How can a deaf person call an ambulance? How to visit a doctor who does not speak sign language? How to contact a consultant in a store? How to change a system that ignores the needs of people with hearing impairments?
Representatives of Dostupno UA talked about the following to Oleg Chebanenko — the head of the NGO Public Movement "Social Unity". He spoke about interesting initiatives that can make the lives of deaf people more comfortable. He also explained why it is important to identify problems and communicate them with the state.
What we may not realize about people with partial or complete hearing loss
Barriers that make life difficult
The main problem faced by people with hearing impairments of varying degrees is the relative invisibility of their disability. When a person uses a wheelchair, it is noticed; if a person has a prosthetic limb, it is also visible; if a person has a visual impairment, they use glasses or a white cane. If a person has a hearing impairment and uses a cochlear implant, this can be noticed.
But when a person uses sign language, it's not noticeable until you start communicating with them.
How does a person with hearing impairments visit a store or hospital? He or she comes accompanied by relatives or friends who can voice his or her needs. Or they are usually asked to write on paper, but this is illegal and unethical. When a person with a hearing impairment expresses their thoughts in writing, it is difficult to understand them, especially when they try to convey complex sentences. The fact is that sign language is structured differently – it has its own semantics, a different word order. It is more pictorial, no one reproduces every word by letter. Therefore, there is a problem with communication.
There is also a problem that exists at the state level. In my opinion, it lies in the lack of qualifications of officials dealing with people with disabilities and inclusion. Not all of them understand the barriers faced by people with partial or complete hearing loss..
For example: subtitles on videos are not a solution. Because people with hearing impairment from birth usually read poorly (or not at all). They can understand simple words, but if it is a complex text or usage of professional terminology, at this point, perception becomes significantly more difficult or impossible.
Therefore, subtitling is a way of transmitting information, but it is not an alternative, but an additional one – it can be used along with a sign language interpreter (the main way of overcoming the communication barrier for sign language speakers)..
Another problem is that the needs of people with hearing impairments are often forgotten at the level of adopting regulations. For example, the Ministry of Economy presented a program on removing barriers in the workplace for people with disabilities – it had a lot of good points, but they forgot about people with hearing impairments. We pointed out this shortcoming and, it should be noted, they immediately responded and took recommendations for changes into account. This is, in fact, one of the few good examples of a government agency's response.
This is not the only example of people with hearing impairments being forgotten. Because they are not used to seeing them around. Why not? Because we have a long Soviet history of segregation, when people with disabilities were hidden. And it seemed that they simply did not exist in society.
Another big problem with the state is what I call its officials' market approach to the inclusive activities we offer. What are we talking about? For example, if your organization, Dostupno.UA, came somewhere with a request to install a regulatory ramp, and you were told "wait, let us calculate how many people in a wheelchair will pass through this ramp, and how much it will cost, how much we should spend per person...". This market approach is quite difficult to overcome. NGOs are not marketing agencies that come to the state to provide lead generation.
In addition, measures to overcome communication barriers for people with hearing impairments are not something that can be installed once, such as a regulatory ramp. There are two sides to adaptation to sign language – on the one hand, it is easier because there is no need to redesign anything on a large scale; on the other hand, it is a more difficult process because it requires long and constant adaptation
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How to solve these problems
If the state strengthened its systematic cooperation with civil society organizations, this would significantly improve the situation. Civil society institutions that have been dealing with the problems of people with disabilities professionally and for a long time can give the best advice.
Communication problems can be solved by providing services with adaptation to sign language, i.e., involving sign language interpreters. Fortunately, Article 4 of the Law on Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as the State Language has been added to the list of languages recognized at the state level. This means that state institutions must ensure that a person for whom sign language is the main language can use it freely wherever he or she needs it
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According to unofficial statistics, there are about 300 sign language interpreters for 150-200 thousand people with hearing impairments in Ukraine. This makes it unrealistic to hire an interpreter directly at the location.
Therefore, it is necessary to turn to technology, which can be used to provide online access to sign language interpreters. This is an absolutely normal global practice.
The only question is that the state should take care of adaptation to ensure access to information and services. Or it can do everything to ensure that such adaptation takes place at the expense of donors or our international partners. How will it work? For instance, hospitals should have a tablet with licenced pre-installed software. When a person with a hearing impairment comes to see a doctor, they press a button on the tablet and are connected to a sign language interpreter who provides further communication: they hear sign language and translate spoken language into sign language.
Online sign language interpretation in medical institutions – how goes
Our NGO has an enterprise called the Center of Social Business, which employs people with disabilities. This enterprise has its own full-time sign language interpreters and a license to use software. Our company provides tablets to hospitals, and they only pay for the services of a sign language interpreter.
