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En bref
Deaf activists in Zimbabwe stood up (and sat-in) to demand access to information in sign language, successfully pressuring the national broadcaster to include sign language interpretation in news broadcasts.
When people in Zimbabwe talk about disability, the main assumption is that disability is synonymous with physical impairments. Deafness is often overlooked because it is not visible at first glance. As a result, deaf people tend to lag behind and live at the periphery of society. Their marginalization is compounded by a general lack of access to information, including the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)’s failure to provide information to the deaf community. However, beginning in 2012, in a remarkable campaign targeting the ZBC, deaf people mobilized themselves and their allies, stood up, claimed their constitutional right to information, and demanded that their voices be heard.
First, a delegation was sent to the Disability Advisor in the President’s Office to advocate for the needs of the deaf community in Zimbabwe, after which he wrote a supportive letter to the Ministry of Information and Publicity, airing the concerns that he had received from the delegation. Next, they visited the ministry to deliver the Disability Advisor’s letter, but to their surprise, the secretary advised them to make a phone call to place an appointment! They responded that they could not make a phone call because they are deaf, and they did not have the minister’s cell phone number so could not send a text message.
The deaf community did not lose heart when they met challenges such as lack of response from authorities, nor did they take ‘no’ for an answer.
Unwilling to leave empty-handed, the delegation opted to sit in and wait for the minister to come out of his office. Eventually, they were given 20 minutes to discuss their concerns with the minister, after which he provided a supportive letter to hand over to ZBC.
Now armed with two letters of support, the delegates made clear to the ZBC that if their grievances were ignored, they would refuse to pay television licences, and mobilize other deaf people in Zimbabwe to join the campaign. The broadcasting representatives promised to offer them a slot during the day to air a program in sign language. The delegates responded that deaf people in Zimbabwe worked during the day, just like everyone else. They demanded prime time access, and were soon granted it.
This campaign by deaf people in Zimbabwe saw the introduction of sign language on all ZBC weekday news bulletins. Prior to this, sign language was only offered during the lunch hour news bulletin. The activists also won 30 minutes of airtime each week for a program in sign language disseminating information of interest to deaf people. Thus was born Action Power, a program that airs on national television every Tuesday evening, raising awareness about deaf culture and sign language, and providing information to the deaf community on a variety of topics. Other producers for programs aired on ZBC have started to emulate Action Power by hiring interpreters for their programs.
Buoyed by these victories, the deaf community set its sights on further progress: They feel the national broadcaster should pay them for their productions (currently ZBC gets them for free). Also, there is still a need for sign language during weekend news bulletins and current affairs programming, as well as captioning for soaps and dramas. The battle was won but the war would continue.
Originally published in Beautiful Rising.
Tactique clé
Sitting in at the office of the Minister of Information and Publicity and refusing to leave the building without seeing the minister proved an effective tactic for pressuring him to meet with the delegation and act on its demands.
Principe clé
Though the primary target of this campaign was the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, organizers recognized that the real power lay with the Minister of Information and Publicity, so that is where they focused their pressure. Without that supportive letter from the Disability Advisor in the President’s Office, direct appeals to the ZBC likely would have required far greater levels of mobilization to be effective.