DUBAI // Help is now a video call or text message away for thousands of people with hearing disabilities.
Experts in sign language will be on hand at the Community Development Authority’s Sanad Relay Centre to take calls from people who need help communicating, anywhere from a hospital to a roadside emergency.
Operators will then relay the message to people who don’t understand sign language. The service, intended to break down communication barriers, will initially be provided for those who know Arabic sign language and will later be extended to English and Urdu sign languages.
“This is not just a service for the hearing impaired, it’s for all of society,” said Khaled Al Kamda, CDA’s director general.
“If you meet someone with hearing difficulties who needs help you can use this service to make communication easier and assist people with special needs. This is not just for UAE nationals or for people from Abu Dhabi or Dubai. It’s open to everyone in the UAE and also people with hearing disabilities in the region or any country in the world.”
There are 3,000 deaf and mute people in the UAE and the service aims to reach out to them and their families for consultation, information on counselling and early detection.
Hearing impaired CDA volunteers called in friends for feedback during the testing phase.
Mohammed Hafez, a volunteer with a hearing disability, said his brother would no longer need to tag along for doctor’s appointments to translate his symptoms and explain the treatment required. Like him, those with hearing impairments usually write down their symptoms or take a relative to the clinic.
“I had to take my brother every time I was meeting a doctor and sometimes he couldn’t translate properly because he did not know the name of the illness,” Mr Hafez said. “We fall sick like anyone else so healthcare services are the reason people are most likely to contact the centre.”
Mr Hafez once waited two hours for help when he had a traffic accident and could not reach friends. A passing police patrol eventually provided assistance. “It will make us more self-confident, give us courage to participate in regular life so we will not be afraid because of our disability,” he said.
The SRC hopes to provide quick response and later recruit multilingual experts. There is no fixed time of operation yet.
“We have all the languages of the world spoken in the UAE so we will focus on the most common like Arabic, English and Urdu,” Mr Al Kamda said.
“We want this to be as simple as talking on behalf of the hearing impaired to others. We cannot start with 24-hour coverage. Depending on the pattern of calls we will [get to] understand usage and develop the service.”
The service can be accessed from the CDA’s homepage. CDA staff are being trained in basic sign language to help people with hearing disabilities who enter the centre.
rtalwar@thenational.ae
