 289 schools rely on Total Communication whereas 123 use oral communication and only 8 use Sign Language out of a total of 420. On percentage points this would mean that almost 70% schools are based on Total Communication whereas 30% schools use Oral Communication method for teaching hearing impaired children and only less than 2% rely on Sign Language which is the natural language for the hearing impaired.

Due to lack of a proper infrastructure for training and teaching Deaf children when they enter school, it has been found that sometimes Deaf children end up spending as much as three years in the same grade in school resulting in 10 / 12 year olds who may only be at class II level and so on. It would therefore be safe to assume that the percentage population of hearing impaired in schools would be significantly higher than the percentage population of non-disabled students or even students belonging to other disabilities.

As per government statistics trained teachers for this entire population of hearing impaired in schools is only 3,006 in 388 schools whereas untrained teacher strength is 889 in 243 schools.

If it is taken into account that in the metros there would exist more than one facility for teaching the hearing impaired, then it would be clear that we would not even have one school per 2 districts for the hearing impaired as India consists of 540 districts. Not surprisingly, therefore, the number of Deaf students who access education is extremely limited and as per government statistics male students in 139 schools number only 4,885 whereas a sample data of female students collected from 159 schools showed only 4,201 girls studying.

The inadequacies of the current education system for the Deaf prompted a PhD thesis on Deaf Education. This was entitled A Status Study of Selected Special Schools for the Deaf and Identification of Intervention Areas and the need for the thesis was stated as being the "continued poor language of the Deaf".

In this study, the current problems in the system were identified as being:

Only partial accessibility to language;
A teacher-centric environment in the classrooms;
Low expectations of the teachers; and
A large gap between the training of teachers and the teaching itself.

And the main factors for the inadequacy of Deaf education were revealed to be:

The linguistic access to the curriculum content; and
Low expectations of the teachers

In this thesis it is emphasised that school creates a huge role in a Deaf person's life. Therefore it is of great importance for their learning, cognitive skills, promotion of personality, and to provide them with future opportunities and employment.

The current concerns in the thesis were identified as under:

4.1 Principals

The special education of Principals was very poor even though they were the ones who were running these institutions (see Table 1.1). Some had not even talked to the Deaf children. There was a high degree of discrepancy in answers between the Principals and the Teachers, highlighting that there weren’t any general policies in the schools, or where there were, the teachers were unaware of any.

Table 1.1
Profile of the Principals
Personal Profile of the Principals
Age
Minimum 25 Years
Average 49.4 Years
Maximum 70 Years
Gender Male 08 (40%)
Female 12 (60%)

Hearing Hearing 20 (100%)
Status Deaf 0 (0%)

General academic qualification
νB.A./B.SC. 20 100%
νB.A./B.SC.+ 06 30%
νB.Ed
νB.A./B.SC.+B.Ed 01 5%
ν+M.Ed
νM.A. 12 60%
νM.Phil 01 5%
Special education qualification
νCTD 06 30%
νDSE 03 15%
νFoundation course 02 10%
νB.Ed.(HI) 02 10%
νNone 07 35%

Teaching Experience
νTeaching Experience to Deaf Students
None 6 (30%)
Minimum 2 years
Maximum 50 Years
Average 20 years

4.2 Teachers

Only 211 of 261 teachers were trained and of those trained the training was inadequate (Fig 1.2). There was a lack of training at higher levels and teachers were conducting teaching at higher levels when they were not qualified. The majority of teachers taught more than one class, and Diploma pass teachers were teaching secondary classes. Furthermore, teachers were assigned to teach any subject at random. The student teacher ratio was poor, especially in the larger schools and particularly in Government schools.

Fig 1.2
Special education qualifications of the teachers
Trained: 211, Untrained: 50

4.3 Deaf Staff

Most schools did not have Deaf staff, and those that had were for sports, art and the vocational subjects.

