The Hearing Impaired Communication

Communication

Communication is an important factor in the rehabilitation and educational programs for the hearing impaired. The hearing impaired, because they cannot hear their own voice, find it difficult to speak.

Sign language is the natural language used by the deaf to communicate. Sign Language consists of a variety of signals given by either one or both hands and/or body movements to express words, ideas and feelings. Although there are regional variations, sign language can be understood by the hearing impaired all over the world.

Sign language has its limitations; it cannot be used to communicate with the general public or to understand text based information. For this reason the deaf are taught to read and write one of the National Languages, Sinhala or Tamil, even though they cannot speak it coherently.