Navina Aziza Kabir, a proud daughter of parents with hearing imparity, has turned it into a personal mission to facilitate ‘differently abled’ people by teaching sign language…writes Shababa Iqbal
SOURAV LASKAR
How would you feel if you were living in a foreign land, where you have no understanding of the customs, language and culture? You would probably have gone through each day with reluctance and uncertainty. You would be frustrated when you wanted to state your opinion, but could not make yourself understood. You might also feel isolated when everyone laughs at a joke, and you do not understand the punch line. Those are only some of the instances that the hearing-impaired people usually have to go through on a daily basis. Unkindness and derision of ‘abled’ people can make their own country feel like an unwelcoming foreign land.
Growing up with both parents being hearing impaired, 25-year-old Navina Aziza Kabir has witnessed such challenges on a personal level from a very tender age. As a child, Navina would communicate with hand gestures, which got her parents worried. The doctor told them that usually, children pick up words like ‘maa’ (mom) and ‘baba’ (dad) as their first words, because they are constantly hearing them.
But in Navina’s case, as she did not hear these words and saw her parents talking with hand gestures, she picked those up. So technically, sign language is her mother tongue as it is the first language that she learnt. A basic study of genetics would tell you that the child of a hearing impaired couple might not necessarily be hearing impaired as well.
‘I had a really hard time explaining to people that I am not, to state it directly, deaf and mute. They would just come to the conclusion by themselves and then begin to ask me many unnecessary, and often embarrassing questions,’ says Navina, who has been working as a sign language interpreter and instructor since 2010. Navina is also a final year student of Media and Communications at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB).
Navina’s parents were quick to realise that she needed to be exposed to all kinds of environments in order to correctly pick up the spoken language. So, she was made to spend plenty of time with her other relatives. In school, when she wanted to have some chips or anything during recess, Navina would tell the shopkeeper that her mother would pay him when she arrives. Her friends would then tease her, saying, ‘Your mother can’t talk. How will she pay the shopkeeper?’ Even her teachers were not considerate.
‘As a child, those incidents psychologically affected me. My parents stopped coming to my school for the parent-teacher meetings and report card days. My other relatives would accompany me instead,’ she adds.
Even today, when she communicates in sign language in public places, she has to hear comments like, ‘Ai dekho, meye ta naach tese’ (Look, that girl is dancing) and receive plenty of wide-eyed, prying and startled stares.
One wonders why people in the Bangladeshi society react in such an inflexible and unsophisticated manner. ‘People just aren’t aware of it,’ says Navina. She also explains that sign language syntactically contains properties like other languages, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives and it also maintains dialects and grammar rules that must be followed. Furthermore, numerous colleges and universities abroad offer credits for sign language as a foreign language. But the situation in Bangladesh is still backdated in this case, and the society not as inclusive.
Although she faced plenty of taunts from people growing up, Navina mentions that today, she could not be more proud to be the daughter of her parents. Realising that there are numerous other people who struggle to communicate with their hearing impaired family members she decided to lend a hand.
However, her journey certainly was not a walk in the park. She picked up some of the signs at home and connected with other people who knew sign language, but she struggled because she could not find a single formal or reliable institution that teaches sign language. She took formal training in sign language from the NGO, Society of the Deaf and Sign Language Users (SDSL), in order to obtain a certificate to start her work as a sign language interpreter and instructor.
Navina started working in 2010. Since then, she has trained a number of employees at SDSL, and has also worked as an interpreter at different conferences and events organised by different organisations including the World Bank, Action AID, USAID, Samaj Kallyan Sangstha as well as at events like Shishu Dibosh.
Navina believes that sign language interpreters are required in different fields and institutions in the country to facilitate people with hearing imparity.
‘People with hearing imparity can find it extremely difficult to communicate with doctors or hospital staff without sign language interpreters. In emergency life-and-death situations, a sign language interpreter could save lives,’ she says.
Sign language users often do not have full access to vital information and services, including education, health and employment, she observes and states it is time they are granted those rights.
‘People who are disabled in any way are usually very skilled at practical jobs, because they have a really strong sixth sense,’ Navina adds. Speaking about how people tend to ignore the disabled members of the society, she asks, ‘If you go abroad, or even to our neighbouring country India, there are a number of films, plays and other productions made by and for the disabled community; but have you come across any regular entertainment arrangements for the disabled people in Bangladesh?’
She also states that when she asked a director friend of hers to make a film on disabled people, her friend rejected the idea because no producer would back such a project.
Navina is open to personally tutoring anyone who wants to learn sign language. ‘I am not in this for the money. The level of satisfaction this job brings me is incredible. I am here to raise awareness and to tell people that it is okay if you are different. People with hearing imparity are just differently abled,’ she adds. Navina also realised that one needs to be really patient and caring as a sign language interpreter, because one miscommunication can cause a lot of problems.
Moving forward, she aspires to establish a Sign Language School of her own, in addition to pursuing her masters’ degree. Lastly, as a message to everyone in the society, Navina states, ‘Due to the communication gap, hearing-impaired people are unable to come into the mainstream; they feel apprehensive to share their feelings and they feel left out. We need to make others realise that these people are not aliens from a spaceship; they are just like the rest of us. They are just differently abled. I want people to know that differently abled people don’t need anyone’s sympathy; they only need respect.’