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Deafness in Thailand refers to the population and culture of Deaf Hard of Hearing people in Thailand. Deafness in Thailand includes language emergence, organizations, healthcare, employment, schooling, and civil rights.
Deaf and hard of hearing people in Thailand use Thai Sign Language (TSL) or Modern Thai Sign Language (MTSL).[ citation needed ] TSL was officially labeled "the national language of deaf people in Thailand" in 1999. TSL is related to American Sign Language (ASL) and belongs to the same language family as ASL because of American-trained educators in Thailand in the 1950s. Indigenous sign languages still exist in Thailand, but aren't as widely used. Old Bangkok Sign Language and Changmai Sign Language were used more in the 1950s, but are mostly used now by older deaf generations. Bangkok has the highest concentration of deaf people with Changmai following in second.
Not much is known about the origins of TSL or MTSL, [1] but it is known that TSL is used mostly by Thai signers under the age of 40 and signers who live in more urban areas of Thailand. TSL is the language used for the National Association of the Deaf in Thailand and other significant deaf organizations in Thailand.
Ban Khor Sign Language [2] is another indigenous sign language in Thailand, but in 2009, there were only 400 known native speakers. Ban Khor is a village sign language that was used in northeastern Thailand. It is a language isolate, which is a language that cannot be categorized into a larger language family.
Ban Khor is a village in Thailand in the northeastern region of Thailand. In the early 20th century, there were no deaf people in Ban Khor, so sign language did not exist there. In the early 1930s, the deaf population in Ban Khor grew due to hereditary deafness in the population. BKSL began as a deaf community sign language but soon developed into a shared sign language. There is no way to know exactly how BKSL developed into a shared sign language, but in an interview, Mr. Doot, the oldest brother of his deaf family, says his siblings invented a type of sign because they couldn't speak. Overtime, it became a community sign language and later, shared sign. [2]
Some prominent people in Thai language emergence are Kamala Kraireuk and Maliwan Tammasaeng. Kamala Kraireuk invented fingerspelling in 1953 and earned her master's degree in Deaf studies. Maliwan Tammasaeng was the former director of the School for the Deaf and a board member on the Foundation for the Deaf.
The National Association of the Deaf in Thailand [3] works to provide deaf and hard of hearing people in Thailand with the services they may need. The association was founded by alumni from the Setthasatien School, which is a school for deaf and hard of hearing people. The foundation provides sign language interpretation services, deaf guide services, closed captioning services, and complaint services. Some of their objectives include: to ensure and strengthen deaf association establishment in every province in Thailand, to promote public health and human right, sports and recreation welfare, and necessary accommodation for deaf and hard of hearing people, and to promote and preserve education rights and to provide and support related careers and skills for deaf.
The Nippon Foundation [4] works to achieve social innovation in several countries across the world. About 20 years ago, the Nippon Foundation opened their services to the deaf population. The Nippon Foundation works to help deaf and hard of hearing people make their own decisions and ensure that they get equal participation opportunities in society. This foundation services many countries, including Thailand.
The International Week of the Deaf [5] occurs every year in September and Thailand joined in 2018, where they held an event for people with disabilities to increase public awareness. The event was held by the National Association of the Deaf in Thailand and the theme in 2018 was With Sign Language, Everyone is Included! This theme emphasized the importance of learning sign language and the importance of communication within deaf and hard of hearing communities.
The Thai Department for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities [6] believes in improving the lives of individuals with disabilities and giving them the resources needed. Their initiative is based on educating the general public on sign language, empowering other organizations related to deaf services, finding good financial access, making sure disabled people have access to job opportunities, and finding activities that will benefit deaf and hard of hearing people.
