These are desperate times, and the right information is necessary to stay alive.
Yet, there is a section of people who are rather unaware of the threat posed by COVID-19 as information about the pandemic is largely propagated as sound for the aurally challenged. If not for some deliberate efforts made by the All Kerala Association of the Deaf (AKAD) in association with the State government, and the singular effort of Suneer Parambil, a aurally-challenged youth from Mukkom in Kozhikode, the deaf community in the State would still be unaware of major developments.
V.A. Yusuf, secretary of the Kozhikode District Association of the Deaf, is the front-runner in imparting critical information to the aurally challenged.
His videos, explaining the developments in the universal sign language, is being propagated by AKAD through its social media pages. There have been four videos so far, including those providing general information on the disease, instructions to those coming from foreign countries, and precautions to be taken by the general public. The written messages are scrolled beneath the video for the benefit of those outside the community. Government news portals, Facebook pages of district information offices, and YouTube channels are used to propagate the videos.
Even the Chief Minister shared some AKAD videos on his Facebook page. An employee at the Chelannur block office, Yusuf is also the State chairman of the Deaf Employees Forum.
On the other hand, Suneer is a lone warrior. He has been designing videos all by himself, and they are published through his YouTube channel ABC One Deaf TV. A graphic designer by profession, Suneer is self-taught and has been doing a number of videos on various topics for the aurally challenged for quite some time. Now, all his time is dedicated to making the community aware of COVID-19.
“Most deaf people cannot read Malayalam. But I can, because I learned it till Standard 4 before I lost my hearing ability. I came across several deaf people attempting to make videos on major topics and later realising that they were making mistakes as they were not able to read. Hence, I took it as a mission,” said Suneer.
Unlike the sign language translation of news on some TV channels, Suneer’s news videos are quite elaborate that the aurally challenged will have no difficulty understanding them.
Suneer hails from a financially struggling family. Yet, his dream is to set up his own studio, so that he could create more videos for the benefit of the aurally challenged. He hopes someone would aid him financially for setting up better infrastructure to promote his venture.
