Lagos Govt Appeals to Nigerians to Learn Sign Language to Communicate with People with Disabilities

As the number of Nigerians with disability continues to rise, the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA) has tasked Nigerians on the usefulness of sign language in order to communicate effectively with people with disabilities.

The acting General Manager of LASODA, Mr. Alejo Adegboyega, stated this on Monday during the 2019 opening ceremony of a three-day Sign Language workshop held for Lagos State civil servants in Alausa, Ikeja.

He said it is the statutory role and responsibility of LASODA to balance the opportunity of all persons with special needs and champion the cause of various challenges that often face people living with disabilities.

Alejo also said the sign language workshop would serve to break down the barriers often faced by a person with disabilities especially those with impairment in hearing as well as what disabled people encounter at the various government and corporate agencies.

He disclosed that sign language was basically mapped out to break down the barriers often faced by persons with hearing impairment and the challenges they encounter in their interaction at the ministries, department and agencies (MDA), corporate organisations, governments at the federal, state and local government levels as well as law enforcement agencies in order to tackle the issues of rights infringement.

Earlier, the state Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Segun Daudu, had reiterated the importance of sign communication as an effective method of communication between people living with hearing impairment and members of the public.

Daudu, under whose ministry LASODA is based, disclosed that in the next few years, the focus of the government would be the training of civil servants to integrate them on the usefulness of sign language in bridging communication gaps.