Project Report: The voice of Ukrainians with hearing impairments
SGS 2024 Grantee: Educational Assistance
Project: “A world of silence during the war in Ukraine”.
About 30,600 people with hearing impairments live in Ukraine, including children, adults and old people, as well as internally displaced persons with hearing impairments. In terms of their integration into society, people with hearing impairments are the most difficult category of people with disabilities, because the communication barrier is the strongest barrier in society. This prevents them being heard, which is the most terrible isolation for any person. Impairment of hearing, and in many people also of speech, isolates them from society, as society does not know how to communicate with them in sign language. This creates a closed environment for them, where their problems remain unheard and unresolved: almost 50% of Ukrainians do not see people with disabilities in everyday life, and 85% do not know how to communicate with them. In addition to all the problems faced by children, adults, old people, and internally displaced persons with hearing impairments, the fact that there are very few public organisations in Ukraine aimed specifically at the needs of this group and able to solve them at a high level. According to a social survey conducted by the public organisation Educational Assistance, the most important problems include the following:
• the language barrier at all levels of society. People with hearing difficulties do not have access to the help of various qualified specialists (doctors, psychologists, lawyers and others), because the specialists do not know sign language and cannot communicate with them. There are also problems with translators, as many of them went abroad during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine; power outages and the poor standard of living of the population mean they cannot afford to call an interpreter;
• difficulties in teaching people with hearing impairments. People with hearing difficulties have limited access to educational institutions because of the communication barrier. Specialist education is provided only in specialist higher institutions, of which unfortunately there are very few in Ukraine;
• difficulties with employment. People with hearing impairments do not have access to decent work in Ukraine, as suitable training for them is very limited;
• barriers in society. Cafes, theatres, museums and other locations are inaccessible due to the language barrier, which limits their visits and further isolates them from society.
The difficulties faced by people with hearing impairments prompted Educational Assistance, with financial support from the BEARR Trust, to highlight some of the problems faced by such people in order to discuss and solve them in the future. All members of Educational Assistance have hearing impairments themselves and have worked for a long time as teachers in special educational institutions. They are therefore well qualified to implement the project “A world of silence during the war in Ukraine”, in which the urgent problems of a difficult-to-reach category of people were brought to the attention of the authorities and society. The goal of the project was to highlight the most painful problems faced by the community through drama performances and candid interviews with young people with disabilities and enable them to take part in discussion in social networks, where they can be seen by people with hearing impairments from different age groups and different parts of Ukraine. The video (interviews and drama performances) was viewed by 1922 people with hearing difficulties.
Government representatives, actors from the Khmelnytskyi Theatre named after Starytskyi and members of the Khmelnytskyi hearing-impaired network were also invited, and had the opportunity to experience these performances together with actors and actresses and evaluate these problems.
After the project, Educational Assistance maintained friendly and warm relations with the administration of the Khmelnytskyi Theatre, where, on their initiative, subtitles were installed to help the community of people with hearing difficulties. Friendly relations with staff of social services which support and provide assistance to people with hearing impairments have become no less important.
With all their experience of working in this field, people at Educational Assistance dream of implementing projects that will significantly ease the lives of people with hearing difficulties in Ukraine by eliminating the language barrier:
• online sign language courses for specialists (doctors, psychologists, lawyers and other important specialists) from different parts of Ukraine;
• organisation of training and employment for people with hearing impairments at educational institutions or through social networks to enable successful future employment.
Educational Assistance sincerely thanks The BEARR Trust for its support in facilitating the implementation of a quality project for the benefit of people with hearing impairments and hopes for further success in removing barriers in society and providing a dignified life to all people, regardless of gender, language, religious preferences and physical and psychological characteristics.
Contact:
Educational Assistance
Instagram: @ngoeducational23
Olga Burlaka, Head of the organisation
