For the Deaf online, SONA translated into sign language

By Pia Faustino – The Deaf were not left out. GMANews.TV teamed up with several deaf educators to interpret the SONA into sign language for those watching the website’s livestream of the speech.

Longtime deaf interpreter Jojo Esposa, an educator from the Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf (MCCID), signed President Aquino’s speech live for the benefit of GMANews.TV’s deaf users. Having worked as an interpreter since 1992, Esposa said that this was the first time in the Philippines that the SONA has been interpreted into sign language for an online webcast.

The idea for doing a sign language interpretation of the SONA began when some members of the deaf community were offended by a phrase included in the English translation of President Aquino’s inaugural speech, explained Maria Veronica Perez, Dean of the De la Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies or DLS-CSB-SDEAS. DLS-CSB-SDEAS was one of several schools for the deaf that have partnered with GMANews.TV and other broadcast news organizations to interpret the SONA into sign language. The other schools are the Philippine Deaf Resource Center, and the MCCID College of Technology, and the Philippine School for the Deaf.

n his inaugural speech delivered last June 30, President Aquino said in Tagalog: “Alam nating lahat ang pakiramdam na magkaroon ng pamahalaang bulag at bingi.” The English version of the speech as published in numerous papers and websites translated this sentence as: “We all know what it is like to have a government that plays deaf and dumb.” The phrase offended some members of the deaf community.

“Akala nila na iniinsulto sila ni President Aquino (They thought President Aquino was insulting them), ” recalls Perez. To prevent similar misunderstandings of the SONA, Perez and other educators convinced several media companies to provide a live sign language interpretation of the speech.

Perez added that Filipino sign language is a unique language, separate from spoken or written Filipino or English. “There is no written counterpart. It’s a visual language,” she explained. She said that most deaf persons in the Philippines use Filipino sign language to express themselves but read and write in English. Few understand written Tagalog.

Myra Medrana, a deaf performing arts trainer at the DLS-CSB, was in the studio when the sign interpretation was being performed. She told GMANews.TV that because most news headlines are written in Tagalog or Filipino, deaf people often feel left out of public discourse on current affairs and politics. “Some of the members of the deaf community have an awareness of Tagalog, but a lot of us don’t know what those Tagalog words mean. So most of the time we make guesses about what the news is about,” she explained in sign language.

Medrana said she was very happy to “hear” President Aquino’s speech live via the sign language interpretation. “Nais ko sana na si President Aquino ay makagawa ng magagandang proyekto para sa Pilipinas at sa mga Pilipino. Sana maging matagumpay siya (I hope that President Aquino will implement good projects for the Philippines and for Filipinos. I hope he achieves his goals),” she said in sign language.

But others members of the deaf community had hoped that President Aquino would mention programs for persons with disabilities during his SONA. “Maraming issues na dapat i-address. Lalo na ang kawalan ng representative nila sa Congress. That’s one. Pangalawa, ang purpose natin which is sign language and closed captioning. Ang tagal na ng bill na ‘yun sa congress pero hanggang ngayon wala pa,” said Esposa.

Giselle Montero, another educator from the DLS-CSB, said that the Deaf consider themselves a linguistic minority. The term “Deaf” with a capital D can be used when referring to the deaf as a community: “The Deaf have their own language and culture, their language being Filipino sign language.” She added that the Deaf preferred to be called “deaf” or “bingi” rather than “hearing-impaired” or “pipi.”

According to the 2000 census, there are more than 100,000 deaf persons in the Philippines.

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