The National President of Educational Sign Language Interpreters Association of Nigeria, Mr Omobosola Oladipupo, has called on the Federal Government to make sign language interpretation a distinct course of study in higher institutions.
He made this call in an interview on the sidelines of the sign language interpretation biennial international conference held at the Federal College of Education, Special, and Oyo town.
Oladipupo said the goal of the association was to make sign language interpretation a course, saying this would make experts in the area impart more knowledge to students who had a hearing impairment and in turn make those students to be more productive.
He explained that sign language interpretation had different forms just like the spoken languages are different. He said the sign language has British, American, Canadian, Australian, French and other versions.
“Making sign language interpreting a course of study is our major goal as an association. We discovered that there are gaps that we need to fill and the major one is that we do not have any course of study that trains people to be professional sign language interpreters,” Oladipupo said.