Telecel Ghana has called for the integration of sign language studies into Ghana’s education system and public service delivery, arguing that communication barriers continue to deny over 211,000 Deaf and hard of hearing citizens access to basic services that most Ghanaians take for granted.
The telecommunications company made the appeal during this year’s International Week of the Deaf celebration organized by the Mfantseman chapter of the Ghana National Association of the Deaf in Saltpond, where the theme “No Human Rights Without Sign Language” resonated with participants who’ve spent decades advocating for inclusion.
The event started with a health walk through Saltpond’s principal streets and brought together Deaf community members from five Central Region district chapters including Ajumako, Asikuma, and Cape Coast, along with officials from the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, local assembly representatives, and corporate partners.
Rita Adiase, Telecel Ghana’s Customer Operations and Experience Centre Manager, speaking on behalf of the company, highlighted what she described as an urgent national concern. The inability of Deaf persons to access education, healthcare, and public services due to communication barriers represents more than inconvenience; it’s systematic exclusion from civic life.
Telecel Ghana used the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment through its Super Care initiative, launched in 2016 to provide accessible customer service for Deaf and hard of hearing customers. The service allows users to dial *494# and connect with agents, many of them Deaf professionals, via video or WhatsApp calls in sign language.
The company has partnered with universities to recruit graduates with disabilities into its workforce and organizes sign language training for staff during annual CARE Month activities. It’s the kind of corporate social responsibility that sounds good in press releases, but the real question is whether other companies will follow suit or whether this remains an isolated example.
Department of Social Welfare officials at the event echoed calls for employment of sign language trained personnel and interpreters across schools, hospitals, and public institutions. These aren’t new demands; Deaf advocacy groups have been making similar appeals for years with limited government response.
Leaders from the Mfantseman Association of the Deaf praised Telecel Ghana’s ongoing support and urged other corporate bodies to create job opportunities for Deaf professionals. Whether corporations will respond to moral appeals when they’re not legally required to do so remains an open question.
Before the Saltpond celebration, Telecel’s General Manager of Commercial Operations, Mercy Dawn Akude, and CEO Patricia Obo-Nai joined the national International Week of the Deaf celebration in Accra, where they presented a projector and screen, laptop, and large screen TV to the Ghana National Association of the Deaf to support advocacy and public education initiatives.
Telecel also participated in a media advocacy forum, lending its voice to calls for a national policy to institutionalize sign language interpretation in all public information dissemination. The forum recommended adoption of subtitling in broadcasting television content to ensure Deaf community accessibility.
Throughout October, Telecel extended its SuperCare service to social media, offering followers short tutorials in basic sign language while training staff in basic signing skills. These initiatives demonstrate what’s possible when organizations prioritize accessibility, though they also highlight how far Ghana has to go in making inclusion standard rather than exceptional.
Ghana currently lacks comprehensive legislation mandating sign language interpretation across schools, government communications, and public media. This legislative gap means millions of Deaf people face disadvantages in education, employment, and civic participation.
According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, there are over 211,000 Deaf and hard of hearing individuals and over 470,000 with various degrees of hearing loss across Ghana. Without sign language access, this growing population faces denial of information, services, and overall quality of life that hearing Ghanaians access without conscious thought.
The Persons with Disabilities Bill 2024, currently under consideration, includes provisions emphasizing that Ghanaian Sign Language is an official language. The bill also contains provisions obligating awareness creation and development of guidelines and strategies to ensure implementation.
Whether the bill will pass and whether its provisions will be enforced remains uncertain. Ghana has a history of progressive legislation that looks impressive on paper but struggles in implementation due to funding constraints and institutional inertia.
Ghana’s situation contrasts sharply with several African peers. South Africa incorporated sign language as an official language in its constitution following apartheid’s end, while Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe have passed laws recognizing sign language and mandating its use in certain public contexts. Rwanda recently made sign language compulsory in all primary schools.
The Persons with Disability Act of 2006, which currently governs disability rights in Ghana, provides no specific policy pertaining to Ghanaian Sign Language. Researchers have called for the government to strengthen local policy and fully conform to provisions outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Ghana ratified in 2012 but has yet to fully implement.
The linguistic diversity within Ghana’s Deaf community adds complexity to policy discussions. While Ghanaian Sign Language, derived from American Sign Language with locally constructed signs, is widely used in schools and urban areas, indigenous sign languages like Adamorobe Sign Language and Nanabin Sign Language exist in specific villages.
Matthew Kubachua, Ghana National Association of the Deaf’s national president since 2018, has welcomed corporate advocacy like Telecel’s but emphasized that corporate initiatives alone cannot address systemic barriers. Government action through legislation, funding, and enforcement remains essential for meaningful change.
The question now is whether Ghana’s government will prioritize accessibility for hundreds of thousands of citizens who communicate differently, or whether Deaf Ghanaians will continue relying on voluntary corporate goodwill and underfunded civil society organizations to bridge communication gaps that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Telecel Ghana’s advocacy demonstrates that serving Deaf customers is both feasible and potentially profitable for telecommunications companies. The challenge is convincing hospitals, schools, government offices, television stations, and countless other institutions to make similar investments in accessibility without being legally compelled to do so.
For the Deaf community members who participated in the Saltpond celebration, the event represented another opportunity to make their voices heard, even as they wonder how many more International Weeks of the Deaf they’ll observe before Ghana’s government translates symbolic support into binding legislation with real enforcement mechanisms.
The reality is that without comprehensive national policy backed by adequate funding and accountability structures, Ghana’s Deaf citizens will continue facing barriers that limit their educational opportunities, employment prospects, healthcare access, and full participation in national life. Corporate partnerships like Telecel’s help, but they’re not substitutes for government responsibility to ensure equal access for all citizens.