It is not very convenient to carry one tablet throughout the hospital, so we also provide QR codes to be posted, for example, in doctors' offices. Then everything works as follows: a person comes to the hospital and registers via the tablet at the reception desk; goes to the doctor's office and scans the QR code on the spot using a smartphone; and is connected to a sign language interpreter who provides confidential translation on the phone.
Web accessibility adaptation began to be implemented after the emergence of the coronavirus – even then, questions were raised about how a person with hearing impairments could call the hospital. Unfortunately, there is no way. Because the hospital does not provide video communication. You can't even call an ambulance if there is no person nearby who can help and call. That's why, after the pandemic started, we asked hospitals to help deaf people. Some medical institutions responded and installed a special widget on their websites
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Comunicating with a doctor via the widget as follows:
- person visits the hospital's website;
- in the lower right corner of the site there is a widget button in the form of a crossed-out ear (an international sign that denotes something created for people with hearing impairments, it also helps others understand that a person has a complete or partial hearing loss, for example, deaf people often use stickers with such an ear on their cars);
- while clicking the widget, you are connecting to the translator via video;
- sign language interpreter calls the hospital and represents a deaf person interests, ensuring communication.
Today, this widget is available on the websites of about 80 hospitals (public and private), as well as on 9 websites of ministries and government agencies.
Is there a shortage of sign language interpreters
In the near future, there will be enough sign language interpreters for online services. But the problem with the shortage of specialists does exist. And it lies in the fact that we do not have the prestige of this profession, there is no government order.
Young people are not in a hurry to get such an education, because what are they going to do with it? If the state does not care about it, then how and where can they get a job? Mostly, people who have deaf parents or deaf relatives go to study to become sign language interpreters.
Examples of businesses that implement services for deaf customers or employees
There are socially responsible businesses in Ukraine, and I am very pleased about that. For example, we have a long-standing relationship with a retail chain that uses sign language adaptation specifically for its employees – they are paid to contact a sign language interpreter, even outside of working hours.
There is also an example of McDonald's – it hires deaf employees and uses our sign language adaptation services to organize the workflow. If communication is needed, the employee presses a button and gets access to a sign language interpreter.
In a number of stores, Foxtrot has introduced communication with customers with hearing impairments through a tablet and QR codes that allow them to call a sign language interpreter. We have already received a lot of positive feedback from deaf people – they finally have the opportunity to get proper advice when choosing household appliances, ask additional questions. Even resolve the issue of returning the goods. Foxtrot also has a widget for simultaneous communication with a contact center operator and a sign language interpreter.
Such implementations are somewhat expensive, but they make a significant contribution to the company's reputation.
What the Public Movement "Social Unity" do
Fighting for compulsory sign language interpretation in medical institutions
One of our main activities is advocacy. We spend a lot of time communicating with the government to be able to influence its decisions.
Before the full-scale invasion began, we, together with the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), "pressed" the Ministry of Health to introduce a resolution stating that medical facilities must provide sign language interpretation when providing medical services. This was a great victory, and people with hearing impairments were very happy, as they finally had the right to receive sign language interpretation.
Unfortunately, before this process could start properly, a full-scale war broke out. And in 2022-2023, this requirement ceased to be mandatory, and everything went back. But having adapted to the circumstances, we realized that we needed to raise this issue again. We continued to communicate with the Ministry of Health and convinced them that in 2024 this rule should be brought back into force.
Боротьба за обов’язковий переклад жестовою мовою не закінчується, тому що є проблема з формальним виконанням поставлених умов.
Administrators of some hospitals have decided to go the following way: they sign fictitious contracts with sign language interpreters. Why is this done? To submit the contract to the NHSU and pretend that they are fulfilling the requirement. In fact, no interpreter will appear there, even though there will be a request from visitors. So far, there is no control system, but we are monitoring and identifying problems on our own.
The right to choose a sign language interpreter at the notary's office
Another example of successful advocacy and work at the regulatory level is that we have ensured that deaf people, when applying to a notary or a court, can choose a sign language interpreter with whom they feel comfortable.
Previously, when dealing with law enforcement or the legal system, only sign language interpreters from the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf (UTOG) could provide interpretation. We have the Association of Sign Language Interpreters, and there are independent interpreters. But it was the UTOG that wrote a letter to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Justice, in turn, sent a letter to notaries and other representatives of the system. After that, for many years there was discrimination when people wanted to engage their own sign language interpreters, but they were denied because they were not from the UTOG.
It took us about a year of correspondence with the Ministry of Justice to convince them that this was an illegal decision. They finally admitted their mistake and sent a letter to all notaries stating that the requirement to engage a sign language interpreter exclusively from the UTOG is illegal because it is not established at the state level.
For many years, people with hearing impairments did not have a free choice in this matter, but now they do.
"Ukrzaliznytsia" and tablets
As part of the "Barrier-Free Railways" project, tablets with the ability to contact a sign language interpreter were installed at the Central Railway Station in Kyiv and Lviv.
