Rethinking Educational Reforms: An Instructional Language Reform Approach.

Abstract

According to the Kenyan Policy document released in 2018, one of the key challenges facing individuals with hearing impairment is language. The document indicates that few individuals in Kenya use Kenyan Sign Language to communicate or are unaware of it hence limiting their participation in social events and everyday life. There is therefore, need to reduce or do away with such communication barrier. However, the numerous approaches employed in enabling hearing-impaired individuals are solely based on the idea of making them “normal”. That is trying as much as possible to make them learn how to speak and lip read. This process is strenuous and yields little outcome compared, to the input. This study seeks to determine the percentage, of the Kenyan population living with hearing impairment and the factors hindering the hearing impaired from acquiring proper education, and identify the possible solutions. The study adopted internet-based research methodology preliminary findings indicated that, the education of the hearing impaired in Kenya is insufficient, thus making a majority of them unable to integrate into the larger society, thereby, limiting their participation in social events, and in workplaces. There is need to advance strategies to minimize these barriers on the hearing impaired as well as the other learners.