Namibia urged to recognise sign language

Ellanie SmitWINDHOEKNamibia needs to seriously work on recognising and promoting sign language in the country.This according to deputy minister of disability affairs Alexia Manombe-Ncube, who said: “If we do not learn sign language, we are depriving 27 000 Namibians the ability to communicate with us in our homes, Parliament, political parties, schools, communities, churches, shops, hospitals, clinics, courts, police stations and institutions of higher learning, to mention but a few”.She made the remarks at the launch of the International Day of Sign Language last week.September is International Deaf Awareness Month and every year, the International Week of the Deaf is celebrated from 19 September to 23 September, she said.The week focuses on promoting the positive aspects of deafness and encouraging social inclusion.Each day during the week has a specific theme and focus, and on Monday, it was ‘Sign Languages in Education’.Manombe-Ncube said this theme focuses on the acquisition of sign language as it is critical for the cognitive and social development of deaf children.“It is important for the whole family to learn sign language as many deaf children are born into families who are not deaf, thus services must be in place to provide sign language learning and support to families so that they can learn and use sign language at home and make it easy to communicate with the deaf children and assist with educational activities.”She said early childhood development (ECD) centres should be equipped with sign language, spoken and visual materials.Legitimate languageThe deputy minister added that sign language is a legitimate language in its own right, with its own syntax, morphology and structure.“It is capable of functioning as a language of communication in all settings - from educational to political levels.”This fact has been accepted and enacted in Article 2 of the United Nations convention on the rights of people with disabilities, which defines sign language as equal to spoken language, she said.The convention emphasised that without respecting linguistic rights of deaf students, their human rights cannot be fulfilled, Manombe-Ncube added.Collaborate“As the Namibian government, we must take the necessary steps towards the official recognition of Namibian Sign Language [NSL]. We should collaborate with the Namibian National Association of the Deaf [NNAD] to achieve this goal.”She said in recognising NSL and by ensuring legislation is inclusive of deaf people’s linguistic rights, laws and decrees should be put in place that guarantee access to education, interpretation, information, employment of deaf citizens and promotion of sign language and deaf culture.The Namibia College of Open Learning (Namcol) is now offering a two-year diploma course in sign language interpretation, she added.However, to qualify, you need to have basic sign language proficiency, which can be acquire through NNAD training.

Namibia urged to recognise sign language

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-29

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Namibia urged to recognise sign language

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-29

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