4.4 Students

There were more male than female students. Class sizes were often above the limits. In general there was an age gap of 3-6 years. (The average age of the oldest child was 18 and there was even an incident of a 25 year old in 10th grade) (Table 1.3). Their speech pattern was in broken words with very few students being able to speak in sentences (Table 1.4). Their vocabulary was not beyond 500/600 words. The time spent on Individual speech therapy was on average ½ an hour per week.

Table 1.3

Class size - as large as 27 students in some cases
Age of the students
νAverage age of the youngest child 4.47 Years
νRange 2-6 Years
νAverage age of the oldest child 18.75 Years
νRange 14-25 Years

Table 1.4
Speech Patterns of the students
ν144 (68.2%) teachers reported that majority of their students spoke only in ‘broken words’.
ν24 (11.4%) teachers responded that they spoke either in ‘broken words or phrases’.
νOnly 8 (3.8%) teachers reported that they had students who spoke in full sentences.
ν54.5% parents also reported that their Deaf children spoke only in broken words.
ν40% reported that they spoke either in broken words or phrases.

4.5 Communication

The major problem is the communication with the Deaf children. Teachers struggle with communication. They often believe that the school will get a bad name if they use Sign Language and Principals often discourage teachers from using sign.

81% of teachers admitted Sign Language is the first language of the Deaf and all agreed that they are using Sign Language outside the classroom. Yet, they all still think that speech is the answer (See Figs. 2.1 and 2.2 below). They put the blame on the Deafness and not on their teaching methods. This is due to the fact that they are completely misinformed. They think they are able to communicate with the pupils. However, partial input, which is currently occurring in the Deaf schools, will only result in partial output.

Fig. 2.1
Distribution of Teachers based on their opinion about the primary language of Deaf children

Fig. 2.2
Distribution of Teachers based on what they would like to do for better communication with the Deaf

The intervention areas identified in the thesis are as under:

The policy of the school
Teacher environment — It should be pupil-centric and not teacher-centric
Better qualified Principals
Reading skills improved
Assessment of Deaf children
Family-school interaction
Teacher training improvement
More in-depth study to be conducted
More accountability
The need for a proper perspective

5. Choices That Are Available

N.A.D is aware that there are several options available in the education of the Deaf. However, there are several factors that are essential and should be taken into consideration when considering how best to educate the Deaf child.

Early intervention is critical in the education of the Deaf child. By this, N.A.D believes that intervention should start from day one.
Parental involvement is also essential. It is clearly identifiable that successful Deaf children have had a lot of family support and thus a positive influence from their parents.

The appropriate modality of instruction needs to be considered for each Deaf individual. Which is the best method? It needs to be borne in mind that what works for one child, may not necessarily work for another.
We need to have respect and belief in the Deaf person. If they are not respected then their self-esteem will go down. As a result they will not be able to grow as a student or a worker and be able to participate fully into mainstream society

The fact is that no two Deaf children are alike. Each Deaf child needs to be looked at as an individual. Their strengths should be highlighted rather than their weaknesses. Moreover, we need to recognise that they are not 'Deaf children', but are simply children that happen to be Deaf. They are not defective models that need to be fixed. What is needed is respect, understanding and a holistic education.

In this section the different modalities of educating the Deaf will be detailed, along with their level of success or failure.

5.1 Cochlear Implant

This both works and it does not. It is true to say that cochlear implants do work for some people, but there can also be a lot of hopes and frustrations involved. Some benefit a lot while others do not benefit at all. Some can act like normal children, whereas sometimes there is no advantage whatsoever for the Deaf child. Deafened adults can have implants and are able to hear certain things so are very happy. With a cochlear implant lip-reading can improve and be of help in this manner, but it doesn’t work for everyone.

Cochlear implants are expensive. It costs Rs. 9 lakh in India and a doctor can never predict its effectiveness. It is impossible to know. There are also some side effects. One case in point is a Deaf individual who had this operation and as a result he lost his sense of taste and smell. During the operation this nerve was cut. It is therefore evident that a little mistake can have disastrous consequences. Is the Deaf child therefore the prime candidate for these implants, especially when we do not know the effectiveness and consequences?

