The National Assembly has acquired the services of sign language interpreters to ensure that parliamentary proceedings are accessible to persons with hearing impairments.

With effect from today, all sessions of the National Assembly will feature sign language interpretation on NBC to promote inclusivity and equal participation in parliamentary proceedings.

The introduction of sign language interpretation also builds on previous efforts to advance the rights of the deaf community. 

During the Seventh Parliament, the then Deputy Minister of Disability Affairs, Alexia Manombe-Ncube, tabled a motion calling for the official recognition of Namibian Sign Language as one of the country's national languages and proposed the appointment of sign language interpreters to facilitate live parliamentary debates.

"This is a temporary arrangement because we still don't have the positions at our establishment. We are pursuing that so we have made interim arrangements until we have our own staff, and this would enable us to comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which our country rectified in 2007."

The NBC Director General, Menesia Muinjo expressed the hope that parliamentary proceedings could eventually be simultaneously interpreted into indigenous languages to accommodate Namibians who may not fully understand English.

She said NBC is intensifying its disability inclusion drive and called on businesses, potential partners, and international organisations to support the national broadcaster's efforts.

"We have interesting programmes such as Business Today, sports news, and children's programmes. We are saying that we need to attract children while they are still young, including children with disabilities. During our meeting with representatives of the deaf community, they highlighted that deaf children sometimes end up watching international programmes because national television does not provide sign language interpretation. This initiative will therefore ensure that they can also follow discussions in Parliament. Important decisions are made in Parliament, but because these discussions are inaccessible to deaf children, they are excluded. This is not in line with the right of access to information."