Sign language interpreters, vital to fight against COVID-19
As the world tunes in to politicians and public health officials delivering daily updates surrounding the COVID_19 pandemic, there's still a void that needs to be addressed and that is for the deaf community in the Philippines.
Many countries such as the United States are already taking necessary steps to address this issue by having interpreters use sign language to help relay the news to the deaf community.
Although this still has to be addressed in the Philippines, a group of volunteers on Facebook are making information accessible to bridge those gaps.
Meet, Filipino Sign Language Access Team for COVID-19.
A group of interpreters, Filipino Sign Language advocates, creatives, and healthcare workers from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao who have been investing at least 17 hours a day to ensure that nobody gets left behind during the pandemic.
On their Facebook page, they claim to have started their operation last March 14 and have since then gained more than 165,000 viewers who consume their content daily.
According to them, “We understand the deaf community's hunger for COVID-19 information, access to healthcare and community services.
“We've been operating and providing FREE service to bridge COVID-19 information, healthcare, and community gaps for the Deaf community in the Philippines for more than 20 days.”
Since their commencement, they have already interpreted more than 160 videos including that of 24 Oras of GMA-7.
They also produced a Question and Answer video to provide ample amounts of information in battling the coronavirus disease for the deaf community.
Watch:
For more information, you can follow their Facebook page.
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