5.2 Oral Education

Oralism (or the auditory-verbal approach) advocates speech and lip-reading as the means to communicate with and educate the Deaf child. This means that the Deaf child relies on hearing aids and other technology like cochlear implants to "hear", and the family and/or school teaches the child to "hear" and speak. A spoken language is used as a major force in the child's personal, social and educational development and signing of any sort is disallowed. The aim is to get the Deaf child to function as far as possible as a "normal" hearing child.

This approach only works with selected children who have enough residual hearing to comprehend some speech sounds, who were identified very early and whose parents can, on a daily basis, be intensely involved in their child's education. The language development of children in this is much slower and less complete than for children who are learning their first language naturally. Most Deaf people who passed through oral programmes are now actively promoting the use of Indian Sign Language because of their own frustration with this approach - especially their frustration at their low attainment levels and spoken/written skills.

The effectiveness of this modality of teaching depends on the type of hearing loss that a Deaf person has. If a Deaf person has some residual hearing then this modality can work for some children. With this method parental support is essential. There needs to be early use of amplification and auditory training and so support of all kind is also critical. For the majority of Deaf persons this method of education does not work. For a profoundly Deaf person to understand and learn a language based solely learning to speak and to lip-read, it is an extremely challenging and difficult task. Some words may be learnt but an overall and general understanding of the language is more often than not missing with this method of teaching.

5.3 Cued Speech

This method is basically an oral approach, but there is help with the sounds that look the same. I.e. b and m, d and t. This system works really well with some children. Again, as is the case with oral education parental support is really important and it does not work for all Deaf students.

5.4 Sign Language

As was noted above, Sign Languages are bone fide languages of the Deaf. They have their own grammar, syntax, and morphology, like any other language. The main problem in India at present is that there is no standardisation of Indian Sign Language. There are many variations across the country of ISL. It should also be noted that English words cannot just be translated straight into Sign Language because there are many English words that have more than one meaning i.e. 'running'.

It is possible to express abstract and scientific concepts in Sign Language. You can use this language very effectively. Children learn Sign Language automatically and fast. It is the natural language of Deaf children. Furthermore, it is a myth that learning Sign Language does not impede speech acquisition. Deaf children are still able to acquire speech. It is a myth that by learning Sign Language Deaf children will not be able to be taught to speak.

5.5 Total Communication

Total Communication is a philosophy where every possible means of communication is used with Deaf children. In educational settings it usually means simultaneous communication where both signed and spoken languages are used. It is often called signed English, signed supported English or signed supported speech. In Total Communication the spoken language still drives the interaction between hearing and Deaf people. As we have seen that majority schools in India also follow Total Communication policy.

Although Total Communication improves general communication skills and facilitates the learning process to a certain extent, it does not lead to the full development of Sign Language skills or the improvement of spoken/written language skills. Children who are educated through Total Communication therefore still experience serious problems with their language skills especially when it comes to reading, writing, understanding concepts and vocabulary. This realisation led to the current Bilingual education approach.

5.6 Inclusion

Inclusion is when the Deaf child is included with their hearing peers rather than being educated in separate institutions exclusively for the hearing and speech impaired. The key to inclusion however, is that Deaf children are included in mainstream schools along with the appropriate support. The key word here is "SUPPORT".

If a Deaf child is in a classroom along with other hearing children, how can that Deaf child be fully included? If there is an interpreter in the class this will help, but full inclusion will only happen when everyone starts signing and becomes skilled at signing. Where a child is put into a hearing institution they will not be fully included until all children can sign. Even with an interpreter he will not be fully included. You need a fully inclusive environment. They have to have FULL support.

The case of inclusion must be considered very carefully for Deaf children. Unlike other disabilities such as the visually impaired and the physically handicapped, it is much more difficult to have successful inclusion of Deaf pupils in mainstream schools.

Why is it different for the Deaf? The case is communication. Children with visual and other disabilities can still communicate with their peers. Schools for the Deaf are separate as they are able to communicate better this way.

