West Cork town plans to teach residents sign language

Businesspeople and schoolchildren in a West Cork town could learn sign language to help them communicate better with hearing-impaired visitors and locals.

Submissions are to be made to Cork County Council, the local Chamber of Commerce, and the Tidy Towns group on a number of issues in a drive to make Clonakilty more user-friendly for people with special needs.

The town is host to organisations such as the Cope Foundation, CoAction, the Irish Wheelchair Association, and two residential care homes. However, Clonakilty Access Group feels the town needs to do more to cater for people with special needs.

Teaching sign language to some locals is one of the proposals the group is considering, following a recent public meeting.

The group is to assess the viability of teaching basic sign language to transition year students, primary school pupils, and local business owners.

“It’s a long-term objective,” said group chairwoman Elizabeth Walsh, who added that the logistics of organising such a programme and finding a venue, teachers, and volunteers could be considerable.

However, she said that access problems are often caused by simple things that could be easily changed. “It’s often things like refuse bins or sandwich-type advertising boards being left out to block footpaths, or barrels left outside pubs for collection,” she said.

Clonakilty Access Group was active in the early 1990s and has been reformed to campaign for a number of general improvements to access in the town.

“There are gullies in footpaths in which wheelchairs get stuck and there is not enough ramping of footpaths, so it can be necessary for someone in a wheelchair to travel quite a way before being able to cross the road,” Ms Walsh said.

She said while Clonakilty is famous for its displays of beautiful summer blooms, low-hanging flower baskets can cause problems for people with visual impairment.

“We can have similar problems with scaffolding, ladders, and roadworks,” Ms Walsh said, adding that the renovation of Astna Square meant several car parking spaces had been lost.

A recent seven-minute documentary made by two local transition year students highlighted the problems a wheelchair user experienced during a trip through the streets of Clonakilty.

The film will form part of the access group’s submission to Clonakilty Town Council.