- A group of lawyers with disabilities has appealed to the Nigerian Law School to provide a Sign Language Interpreter for a deaf law student at the school
- Miss Phosphen had, throughout her undergraduate law program at the University of Ibadan, been assigned sign language interpreters from the Department of Special Education
- With relevant quotations from the Nigerian constitution with regards to freedom of expression, the signed letter from the Association of Lawyers Living with Disabilities (ALDIN) keenly urges the Law School to provide a sign language interpreter for the student
- Known as manual communication, sign language, in the letter, is said to be enabling- in the way that it helps deaf learners to acquire ideas and information through a professional interpreter
The Association of Lawyers Living with Disability in Nigeria (ALDIN) has appealed to the Nigerian Law School to provide Sign Language Interpreter for Miss Dumi Prosphen, a deaf Student. Miss Prosphen is a bonafide student of our nation’s Law School- Lagos Campus.
In a compellingly written letter addressed to the Deputy Director of the prestigious School School, Lagos, the erudite group keenly appealed to the Nigerian Law School not to neglect its own, Miss Dumi. Miss Dumi, according to reports, did have sign language interpreters throughout her five years as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan,
Part of the letter read:
We write to most passionately appeal for the provision of a sign language interpreter for the above-named student who had been admitted to the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School. This will enable the said student to follow the lectures that are essentially orally delivered.
It is germane to note that several other deaf lawyers had graduated from the Nigerian Law School and were provided with sign language interpreters. Today, they are doing well both in Nigeria and abroad. We were also made to understand that the University of Ibadan, where she studied, provided Miss Prosphen with sign language interpreter throughout her five-year law program at the Faculty of Law.
Sir, it may interest you to know that the practice globally is to make the entire gamut of the affairs of the society, including the educational system, inclusive, or accommodating, of persons with disabilities. And the Nigerian Law School should not be seen to be laid back on this score.
Our constitution while fostering national integration also provides in section 39(1) as follows:
Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
Accordingly, sign language is the medium whereby the deaf “receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”
On the whole, if Miss Dumi had defied all the odds, graduating from the University of Ibadan and gaining admission to the Nigerian Law School, paying the requisite school fees, it will only be fair for the Law School to accord her an enabling ground to receive her lectures, given her peculiar circumstance.
We are optimistic that you will use your good offices to grant our application as that will accord with global best practices, our constitution and the interest of justice.
ALDIN as the umbrella body for Lawyers living with disabilities has in recent times through its incumbent President Daniel A. Onwe Esq been taking the welfare of lawyers with disability seriously. He has in recent past approached relevant government agencies with a legitimate appeal for support for lawyers in this category. It is hoped that the passage of the long-awaited bill which provides for the welfare of physically challenged people would bring the needed succour.
The formal letter read.