5.7 Special schools for the Deaf

These are schools and not institutions, and here Deaf pupils can get an excellent education. Some are successful, but the majority of the special schools for the Deaf in India are abysmal. There are situations where the kids learn nothing. This is not the problem with the special school, but in the way the children are being taught. These are sometimes just dumping grounds for Deaf children. Success depends on the drive and vision of the schools’ Principals.

5.8 Bilingual Education

The bilingual approach is now gradually becoming the teaching method for Deaf children world wide. Bilingualism is based on the assets of Deaf children: What they have and what they can do. In this approach, Sign Language and the spoken/written languages are kept separate in use and in the curriculum because they are indeed two completely different languages. Sign Language is respected as the first language of Deaf people and is also used as the language of instruction.

All efforts first aim at the Deaf child learning his/her first language (Sign Language) in a natural way. Sign Language stimulation from parents, other Deaf children and Deaf adults is therefore very important. If Deaf children are exposed to their first language from the earliest possible age, they will acquire Sign Language as their first language in a manner equivalent to that in which a hearing child acquires a first spoken language. A good command of the first language is crucial to success with the second language because second language learners use their first language as a point of reference in the acquisition of a second language - this is also the case in hearing children.

Only when the Deaf child has mastered Sign Language, and gained general knowledge through Sign Language, a model for teaching English or any other language of the majority is introduced. First they are taught to read and write, thereby adding the possibility to obtain knowledge by themselves through printed material. Finally, depending on their interest, aptitude and residual hearing, they are instructed in speech, thus adding another means of communication.

Children of Deaf adults are performing better. They are introduced to Sign Language at an early age. It is their primary language. They pick up signs before and at school. Then they learn English as a second language. They have a language that is the same level as their hearing peers. Neurolinguistic findings prove that if a child learns any language by the age of three then they will have the cognitive understanding to learn more languages. Deaf children can therefore learn English based on their knowledge of Sign Language. This is a holistic approach

"Bilingual, bicultural education is first and foremost an empowering education". "An empowering education teaches Deaf students to develop the confidence necessary to exercise their basic rights, accept their responsibilities, to advocate and to learn to participate in the decision making process."
Malkowski (1995) Addressing the World Congress for the Deaf.

6. International Standards

The following international documents highlight the importance of the use of Sign Language as the language of learning and teaching in the education of Deaf children.

UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities

Rules No. 7 and 9 clearly indicate that a national Sign Language as the language of learning and teaching, as well as culturally sensitive instruction are vital for the successful education of Deaf learners

UNESCO Conference on the Education of Deaf Children (1984)

At this Conference an agreement was reached as such that as language is important for the development of the Deaf child, the child should have access to Sign Language as well as spoken language. It was further concluded that Sign Language should be recognised as a legitimate linguistic system and have the same status as other linguistic systems

Salamanca Statement (1994)

The Salamanca Statement emphasises that educational policies should ensure that Deaf people have access to education in their national Sign Language, and furthermore, that persons with disabilities have the right to be educated in the way that they choose (and that organisations of people with disabilities should be involved in the design and implementation of programmes).

Equally important is the guideline that children with special needs should follow the same curriculum as all other learners. It also recognises the importance of educators with disabilities to serve as role models for children with disabilities, as well as the preparation of teacher trainers.

World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) (1995)

The WFD unequivocally states that Deaf children have the right to be educated in the Sign Language of their country, and that they also have the right to Sign Language interpreters if they are educated among hearing children.

7. The Current Progress Made in India

Current legislation and policy in terms of the Deaf is wholly lacking. While The Disabilities Act 1995, reserves 3% seats for disabled students in all Government educational institutions and other educational institutions receiving aid from the Government as per Clause 39. It mandates that every child with a disability till the age of 18 years, should have access to free education. Its endeavour is to promote integration of students with disabilities into regular schools as well as the setting up of special schools and to equip them with vocational training facilities (Clause 26).

