Life and Leisure

Signs of the times

By Lin Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-12 15:05

Sign language should be more widely promoted to provide a better bridge between the hearing-impaired community and the rest of society, suggests a small-scale survey by the students' Red Cross society of the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

The society interviewed 315 college students, community residents and hearing-impaired people, and found that there is a common desire to popularize sign languages so the voices of people with hearing and speech disabilities can be heard and appreciated by the rest of the society.

"About 40 percent of university students, who answered our questionnaires, have acquired basic sign language patterns," Zuo Zhenbo, head of the investigation team, says.

Some universities have introduced short-term sign language courses. They also provide volunteering schemes, in which students can do exchanges with deaf people to better understand their needs.

On the other hand, 87 percent of respondent residents mistake commonly used hand gestures as sign language, he says.

Zou wants more non-profit organizations to be established to facilitate training people with sign language skills.

Liu Chunda, a hearing-impaired advisor for the survey, says there are about 20 million hearing-impaired people in China. Their sign languages vary depending on the region and need to be standardized. He says that the learning of sign language should be expanded to include all hospitality industries, such as banks and hospitals, and adds that sign language is more than just a means of communication.

"It is the dance of the fingers and a key to people's soul. Moreover, practicing sign languages will improve people's ability to coordinate their fingers and brain," Liu says.

However, the survey also showed that for hearing-impaired respondents, one of the most pressing issues is employment for the disabled.

"The hearing-impaired respondents to the survey in particular, appeal for more jobs, better salaries and benefits and organized travel," Zuo says.