SIGN LANGUAGE

Here's a response to Jade Maingot's comment on the sign language window on Gayelle from Paolo Kernahan, the station's Head of News.

"I do not normally read this blog but I found one comment from a reader interesting so I felt compelled to respond.
The criticism centered on the admittedly distracting sign language window in the newscast. I must admit that I resisted this addition to the newscast for a long time because it not only disrupts the aesthetic of the news, but quite obviously the window obscures images on screen. A decision was taken to do it because no other television station in the country was prepared to cater to this segment of the population, most likely because of the aforementioned concerns.

"One must appreciate however that a significant existing generation of the hearing impaired only had access to the most basic education one can imagine, preparing them for mainly for a life of basket weaving. As a consequence, many of them cannot read. As such, closed captioning would be pointless. So while it does seem like a retrograde step, in the interest of meeting the needs of the hearing impaired and recognizing the educational limitations imposed upon them by the system we are more than happy at Gayelle to provide that service.

"Paolo Kernahan"