Based on our experience, we can say that the number of requests for an interpreter via a tablet is simply insane. And this is despite the fact that it usually takes some time for the deaf community to learn about the news. But the need was so great that we can already see the demand.
I really hope that Ukrzaliznytsia will scale up the project a bit next year, and we will provide this service to as many train stations in different cities as possible.
The situation was very similar with the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Previously, deaf people needed to resolve issues with their driver's license and re-register their car, but there was nowhere to turn. Everything changed when a specialized widget was installed on the website of the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a lot of requests came through it at once. People shared information with each other, and word of mouth worked..
Platform "Vilno" (Free)
With the support of the Ministry of Social Policy, we have launched the Vilno platform. It is a platform for people with disabilities to learn professional skills and find jobs..
We are currently developing the platform and plan to launch free training - we will attract specialists who will help to retrain or improve their skills.
Translator SL app
Our company provides the functionality of the Translator SL application. Today it is used by more than 40 thousand people.
I highly recommend downloading this app and using the free options. Among them is a hotline for deaf people whose rights have been violated (we also have on the site).
How it works: a person can leave a complaint explaining the situation (in writing or by calling a sign language interpreter); a team of lawyers will process this request and help you. We analyze all requests and situations, and if they are systemic, we then contact government agencies.
The app also has a free option that allows to contact the State Emergency Service, call an ambulance, police, and gas service. The app highlights such calls as a priority, and a sign language interpreter takes these calls out of turn.
Cooperation with the State Emergency Service
After the full-scale invasion began, we began to cooperate fruitfully with the State Emergency Service. They have an important section on their website called "The ABCs of Safety" that provides tips on what to do in military emergencies. We are gradually adapting this content to sign language – we record videos that are posted on the site alongside the text.
When the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was blown up, many deaf people were in the flooded areas. We contacted the State Emergency Service within the first hour and made a video with the most important information in sign language: what to do, where to go, how to behave, how to get help, how to provide help. In the first day, the video had 150 thousand views, which is a very large reach for this audience.
Free tours for deaf people
Unfortunately, people with hearing impairments have a very limited amount of content adapted for them. For example, they have no additional opportunity to learn something about the history of their own country, to get acquainted with the creative heritage.
Together with the Lviv National Gallery of Art named after Bohdan Voznytskyi, we are currently developing a joint project to add QR codes to museum exhibits, so that a deaf person can receive information about an exhibit or exhibition in sign language at any time without assistance.
We are constantly talking about the need to support people and create opportunities for them to join cultural events adapted to sign language. After consulting with deaf people, we came to the conclusion that the most interesting events for them would be excursions.
To begin with, we chose three cities where we periodically organize tours accompanied by a sign language interpreter. These are Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv. Now, due to the shelling of Kharkiv, it is a bit more difficult to do this, but in the summer, when it was calmer, we managed to take people to the Zoo and Feldman Ecopark.
The largest number of excursions now takes place in Lviv, where they are very popular. We manage to organize 3-4 excursions a month to museums and around the city. There are always a lot of people willing to join.
How to join such cultural events? You can follow us on our social networks (Facebook, Instagram, ТікТок) — there we post announcements about recruitment to the tour group.
In which direction to move and how to motivate yourself
Stand up for rights
If people are constantly told "you are nobody, you have no rights," it is no wonder that they get tired of defending themselves, and they do not develop a legal culture.
This is a very painful moment, because when we try to influence the decisions of the state, the question often arises "where are the deaf people, why don't they speak out?" We have to remind them that we still have communication barriers, people communicate in sign language, and you have to make changes to understand and hear them.
But we are working with this, trying to explain to people with hearing impairments that if they do not take the initiative, nothing will change.
Brazil's experience
When I first learned about Brazil's experience with inclusion, I was shocked. In this country, they do a lot for people with hearing impairments, so the culture and attitude of society is generally on a different level. Many people just learn Libras, a Brazilian sign language, so they can communicate with the deaf.
For example, when Michelle Bolsonaro made her first address to the nation as first lady in 2019, she used sign language. An interpreter stood next to her and interpreted her speech.
Why it is important for civil society organizations be united
One voice may not be heard. Therefore, I am one hundred percent convinced that the public should unite. And this should happen not only in their field of activity. For example, we may not know something about the problems of people with musculoskeletal disorders, but we can tell you about people with hearing impairments.
We all do equally important things and have to face similar situations in our attempts to reach the state. That is why it is important to cooperate and support each other with information.
Superpowers
We now have many examples of people with disabilities who, despite their health problems, have created opportunities for more intensive development. This is their superpower.
For centuries, people with disabilities have been oppressed and discriminated against, but now as the world has become more civilized, the situation is changing. People are gaining opportunities and technologies to advocate for themselves, to express themselves, and to get rid of barriers.
