EDITOR – The National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) is deeply disappointed that, once again, the broadcasting of the State of the Nation Address ignored the rights of almost two million people with hearing loss.
The White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2015) is clear on this issue. There are approximately three to 3.5 million persons with disabling hearing loss in South Africa, of which 1.5 to two million do not use a signed language as their primary means of communication.
We were promised that 2017 would be the year in which the SONA was broadcast with captions/subtitles, making it accessible to these almost 1.5 to two million people. We are very upset by the exclusion of some of our population. Exclusion is a serious matter that socially isolates or marginalises individuals or groups by not allowing or enabling them to fully participate and be included in society and enjoy the same rights and privileges as others.
We believe that captioning is a constitutional right and urge all broadcasters to take the appropriate measures, particularly when broadcasting issues of national
importance such as the state of the nation speech.
Therina Wentzel
National director of the NCPD