The Act also promotes research for the purpose of designing and developing new assistive devices, teaching aids, special teaching materials, etc, and it promotes teachers’ training programmes specialising in disabilities so that requisite trained manpower is available for special schools and integrated schools for children with disabilities.

Despite the provisions on Education in the PWD Act, there is minimal provisions relating to the hearing impaired. It should be noted that Sign Language is not even mentioned in the entirety of the Act. The only mention that the hearing impaired get in the section on education is under Clause 30 of the Act where it is mandated that the Government should prepare a comprehensive education scheme which shall make various provisions, including restructuring the curriculum for benefit of students with hearing impairment to facilitate them to only take one language as part of their curriculum. While this does something to improve the workload of the Deaf child, it is apparent that it has been formulated without a complete understanding of what is needed in educating the Deaf. A complete restructuring of the education system for the hearing and speech impaired, should in fact go much further than simply allowing Deaf students to take only one language as part of their curriculum.

The National Association of the Deaf is firmly of the opinion that:

Education is the fundamental right of every child including the hearing disabled in this country.
Denial of language skills amount to denial of freedom of speech which is a clear violation of Section 19 (1)(a). Denial of adequate access to a language is discriminatory under Article 15 of the Constitution of India.
Denial of proficiency in Sign Language training is a denial of equal opportunities and clearly violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Denial of language skills results in atrophy of a portion of the brain and leaves the person ill-equipped to deal with handling all the necessary elements of leading a sustainable life and as such is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Denial of language results in poor educational levels leaving Deaf people ill-equipped to follow a trade or a business. It is violative of Article 19 (1)(g)
The state has failed in its responsibility to ensure prevention of disability as mandated under Section 25 of the Disabilities Act.
The government has failed in its duty to make schemes for the benefit of persons with disabilities as mandated by Section 36 of the Disabilities Act.
It is the responsibility of the Rehabilitation Council of India to provide for quality services in the field of disability, one of which is in providing properly trained teachers for teaching the Deaf.
The Disabilities Act mandates that every disabled child from the age of 6-18 years shall be given free and compulsory education which is clearly not happening in the case of hearing impaired children as the number of teachers trained to teach them is extremely low.
The lack of proper and skilled teaching staff, hearing impaired children sometimes spend 2-3 years in the same class and are often overage by the time they have cleared their class 12 exams for entrance into under graduate courses.
Every student has a right to be taught in accessible format education and information should be imparted in a format that is accessible to the said student and denial of this right is a violation of Article 15 of the Constitution of India.
Currently, as the education system for the hearing impaired currently stands, Deaf people are not able to access higher education and are extremely poorly educated even at the secondary school level.
The National Association of the Deaf has filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Deaf community in India demanding radical changes in the current education system of the Deaf. A copy of the petition is attached herewith.

8. The Way Forward: N.A.D. Recommendations

The following points were the conclusions of an N.A.D consultation on Education of the Deaf.

8.1 Communication and Consultation

It was highlighted that there is a need to have a consultation of all the major ‘Deaf’ players and educators.
Due to the current animosity between different organisations of the Deaf, N.A.D feels there is a need to break barriers amongst Deaf groups as well as creating a sense of owner ship.
There should be increased networking between the different Deaf organisations as well as networking between different organisations working in the disability sector.
There is a need for this increased networking and sharing of good examples. Isolated cases of exemplary successes should be highlighted.
There is a need for raising awareness amongst the disability sector as well as the general public at large.
When we talk of awareness raising, there should be a clear idea as to:
What needs to be done;
How it is to be done; and
Which are the sectors of society that need to be targeted to generate the right outcome.
There is an important role for information. There is a need for a resource centre which is to include facilities, resources, inspiration and empowerment, etc.
Communication is of the utmost import. There is a need for collecting information and creating a resource bank, as well as a proper communication strategy using different mediums to reach all groups: disabled groups and also in the mainstream.
There should be a creation of a booklet with all the researched good practices and the different choices that are available. This booklet can be distributed in order to create awareness.

