Note: This was originally published in a column by Tim Curry in GONG magazine of the Czech Republic, August 2016.
Imagine Deaf in Politics
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) works “to ensure human rights for Deaf people all over the world, in every aspect of life. [This entitles deaf people] to exercise civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights on an equal basis with everyone else.” The UN, EU, and many countries have adopted laws and declarations that support human rights for Deaf and other minorities. However, in reality, the Deaf do not have equal access to these areas of life, especially in political life.
Most probably the first documented politician as Deaf was, Kevin Nolan, in 1977 on a USA city council. The first documented high level government position was in Canada, Gary Malkowski as an Ontario Parliamentarian. Now, the U.S. and Canada have no Deaf politicians that we can find. Today we have very few Deaf politicians around the world. This webpage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Deaf_politicians lists 18 around the world, and most are in Europe.
Politicians are representatives of the people in most countries. They make decisions based on the needs of the people they represent. This means that if a politician does not know the experience of the people, they cannot fully understand their needs. Deaf people experience discrimination from society on a daily basis. Many deaf and hard of hearing people are unemployed. Many deaf and hard of hearing people struggle to find enough interpreters. Most films and TV programs do not have captioning or Czech Sign Language. Deaf education is not equal to the education of their hearing peers. Young Deaf do not see enough Deaf adult role models who are successful as teachers, business leaders, professors, doctors, therapists, actors and certainly not politicians. Deaf people are not represented in politics.
In the Czech Republic, Jiří Procházka ran for public office in 2010. He did not win. But his attempt helped to teach the public about the Deaf community. Now we have a new election in Hradec Kralove where another Deaf candidate, Petr Vysucek, is running for the county board. This is one more step to reaching the goal of representing the Deaf community in the government. You the readers are part of the support group for Deaf, hard of hearing and their families. Imagine if we had Deaf and hard of hearing politicians in all governments. I encourage those in Hradec county to vote for the best representative for the Deaf. Governments have hearing representatives. It is time for the Deaf, hard of hearing and their families to be represented too.
Tim Curry, M.S.
Note: This was originally published in a column by Tim Curry in GONG magazine of the Czech Republic, August 2016.