The Thai Telecommunication Relay Service installed kiosks around Thailand in cooperation with the Universal Foundation for Persons with Disabilities. There were two types of kiosks set up, the first would allow for deaf and hard of hearing people to talk with hearing people and the second would allow hearing people to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing people. This communication was achieved through sign language interpreters. These are free of charge and easily accessible with cameras, keyboards, and headphones. [7]
DeafThai is a foundation for the deaf established for the needs of deaf and hard of hearing people. [8] The establishment of DeafThai eventually led to the establishment of the deaf education unit at Somanas Temple.
Wycliffe Bible Translators is a group of people that work to translate the Bible to hundreds of languages across the world. [9] In Thailand, deaf Bible translators are working to translate the Bible into Thai Sign Language.
Thailand's government provides governmental documents in TSL, while many other countries do not. This makes it easier for deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate with their government officials.
Thailand states that their government does not consider deaf people to have the right to employment and earn the same salary as other hearing individuals, though there is an anti-discrimination law for employment in Thailand. [10]
Over 2 million people have disability cards in Thailand, and 18% of these disabled people are hearing impaired. In 2007, the Thai government passed the Persons with Disabilities Empowerment Act. This act states, "anyone who encounters limitations through an impairment has the right to receive legal or personal assistance, sign language interpreters, medical services, house modifications for better accessibility and education free of charge. They can also receive tax exemptions, cheaper public transportation feeds, loans without interest for self-employment and a monthly allowance of 800 baht." [10]
Other organizations in Thailand have also worked to provide better human rights to deaf and hard of hearing people. For example, the National Association of the Deaf in Thailand worked to get Thailand to recognize TSL as an official language in 1999.
The first educational program for Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals in Thailand was established in 1951 as an experiment. Twelve DHH students were taught at a public school in Bangkok to see how well they could learn with hearing students. This experiment led to the establishment of the first DHH school in Thailand called Setsatian School for the Deaf. [11] The first two directors of this school were trained in the United States at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. The Setsatian School is an elementary and middle school located in Bangkok, Thailand. The teachers lead instruction primarily in Thai Sign Language (TSL), with limited spoken word. The classes have about 15-20 students in each of them, with some students wearing hearing aids and other students not. [12]
The Sotpattana School for the Deaf [13] is also located in Bangkok, Thailand and was established in 1982. This school is for Deaf or Hard of Hearing students aged three to nine years old. It is a private charity school affiliated with the Office of the Private Education Commission and the Ministry of Education of Thailand. The school takes both day students and boarding students, as they have residential dorms above the classrooms. The principles of Sotpattana School are love, kindness, and self-development. [14]
More programs for DHH students have been established throughout Thailand, but only about 30,000 out of 280,000 Deaf individuals in Thailand are provided with education services/programs, which is about 11%. There are 20 residential schools for DHH students in Thailand, they are established in 19 provinces out of Thailand's total of 77 provinces.
Employment for deaf or hard of hearing individuals in Thailand is limited, as there is a lack of interpreters for them. If there are no interpreters at the job, the DHH employees will not be able to participate in the same ways that hearing people would be. [15] For example, if there is a meeting with important information, but there is no interpreter, it would be hard for the DHH employee to get the same information or even the same quality of information. [15]
Because there aren't that many schools for the Deaf in Thailand, it is hard to get a degree in order to get a job for DHH individuals. Even if DHH people can get a degree, employers prefer to hire hearing people. [15] Also, most schools for the Deaf are in major cities in Thailand, like Bangkok and Chang Mai, meaning only a small fraction of the Thai deaf population is getting an education in order to get a job. [16]
One major place of work for DHH people in Thailand is a very large KFC. This KFC is located inside Times Square in Bangkok, a place crowded with tourists. [17] This is the first KFC in Thailand that largely employs hearing impaired individuals, making up about 70% of the employees. [17] All hearing and hearing impaired staff are trained the same and use sign language. There are different colored lights that signify different things, like alarms and announcements. [17]
Another place of work in Thailand for DHH people is a coffee shop located in Bangkok. [18] This coffee shop employs DHH people and makes it easier for them to communicate with customers. There are signs for customers to point to which drinks they want and the employers are very open minded. The goal of the coffee shop is to employ DHH people who may have had trouble getting jobs in the past.[ citation needed ]
Thailand is still behind other countries in early hearing detection and screenings, but it is possible to get tests done. Hearing screening tests are not done in the hospital when the baby is born, but can be scheduled afterwards at the parents' request. [19] Hearing screening tests seem to only be available in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, the biggest cities in Thailand. [19]
Cochlear implants are available in Thailand at a lower cost than in the United States, but can still be very expensive and hard to obtain. [20] Most people with hearing impairments in Thailand use hearing aids. [20]
Before 1989, people who were visually or hearing impaired in Thailand were not recognized in any of Thailand's educational or rehabilitation systems. [21] In 1989, the Hiltons-Perkins program, which provides aid all over the world to those with disabilities, came to Thailand and helped provide education and healthcare for those who were hearing impaired. [21]
Thai Sign Language (TSL), or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language (MSTSL), is the national sign language of Thailand's deaf community and is used in most parts of the country by the 20 percent of the estimated 56,000 pre-linguistically deaf people who go to school.
Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL) is a village sign language used by at least 400 people of a rice-farming community in the village of Ban Khor in a remote area of Isan. Known locally as pasa kidd, it developed in the 1930s due to a high number of deaf people. Estimated number of users in 2009 was 16 deaf and approximately 400 hearing out of 2741 villagers. It is a language isolate, independent of the other sign languages of Thailand such as Old Bangkok Sign Language and the national Thai Sign Language.
India is home to approximately 63 million people of the deaf and hard of hearing community (DHH). While India's government has focused much on modernizing the country with technological resources and infrastructure, it has completely ignored the needs of the DHH residents of India. Although sign language has been evolving within the country for the last hundreds, it was not until 2017 when the Indian government decided to codify sign language in a dictionary format.
There are about 357,000 deaf and 3,210,000 hard-of-hearing people in Canada. The country can be split into Francophone and Anglophone regions, and has both French and English as official languages. The majority of Canada is considered Anglophone, while the province of Quebec along with small parts of New Brunswick, Ontario, and Manitoba are primarily French-speaking. The presence of these two main languages and cultures also brings forth different deaf cultures between the two regions. In Francophone regions, the official language used by deaf and hard-of-hearing people is Quebec Sign Language.
In Ireland, 8% of adults are affected by deafness or severe hearing loss. In other words, 300,000 Irish require supports due to their hearing loss.
Japanese Sign Language (JSL), also known as Nihon Shuwa, is the unofficial but most predominantly used sign language used by nearly 57,000 native signers as their primary language. It is a convergent, Deaf community sign language developed in the late 19th century.
Estimates of the deaf population in Tunisia range from 40,000 to 60,000 people. These estimates indicate that deaf people make up between 0.3% to 0.5% of the population. The percent of deaf Tunisians can be much higher in isolated communities, ranging from 2% to 8%. The increase in prevalence is attributed to higher rates of intermarriage, geographic isolation, and social traditions. Tunisian Sign Language, abbreviated as TSL or LST, is the most commonly used sign language in Tunisia. As of 2008, TSL's user population is 21,000 signers.
Though official statistics are not available, the Danish Deaf Association estimates that there are currently about 5,000 deaf users of Danish Sign Language, which is equivalent to nearly 0.1% of the country's population. As many as 20,000 people are thought to use the language daily in their professional or personal life.
The history of deafness in Iceland includes the history of Icelandic Sign Language (ISL) and its status as the first language of the Deaf, the history of Icelandic Deaf education and Deaf organizations, and the status of hearing screenings in the country.
Deafness in Poland refers to the Deaf communities in Poland and education around their culture and language. Poland has a recorded history of DHH people, dating back to 1817. About 15.1% of Polish people in Poland say they have hearing loss. Polski Język Migowy is the main signed language in Poland.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a population of about 1.4 million deaf people out of a total population of about 86.7 million. The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are one of the more greatly affected regions by hard-of-hearing complications, compared to the rest of the world. Deaf people in the DRC are subject to neglect and discrimination by their families and the government, but they are also met with small, various ways of support and charity through international, European, Australian, and American religious, non-religious, and governmental organizations.
