{"id":8557,"date":"2025-09-23T11:04:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/?p=8557"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:36:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:36:05","slug":"press-release-unad-calls-for-national-sign-language-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/2025\/09\/23\/press-release-unad-calls-for-national-sign-language-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: UNAD Calls for National Sign Language Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"8557\" class=\"elementor elementor-8557\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-702d0118 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"702d0118\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7d6bf627\" data-id=\"7d6bf627\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e704341 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e704341\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>As Uganda marks the International Week of Deaf People and the International Day of Sign Language, the Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) has urged government to enact a National Sign Language (UgSL) Law.<\/p><p>The law would recognize Ugandan Sign Language as an official language, help standardize and protect it, and ensure deaf and hard-of-hearing persons gain equal access to education, healthcare, and social opportunities.<\/p><p>UNAD emphasized that nearly 2 million Ugandans (4.7% of the population) live with hearing difficulties, yet continue to face barriers due to the lack of a legal framework supporting sign language.<\/p><p>\u201cNo Human Rights Without Sign Language Rights,\u201d said Robert Nkwangu, Executive Director of UNAD, calling for urgent government action.<\/p><p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Press-Statement_UNAD-IWDP2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full press statement here<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, has called on the government to increase investment in social protection, economic empowerment, and educational programs that directly support Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8557"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8577,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8557\/revisions\/8577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unadeaf.or.ug\/IWDP2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}