User:Matthall.research/Deafness in Liberia

Lead
Deaf Liberians, though not monolithic, consistently advocate for the full and equal participation of Deaf people in Liberian society. Liberian Sign Language (closely related to American Sign Language) is used and valued by most Deaf Liberian leaders and Deaf-led organizations. Prelingual deafness is not systematically identified throughout Liberia; as a consequence, many Deaf Liberians do not (and did not) have access to language input during early childhood. This typically results in language deprivation, which has adverse consequences across the lifespan. Although there are a number of primary and secondary schools for the Deaf across Liberia, several barriers prevent Deaf students from achieving their full potential. There is little opportunity for Deaf students to access higher education in Liberia. Employment opportunities are also limited. Healthcare access is especially difficult for Deaf Liberians, given that few healthcare providers are proficient in Liberian Sign Language and there is a shortage of qualified interpreters (whose services are also cost-prohibitive for most potential users). Liberia has signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and has created a National Action Plan for 2018-2022 with the aim of beginning to address many of these challenges.

Demographic Information
Current and reliable statistics on the size and composition of Liberia's Deaf community are not available. A 2020 report estimates that 8.7% of Liberia's population (9,590 people) has "hearing difficulty", which is close to the estimated prevalence of 9-11% for sub-Saharan Africa in general, based on aggregated results of many different studies. The size of the signing Deaf community is likely much smaller.


 * Causes of deafness...

Significant Organizations & Individuals

 * [have students use this as practice for reviewing sources, editing wikipedia, adding citations...]

Liberian Sign Language
The primary sign language used in Liberia is sometimes identified as Liberian Sign Language and sometimes as American Sign Language (ASL), which was introduced to Liberia in 1957 by Dr. Andrew Foster. If any indigenous sign languages were in use in Liberia at the time, they appear to have been displaced by the importation of ASL.

Early Hearing Detection & Early Intervention
Recent international studies of newborn hearing screening programs do not provide any indication that such a program exists in Liberia. The only newborn screening mentioned by the Liberian Ministry of Health is for sickle cell anemia, which launched in September 2021.

Hearing technologies do not currently play a significant role in the lives of Deaf Liberians. The Starkey Foundation included Liberia as one of 13 countries on a 30-city tour across North America, Africa, and the Middle East in 2014. A 2014 dissertation mentions two Deaf students having received hearing aids from the Starkey Foundation (one of whom traveled to Egypt to receive it). As of August 2022, there was no information about the availability of cochlear implants in Liberia.

Early intervention services for infants & toddlers (0-3years) do not currently play a signifiant role in the lives of Deaf Liberians or their families. This is to be expected, given the absence of systematic approaches to identifying prelingually Deaf children. Accordingly, it is unclear how any Deaf child (or their family members) could begin to learn Liberian Sign Language prior to school entry, if desired.

According to Liberia's Education Reform Act (2011), all children ages 3-5 (regardless of disability status) should receive 2 years of child-centered, play-based early childhood education (i.e. preschool); however, enrollment remains an opt-in system that is left to the parents. Nearly 60% of eligible children were enrolled as of 2017; however, this may be due to policies that create an economic incentive for schools to enroll students into early childhood education programs even if they are older than age 5. Unlike primary schools, where charging fees is forbidden, early childhood education programs can and typically do charge enrollment fees, which creates financial challenges for up to 80% of families, whose children may be unable to complete the program on time. Over 70% of children in early childhood education programs were age 6 or older. No mention is made of how these policies impact enrollment for children with disabilities in general, or deafness specifically.

Language Deprivation
Language deprivation refers to cases where a child has lacked the opportunity to acquire at least one language, spoken or signed, during early childhood (roughly 0-5 years). Prelingually deaf children who lack access to a sign language are at especially significant risk for language deprivation. Given the above finding that Liberia has no systematic way of identifying Deaf children or providing them and their families with opportunities to learn a sign language, it is reasonable to expect that language deprivation is a significant concern for prelingually Deaf children (and adults) in Liberia, as it is throughout the world.

History
Although Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was both a pioneer of American Deaf education and a staunch proponent of the removal of free Black individuals from the United States to Liberia, neither he nor any of his contemporaries or his successors saw fit to encourage or establish schools for the Deaf in Liberia during the 19th century. Instead, formal (i.e. Western) Deaf education in Liberia began in 1957, with the arrival of Andrew Foster: a Deaf American and the first Black graduate of Gallaudet University. Foster's innovations included both the establishment of schools for the Deaf and the use of manual communication for both academic instruction and day-to-day communication. The legacy of Foster's activity is still clear today, in Liberia and throughout much of West Africa and beyond.

Contemporary
The Liberian education system does not routinely provide accommodations that meet the needs of students with disabilities, including Deaf students. Although there are some specialized schools for the Deaf in various regions of the country, most do not span the full range of grade levels that are available to nondisabled hearing students. Attempting to enroll graduates of Deaf primary school programs into secondary mainstream settings comes with its own challenges, given the lack of accommodations and supportive peer relationships. Some schools also complain that they do not receive adequate support from the Liberian government, and welcome support from non-governmental organizations.

A 2011 law allows a school principal to exempt disabled students from the right to receive public education; Liberia's first report on its progress toward implementing the CRPD describes being unable to reverse this law.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of schools for the deaf that are reported to exist as of August 2022. According to Piper et al. (2019), all schools for the deaf in Liberia are privately operated. Schools listed with an * below are named in Liberia's initial report to the CRPD as receiving government support.

As of 2019, Hope for the Deaf was advertising for staff to be hired as part of a to-be-formed teacher training institute. Transforming the Education System for Teachers and Students in Liberia (TESTS) is a US-funded program (2021-2026) that aims to strengthen the capacity of Liberia's education system, with an undisclosed amount of funding earmarked for "disability inclusion programming".
 * *Oscar Romero School for the Deaf (private, religious but receives government support )
 * *Oscar & Viola Stewart School for the Deaf (private, religious but receives government support )
 * *Monrovia School of the Deaf
 * School for the Deaf in Brewerville, Monsterrado County (offers secondary education for students with disabilities )
 * Free Pentecostal Global Mission School of the Deaf (private, religious)
 * *Hope School of the Deaf (private religious but receives government support )
 * *Liberia School for the Deaf
 * *School for the Orphan and Deaf Ministry

Higher Education
There are 3 public and numerous private universities in Liberia. It is unclear whether any Deaf students have attended universities in Liberia. A 2019 news report says that an individual "...has paid the first-semester tuition fees for two deaf students at the St. Dominic Catholic High School in Bomi County, and another student attending the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU)" ; but whether this latter individual is deaf is ambiguous.

The USAID TESTS program reports "No [Higher Education Teacher Training Institution (HETTI)] has policies that outline support or reasonable accommodations to be afforded to students with disabilities. In practice, little to no support is offered to students with disabilities" (p. 13). The report goes on to note that there is at least one deaf man who is pursuing a university education in Liberia with the intention of becoming a teacher of the deaf.

The University of Liberia has begun to offer sign language courses.

Employment
In 2017, a delegation from the Liberian American Deaf Association lobbied then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to establish vocational schools for the Deaf in hope that the opportunity to learn a trade would improve Deaf adults' employment prospects. President Sirleaf pledged to consider the possibility. In 2022, an Italian delegation celebrated the graduation of a first cohort of graduates from a program that taught trades including hairdressing/barbering and tailoring. The program, which begin in 2021, is planned to conclude in 2023.

The government of Liberia has established a target of having 4% of the workforce be qualified people with disabilities. Liberia's 2019 report to the CRPD reports that 24 disabled people are employed by the Liberian government, but acknowledges that no enforcement is taking place, nor is there a mechanism for tracking discrimination complaints. The report also acknowledges the absence of any governmental funding for vocational training programs, but describes a partnership between the National Commission on Disability and the United Nations Development Program beginning to implement vocational training programs in 3 counties, with the hope of expanding them nationwide. The extent to which such programs are or would become (or remain) accessible to Deaf students is unclear.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD)
Liberia signed and ratified the UN CRPD in 2012, but (as of April 2020) has not signed the optional protocol. Its initial report, due in 2014, was not submitted until 2019. Aspects of this report that are particularly relevant to DHH Liberians are summarized below.


 * Article 5 (Equality and Non-Discrimination) : Paragraph 14 reports that Chapters 2 and 3 of Liberia's 1982 constitution "set the basis for equality, rights and freedom for all". No DHH-specific initiatives are reported.
 * Article 9 (Accessibility) : Paragraph 28 acknowledges the need for continued improvement. The bulk of Paragraph 29 focuses on physical accessibility, but does briefly mention "limited access to information and communications services". Further information about the availability of sign language interpreters is summarized below (see Article 21).
 * Article 12 (Equal Recognition before the Law) : Paragraph 40 acknowledges that despite de jure equality, disabled Liberians still face significant de facto discrimination. The report does not describe any specific initiatives aimed at addressing this problem.
 * Article 13 (Access to Justice) : Paragraph 41 reports that courts can request sign language interpreter services, which will be provided by the National Commission on Disability.
 * Article 21 (Freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information) : Paragraph 66 states that sign language interpreters have been present at in some official settings, including courtrooms. The report does not indicate how frequently or routinely this occurs. It also states that the government has budgeted funds for sign language interpreters in its allocation to the National Commission on Disability.  The amount of these funds is not disclosed.  The goal is to ensure that interpreters are available in public sectors: the report specifically names education and healthcare settings. No information is provided about the extent to which this goal is being realized. The paragraph concludes by noting that the Liberian government subsidizes eleven schools for the deaf, which are in 4 of Liberia's 15 counties. The amount of this subsidy and the conditions of these schools are not described.  No further references are made to Article 21.e, "Recognizing and promoting the use of sign languages", which is one of the main priorities of the World Federation of the Deaf.
 * Article 23 (Respect for Home and Family) : The World Federation of the Deaf identifies Article 23.3 as a key provision for ensuring that hearing families with DHH children are informed about deafness, deaf culture, and sign language. Liberia's initial report on Article 23 leaves this concern entirely unaddressed.
 * Article 24 (Education) : Paragraph 80 conflicts with Paragraph 66 in stating that although there are 11 schools for students with disabilities, only 3 are designed for DHH students. It is reported that these schools enroll a total of 192 students (121 boys, 71 girls). However, paragraph 84 names 6 schools that serve DHH students and receive federal support (listed above). No references are made to Article 24.3b, "Facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community", which is one of the main priorities of the World Federation of the Deaf.
 * Article 27 (Work and Employment) : Paragraph 98 reports the enactment of a quota system in which 4% of employees must be people with disabilities. There is no mention of providing reasonable accommodations or vocational training to DHH workers, despite these being among the WFDeaf's priority areas.
 * Article 29 (Participation in Political and Public Life) : Paragraph 106 reports that in 2005, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems provided funds to support the hiring of sign language interpreters in all 15 counties, and also provided tactile ballots. In 2017, no such provisions are described: voters with disabilities were permitted to receive assistance from a person of their choosing.
 * Article 30 (Participation in Cultural Life, Recreation, Leisure, and Sport) : Paragraph 113 introduces the Deaf Lone Stars: a Liberian football (soccer) team for DHH men. There is no information about access to sports for DHH women. Paragraph 116 reports that "Out of the total of 2,105,762.00 United States dollars allotted to the Ministry Youth and Sports for sports services, 15,250.00 is allocated to the Liberia Deaf and amputee federation, representing 1,379%."  These numbers do not add up correctly: 15,250 divided by 2,105,762 is 0.7%. The text of CRPD 30.4 specifically names "recognition and support of... sign languages and deaf culture", which is among WFDeaf's priority areas. The existence of the Deaf Lone Stars football team is the only related initiative that the report describes.