Lifestyle Section

Informing the blind and deaf

By ANTHONY THANASAYAN

MALAYSIANS who are able to watch television are not the only ones who have been closely followIng -or at least, trying very hard to catch all the latest developments in Iraq.

Jonathan Mok, who will be turning 53 this month, has also been trying to catch up on the latest developments in the invasion of Iraq. However, unlike most Malaysians, Mok is unable to watch the news on TV.

That's because he has been blind for most of his life. He listens to news bulletins on his radio set instead. The freelance blind salesman, who was born in a village in Kedah and now living on his own in a rented room in a flat in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, heard that the Coalition forces had started the invasion of Iraq on the first day of the war at midnight, after returning home from a day of dismal sales in Bangsar.

"I had overheard someone mentioning something about the war to his friend in a stall where I was having a late dinner," Mok told me last week.

"When I rushed home, I tuned in to the BBC World Service radio. I was so intrigued by the newscasts that I kept awake until 4am that day!" Mok added. He spends an average of four hours a day tuned to short wave radio, including international broadcasters like the Voice Of America from Washington DC and Radio Singapore International.
For local news, Mok, who had worked as a blind operator, said he tunes in to RTM's Radio 4 and sometimes to TV2's English news bulletin, which he is able to receive on a special frequency on his radio.

Mok, who also has two brothers who are blind, said that communication for the blind in Malaysia should be improved.

Currently, he says the blind have a service produced by St Nicholas Library Services for the Blind in Penang called Newscast -a talking newspaper in English on cassette sent out regularly by mail for the blind and the print handicapped (people who can see but not enough to read) who make an RM10 personal contribution each.

Newscast contains selected news of local happenings from the various dailies, from robberies to comments from columnists.

"At best, we only get this once a week and thus lose out on a lot of other happenings of interest," said Mok.

"Plans to set up a daily Braille newspaper and magazine made several years ago have yet to materialise," Mok added.

"The blind often are left out on information from local weather to community events. Leaflets and other print media are largely not accessible to the blind.

"Here is where radio stations like Radio 4 can help the blind to be more independent through knowledge and information.

Instead of playing music all day long and having endless DJ chatter, radio can increase their news bulletins and provide in-depth interviews (with blind guests as well) on topics like medicine, science, education, etc.

"Radio news should be slanted towards giving blind listeners and the sighted a bigger audio picture and description instead of just speeches, summaries and quotes."

Mok said that apart from creating a weekly radio show for the blind and other disabled groups, local radio stations should emulate countries like Australia which has a community radio station for the print handicapped which has announcers reading things like the daily newspapers, magazines, editorials, events, books and announcements.

The situation isn't all that different where deaf persons are concerned.

Anthony Chong Vee Yee, 21, who was born deaf, first "heard" about war breaking out in Iraq through a text message sent to him and other deaf persons by the national group, the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf in Kuala Lumpur.

The Kolej Damansara University student of computer studies received the SMS whilst he was in class and later attempts to get more information on the latest developments proved futile as images on terrestrial and satellite TV only told part of the story to deaf viewers. "This is most frustrating and again the deaf are often the last people to be in the know," Chong lamented.

"We are just like everyone else - we want to be informed as soon as something major happens like this war or Sept 11, for instance, without having to wait for the morning newspapers to arrive the next day," he added.

Chong hopes that communication services such as the electronic media and others will not forget deaf Malaysians' equal right to information and take their views and needs into consideration through special surveys and ongoing discussions with deaf groups.

Ticker-tape snippets and subtitles for the deaf should be included in news telecasts whilst TV stations like TV3 and NTV7 should emulate RTM's TV1 and Al-Jazeera on ASTRO and include sign language in their news bulletins. SMS and Internet service providers could also offer special discounted or free services for the deaf.