To the Attention of the Ministry of Education: Hearing Impaired People Do Not Have Access to Television Programs Due To Lack of Sign Language Specialists

Hearing impaired people are dissatisfied with the insufficient number of newscasts in prime time with translation in sign language on Moldovan televisions, and this fact has been reported by the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC), too. Televisions, obliged by the BCC to deliver newscasts adapted to people with disabilities, face an acute shortage of sign language specialists. The associations that support people with disabilities are of the opinion that the state should get more actively involved in preparing professionals in this field.

“They are during the day, but not in the evenings”

Hearing impaired people admit that they carefully watch news on television and often talk about important events seen on TV with their peers. Pavel Tatarenko, a hearing impaired person, told media-azi.md through Liliana Darii, interpreter and interim president of the Association of the Deaf of Moldova, that he finds it very difficult to find newscasts translated into sign language in the evening. He also said that the most often he watches newscasts on the stations STS Mega and Prime TV, because these stations have information programs adapted for hearing impaired people.

What the BCC found

According to the BCC reports, the majority of television stations it monitored, despite being obliged to deliver a newscast in sign language or with simultaneous subtitling for people with hearing impairments and, respectively, with sound signal for visually impaired people daily between 17.00 and 23.00 since September 1, 2017, they do not fully comply with these obligations.
The BCC found that some televisions, despite having newscasts in sign language in their broadcast schedule, present them mostly in the first half of the day, and not in prime time, as the law requires.

Another problem found by the BCC is that subtitles run too fast and viewers fail to read the entire message.

Moreover, the BCC decision requiring national broadcasters to ensure access of hearing or visual impaired people to newscasts and to electoral spots during election campaigns by delivering them in sign language or with synchronous subtitles came into force on January 1, 2018. Also, televisions have to air reruns of electoral debates in sign language or with synchronous subtitles.
Following the examination of the monitoring report, the BCC only warned broadcasters about the need to deliver newscasts suitable for people with disabilities.

Crisis of interpreters

The interim president of the Association of the Deaf of Moldova Liliana Darii told media-azi.md that there are few sign language interpreters in Moldova compared to the current demand from hearing impaired citizens. According to her, 17 sign language specialists licensed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) work in Moldova. This license is obtained after examination by a commission made up of one representative of the MoJ and the Association of the Deaf each.

Another problem reported by Liliana Darii is the quality of translation performed by Moldovan interpreters on television. Darii says that on some stations they misinterpret some messages. “I carefully watched an interpreter during a broadcast on Ren TV Moldova, and I found that what the host was saying did not coincide with the interpreter’s translation,” says Darii, expressing dissatisfaction also with the small space reserved for the interpreter in this broadcast, reason why his gestures were not understood.

Who and where teaches sign language interpreters?

The interim president of the Association also spoke about the poor involvement of the state into the training of professionals in this field. Liliana Darii believes that the state needs to get more actively involved in the training of such professionals, because the resources of the Association are insufficient to accomplish this task. The Association of the Deaf regularly organizes courses funded by foreign grants to prepare interpreters.

In addition to the Association, the training of such professionals in the Moldovan education system is partially done by the Pedagogical State University “Ion Creanga” as part of the education for the specialty of special psychopedagogy. The only lecturer who prepares students in sign language at the university, Tatiana Beschieru, explained to media-azi.md that the students studying this specialty are offered a course of initiation in this language.

“It is a very small course, taught in the first cycle, offering the basic knowledge of this language. Better training is ensured in the master’s cycle for the specialization of Alternative Communication. Braille System. Sign Language. Mediator in Speech Technique, where they study sign language at a more advanced level. The problem is that there are not enough applicants to form a group of students, as the minimum threshold is 15 persons,” explains Tatiana Beschieru.

What does the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research do?

In Moldova there are about 5,000 hearing impaired people, according to the unofficial data presented to media-azi.md by the Association of the Deaf.

To understand what is being done at state level so these people could obtain information from the media about events in the country and in the world, on January 3 we sent a request for information to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. This ministry, according to Law no. 60 of March 30, 2012 on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities, “shall take appropriate measures for the education of professionals in the training of persons with disabilities.” Among other things, we asked how the Ministry of Education ensures the training of specialists in sign language. We are waiting for a response from the ministry and will come back with details on this issue.