According to The Deaf Unit Cairo, there are approximately 1.2 million deaf and hard of hearing individuals in Egypt aged five and older. Deafness can be detected in certain cases at birth or throughout childhood in terms of communication delays and detecting language deprivation. The primary language used amongst the deaf population in Egypt is Egyptian Sign Language (ESL) and is widely used throughout the community in many environments such as schools, deaf organizations, etc. Ths article focuses on the many different aspects of Egyptian life and the impacts it has on the deaf community.
The Canadian Association of the Deaf estimates that there are over 350,000 Deaf Canadians, but there is not an exact number since there has never been a formal census on Deaf Canadians. There are approximately 1.2 million Indigenous people and over 750 reserves in Canada. There are various intersections of deaf and Indigenous culture, including valuing community, rooting their identity in their culture and its associated group instead of their individuality, having their identities oversimplified, being underrepresented in research and data collection, and experiencing health inequities due to their identities. There is limited research on Deaf Indigenous people, but the Saskatchewan Human Rights Association argues that issues faced by Deaf people are exacerbated when that person is also Indigenous.
The Windward Islands are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Dominica, Martinique, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada. A variety of cultures, beliefs, languages, and views of deafness exist on the islands.
South Korea's Deaf population began to come to prominence in recorded history in the late 19th century with the implementation of special education. Since then, they have gained government recognition and legal rights.
In Benin, deafness affects 12,500 people out of their total population of 10 million. Since the late 1900s, there has been a growing emergence of resources, recognition, and support for the deaf people in Benin. The deaf community uses American Sign Language (ASL), Langue des Signes de l'Afrique Francophone (LSAF), and Langue des signes du Bénin. The type of sign and how many people use each remain undocumented. However, in 1994, one of the first LSAF dictionaries was published in Benin.
Nicaragua's total population is 6,000,000, but a reliable count of the number of deaf people in Nicaragua is difficult to obtain. In 2009, a law was passed in which Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) was named as the official language of deaf people in Nicaragua. NSL is a newer sign language that emerged less than 50 years ago when deaf children started attending school. Due to the country's lack of early childhood hearing screenings, hearing loss is often undetected and left untreated. Deaf and hard-of-hearing children often face language deprivation due to the lack of language input they experience until they enter school. There are many schools in different cities in Nicaragua; however, the majority of deaf children throughout the country are not attending school. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people also face struggles when finding employment opportunities. NSL isn't an endangered sign language, but the total number of people who use the language are under 10,000.
Out of nearly 59 million people in Italy, about 3.5 million Italians have some form of hearing loss. Among them, around 70,000 people are severely deaf. The European Union for the Deaf reports that the majority of the deaf people in Italy use Italian Sign Language (LIS). LIS has been an official sign language in Italy since 2021. Italy, among other countries, ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and is slowly improving conditions for deaf humans in Italy. Many major organizations in Italy fight for deaf rights and spread awareness to the Italian National Agency for the protection and assistance of the Deaf and Associated Italian Families for the Defense of the Rights of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals (FIADDA). Newborns in Italy also receive universal hearing screenings. Education in Italy is directed towards oralism, although sign language is also used. LIS is a stable language and is used by approximately 40,000 users in Italy.
The Filipino Sign Language (FSL) is the official language of education for deaf Filipinos, which number around 121,000 as of 2000.
There is limited information on the extent of Deafness in Haiti, due mainly to the lack of census data. Haiti's poor infrastructure makes it almost impossible to obtain accurate information on many health related issues, not just the hearing impaired. In 2003, the number of deaf people in Haiti was estimated at 72,000, based on a survey provided by the World Health Organization.
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