When silence becomes a roadblock: Uganda’s deaf struggle in hospitals

“The experience I will never forget was when one of our staff, who is deaf, became pregnant. She was already about five or six months pregnant when I started taking her for antenatal care, so I took her to the hospital, where she had a scan, and we were told that the baby was fine,” Namukwaya said. She added: “Later, when she went into labour, we took her to the health centre, but when we reached there, the biggest challenge was communication. The nurses could not communicate with her in sign language. They did not know how to tell her what to do or explain what was happening to her, and instead they were shouting at her for days until the third day, when I went to the labour ward and helped her.

Muwanga tasked the Government to adjust the curriculum and include sign language in medical training to bridge communication gaps between medical officers and deaf patients.