8.2 Early Intervention

There should be early intervention at the hospital level. Parents of Deaf children should be given good counselling and guidance, as well as being given the opportunity to be sent somewhere in order to learn how to communicate with their child.

Doctors need to be educated as they are the ones that parents of the Deaf will first come into contact with. There should be a recommendation through Rehabilitation Council of India to the Medical Council that Deaf awareness should be included in the syllabus for sensitising Doctors.

8.3 Sign Language

The choice of Sign Language is essential. This should be available in education from an early age in India.
There is an immense need for more interpreters and Sign Language classes and recognised courses.
The hearing impaired sector should come together and agree upon a composite communication system (Indian Sign Language).
To prevail upon the HRD Ministry to include Sign Language / the composite communication system as a subject or alternative subject to social work / craft / languages … etc and allow / make this a factor that will give them preference to work in the disability sector.

8.4 Training of Educators of the Deaf

There is a need to evolve a credible assessment system to evaluate, assess and certify trainers, and trainers of trainers, that must include competence in the composite communication system mentioned above.
It is important to increase the awareness of teachers of the Deaf. They should be aware of the new economy and that there are new and ever increasing job opportunities for the Deaf, e.g. accounting, I.T, research … etc.
Teacher training programmes need to be revamped for better quality teachers.
All teachers of the Deaf should be trained in Indian Sign Language.
We need to sensitise teachers of special schools to accept and begin using Indian Sign Language.

8.5 Education for the Deaf

There should be a special bridge curriculum. There is a need for a study to be carried out on what the hearing child knows at the age of 3 or 4 and what they have managed to absorb by this age. We can then compare this with the Deaf child of the same age in order to assess what needs to be done to make up the gap and bring Deaf children up to par.

Mainstream schools should have a wing where Sign Language interpreters are available as well as special support staff.
Employment for the future needs to be kept in mind. Employment opportunities for the Deaf should be assessed and what opportunities will be available for the Deaf 10 years down the line.

Have a clear idea of the desired outcomes to ensure that persons with hearing impairment are enabled to take their place in society. This should include education, vocational training, employment, etc.

8.6 N.A.D Recommendations for Deaf Education

There should be compulsory training and retraining of all teachers in Indian Sign Language.
The school starting age for Deaf pupils should be earlier (2 ½ or 3 years old) and class ratios should be smaller. (The world standard for pupil teacher ratio is 1:6).
There should be mandatory Sign Language Training and counselling for the parents of Deaf children through the curriculum.
N.C.E.R.T should prepare a set curriculum for different ages of Deaf children in order to make up the cognitive gap between their level of understanding and the average age norm (A specially designed bridge course).
Research into Sign Language itself should be carried out. There is the need to develop Sign Language in order to incorporate higher educational needs.
A request for a social audit into Deaf education. The body should consist of specialists in Deaf Education and / or parents of Deaf children.
There should be modification of the current B Ed Course in Deaf education. Sign Language training should be a mandatory component of this course.

9. Conclusions

This paper has clearly highlighted the urgent need to re-evaluate and revamp the current education system that is available for the Deaf. The educational needs of all Deaf children in India must include the essential necessity of access to the education system. This access should be achieved through the medium of Indian Sign Language. Consequently the current educational system and curriculum of Deaf schools need to be reformed with Indian Sign Language as the root language; on which Deaf students can base their academic learning. Teachers of the Deaf need to be retrained in Indian Sign Language and Indian Sign Language must become an essential component of any course granting qualifications to become a teacher of the Deaf.

Most importantly Deaf persons need to be involved in this process. Deaf people understand better than anyone, the importance of an equal education and the troubles and inequality that can result from an unsatisfactory education.

"The Deaf persons themselves need to be included and involved in an important way while making decisions at all levels"
— Dr. Surinder P. K. Randhawa

India Census 2001, http://www.censusindia.net/disability/dis2.pdf, Accessed on 22/08/06 (Note: Total disabled population is 21,906,769)

National Association of the Deaf — 2005 – 2008