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Often located far apart from each other, deaf and hearing impaired persons face a multiplicity of challenges that evolve around isolation, neglect and the deprivation of essential social services that affect their welfare and survival. Although it is evident that the number of persons born with or acquire hearing impairments in later stages of their lives is increasing in many developing countries, there is limited research on this population. The main objective of this article is to explore the identities and experiences of living as a person who is deaf in Uganda. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 42 deaf persons (aged 19–41) and three focus group discussions, the study findings show that beneath the more pragmatic identities documented in the United States and European discourses there is a matrix of ambiguous, often competing and manifold forms in Uganda that are not necessarily based on the deaf and deaf constructions. The results further show that the country’s cultural, religious and ethnic diversity is more of a restraint than an enabler to the aspirations of the deaf community. The study concludes that researchers and policy makers need to be cognisant of the unique issues underlying deaf epistemologies whilst implementing policy and programme initiatives that directly affect them. The upper case ‘D’ in the term deaf is a convention that has been used since the early 1970s to connote a ‘socially constructed visual culture’ or a linguistic, social and cultural minority group who use sign language as primary means of communication and identify with the deaf community, whereas the lower case ‘d’ in deaf refers to ‘the audio logical condition of hearing impairment’. However, in this article the lower case has been used consistently.

Purpose: To study the knowledge and beliefs about ear and hearing healthcare among mothers from a rural community.

Method: In 1 week, 6 focus group discussions were conducted across 6 villages of a district in Tamil Nadu in southern India. The participants were 60 mothers who had children below 5 years of age.

Results: Mothers in this rural community had information about some aspects of ear and hearing healthcare. They were aware that use of hairpins and safety- pins to clean ears was harmful; they were knowledgeable about ways to identify hearing ability (child responds to name call, verbal instructions, and startles at loud sounds); and, conditions like consanguinity and malnutrition of expectant mothers were recognised as risk factors for hearing loss. However, misconceptions also existed. The practice of pouring herbal juices to remove insects in the ear continued; there was the perception that all children with a hearing problem were “deaf”, and a lack of awareness about the possibility of partial/unilateral hearing loss. Regarding the age of identification, mothers believed that a child’s ability to speak and the ability to hear was pertinent to assess hearing. None of the mothers related normal speech development to normal hearing.

Conclusion: For the success of a community-based hearing screening programme, it is important to utilise the existing knowledge of the mothers, and simultaneously attempt to fill in gaps in knowledge and clarify misconceptions. These measures will facilitate greater compliance from the community in achieving the goals of early identification and early intervention for problems of hearing loss.

The use of language for every day communication has been and continues to be an essential element of any teaching and learning environment. In this paper, the focus is on the teaching -learning communication in the education of the learners with deafness. While experiences indicate that some people in Botswana are showing more and more interest in Sign Language as a mode of instruction in the classroom, it is also true that many are far from understanding the "Deaf Culture" and to use sign language in the teaching and learning of deaf students. To a great extent, deaf people in Botswana are still disadvantaged and discriminated against, by their condition. A survey carried out in 2004 (1) revealed that some current practices in the mainstream secondary school of Botswana make it difficult for deaf students to progress. While, for example, participants preferred Total Communication; in practise, Signed English is used. Thus, this paper takes a stance that if practices conflict with preference, low performance should be expected. This is currently the situation at the mainstream secondary schools in Botswana, deaf students' inability to hear has become their inability to learn and progress in education. This could be avoided. In this 21st century, being unable to hear is not a barrier to learning, as we are aware that Sign Languages are there as full languages, for the education of deaf.

Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, Vol 19, No 1

This bibliography introduces and lists 450 resources, across the beliefs, religions and cultures of the Middle East and much of Asia, from antiquity to the present. More specifically, it annotates modern and historical materials in translation, that are relevant to disability, mental health issues and deafness.It would be useful for anyone interested in religion and culture as they relate to disability in society