By Joy Odor
The Deaf Women Aloud Initiative (DWAI) has observed that the deaf women across the country faces inequalities accessing health information and healthcare services.
According to them, the health information are often not available in an accessible format and as a result, deaf individuals have low health literacy and are at greater risk of being misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all.
In view of this, DWAI with the support of Disability Rights Fund (DRF) launches her project and inception meeting with the goal to create awareness on improving access to health services for Deaf women and girls, in line with CRPD Article 25 (Health), SDG 3 (Good health and well-being) as well as influence the adoption of sign-language in local government policies and programmes in four Area Councils (Kuje, Gwagwalada, Bwari and AMAC) in Abuja, Nigeria.
The meeting has the attendance of key stakeholders from Deaf Women, FMOH, FCT health and human services, FCT primary health board, Joint National Association of person with disabilities (JONAPWDs), MSIN, Ipas, DWAN, DRAC, NNAD, DNF, MWAN, National Association of Nurses and Midwives, Disabled People Organizations (DPOs) and Medias etc in which they all spoke in support of the project.
(DWAI) was of the opinion that the lack of health information can be challenging when treating patients from unfamiliar cultural backgrounds, especially those who are Deaf.
“Not only are they a linguistic and cultural minority, they are also members of the world’s largest and ill-forgotten minority group: the disability community.
“Deaf Women has been neglected for so long and it’s time to close the gap” they lamented.
#INCLUDE US WITH SIGN-LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS
