“I accept my impairment; I’ll never accept disability. That would be the same as accepting segregation, exclusion and discrimination.”
– Fanie du Toit
We have positioned ourselves to provide information, training and support to persons who are deaf or hearing impaired, due to a lack of services for those not using a signed language.
Road to Independence is a proud project of NCPD and provides services and information to the individual adult living with hearing loss, his/her family, friends, employer and the broader society, as well as training to the professional dealing with the individual. The project does not sell products. nor promote any specific hearing aids, makes, models or brands, or any specific suppliers, assistive devices or technology.
Our work aligns with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, The South African White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2015 and related South African legislation, Codes, Policies and Guidelines.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines persons with hearing disabilities as those who have a long-term sensory impairment which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
In partnership with…
Our Mission includes strategies to:
- Raise awareness throughout society, including at the family level, regarding persons with disabilities (including persons with hearing loss), and
- To foster respect for the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities/ persons with hearing loss.
- To combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices relating to persons with hearing loss.
- To promote awareness of the capabilities and contributions of persons with hearing loss and to present training and development programmes.
Our target groups:
Persons with disabling hearing loss & family members, government departments, municipalities, public entities, the private sector and civil society at large. We specifically support persons with disabling hearing loss who choose not to use a signed language to communicate (including their friends and family)
Advocacy
There are approximately 4 million* people with a hearing disability in SA (according to the World Report on Hearing 2022) of which less than 600,000 are SASL users (0.02% of the South African population – Census 2022).
In other words, approximately 3,4 million do not understand SA Sign Language and rely on captioning. The consequence of not providing open captions is that many deaf and hearing-impaired persons are excluded from accessing relevant and important public information such as television news broadcasts that impacts their daily living.
We’ve advocated for the inclusion of open captions on news bulletins and public services announcements for many years, and have now turned to the judiciary to help us ensure accessibility to information for persons who have hearing impairment or deafness.
Downloads
WE CAN HELP WITH
- Peer Support for individuals with hearing loss and their families [Read more…]
- Universal Design & Access Principles & Service in the workplace and society
- Rehabilitation & Habilitation
- Access to employment, tertiary education, etc.
- Access to information & communication
- Advice on assistive devices & technologies & communication support in corporation with various suppliers
- Access assessments of environments, programs, products & services
- Acoustics & noise control in cooperation with various suppliers
- Hearing protection in cooperation with various suppliers
- Dialogue & Mediation regarding the inclusion of persons with hearing loss in the workplace, educational institutions, etc. in partnership with SAAA (South African Association of Audiologists), Independent Audiologists Matrix & IDA institute
- Hearing screening for adults in conjunction with relevant experts
I enjoyed this thoroughly and I learned so much and I even view myself differently now than what I did before this exposure. It has truly been a much-needed session and read. Thank you again.
I would like to extend words of appreciation for the training. The training was truly an eye opener for me and I have unlearnt and relearnt productive ways of dealing with persons living with disabilities or limitations. Fanie gave me relevant and sensible information that has made me eager to advocate for my clients more and teach those who do not understand disabilities. I now look at disabilities with different lenses and a better understanding.
Our organising committee would like to extend a very appreciative “thank you” for the wonderful presentation on Saturday. It is very good to remind ourselves about “Person-centred care” which we should all be practicing without thinking too much about it! So thank you for highlighting this for us all and explaining it so well.
Fanie – it was very good to have a “patient” perspective, thank you for sharing your
experiences and time with us.