Advocate wants more for deaf community

Entranced by the near mystical movement of a deaf dance troupe that she witnessed nearly 17 years ago, Stephanie McIntyre-Groves pledged her life to bridging the gap between Jamaica's hearing population and the deaf.

McIntyre-Groves is the founder of PAH! Bridging the Gap, an institution that specialises in teaching Jamaican Sign Language (JSL) as well as deaf culture.

"With our courses that we offer, we ensure that we teach deaf culture along with Jamaican Sign Language because we believe that you can't know one without the other; they are almost married. The language influences the culture and the culture influences the language, so you are really getting one stop when you do any kind of PAH course," she said. McIntyre-Groves explained that 'PAH' is not an acronym.

"The name PAH was chosen because it is a sign language expression and it means 'finally', and finally associated with something successful," she said. "So we're finally bridging the gap between the hearing and the deaf world.

Referring to the organisation's offerings as 'sign language training with a difference', she expressed hope that Jamaica makes the necessary steps to integrate deaf culture into Jamaican society.

"It's like they [the deaf] are distant to us, but the distance is not that far. What we really need -- and I believe the integration and inclusion is important -- what we need to bridge that gap is sign language," she said.

She continued, "It's just a different language that they communicate through, however, they are the same [as hearing people]. They have the same needs, the same wants. We are all Jamaican. We have the same background for the most part, and this is something that we really want to advocate a lot more for because they are really suffering in the public sector in particular."

She said that including sign language in the early curriculum of Jamaican students would help the deaf community to maximise on the offerings of the country.

"That's something we really need to look at, how do we, on a very basic level, make inclusion look like what it really needs to be, to be what we want it be even as a third world country, to reach Vision 2030. We need to be looking at the Disabilities Act and how we can be more inclusive. It's a beautiful word, but it's an action word as well," she said.

As part of an attempt to embrace diversity, McIntyre-Groves also founded the PAH! Deaf Dance Co., the first of its kind in the Caribbean.