L'intervista in diretta al Presidente Nazionale Giuseppe Petrucci

L'intervista in diretta al Presidente Nazionale Giuseppe Petrucci

(RaiNews)

(Rights
other voices / us and them)

[Man] Let's see the instructions. I was hoping... about sign language. I heard you can use it to order

[Off voice] True, at the Nameless Bar - that's the name of this bar in the center of Bologna, opened

by two deaf young persons - you can also order in sign language.

For those who are afraid to try, there are slips of paper with dishes and drinks.

Alternatively, a mirror and a helper.

[Woman] I'd like to open a Corona beer. How to you sign it in deaf language?

[Interpreter] Beer - crown [corona]

[Woman] OK, thanks. Beer - crown. Thanks.

[Reporter] Is it difficult to order?
[Woman] No, no. See: "crown".

[Barmaid] If you tell me "a beer" in LIS [Italian Sign Language], you get a discount.

[Off voice] Sara Longhi, one of the two managers of the bar, recognizes that the discount is just a pretext,

mainly a way to publicize and promote sign language among hearers too.

[Patron] I'll try to have conversations using signs, using signs - I don't know.

[Other patron] I think hearing people like the spontaneous gestures,

the different communication manner,

another way of communicating, paying attention to what you're doing, even having a coffee with people.

I.e., you look at people's eyes, you really look at them.

[Luce Tommasi] "You really look at them". Deaf people and support initiatives, or rather, integration initiatives.

as we saw

in this opening feature edited by Nelson Bova, there is a bar in Bologna

which is becoming very popular, where people speak in sign language

and if someone wants to try, they'll get

a discount on what they buy.

Today, we'll talk about initiatives like this one with our guests in this studio,

who are Giuseppe Petrucci, President of the Ente Nazionale Sordi [National Institute of the Deaf]

Good morning, President, welcome.

Rosanna Zanchetti, whom you see in the small video, is helping us: she interprets LIS

which is the sign language.

And in the studio, there is also Rome's vice-commissioner [vice-questore], Roberto Maugeri.

Good morning.
[Roberto Maugeri] Good morning.

And he'll tell us about a new service, "An SMS for life",

which enables deaf people to communicate with the police and with the emergency number 113 by SMS.

So, President Petrucci, what can be said about initiatives like that bar in Bologna?

Innovative ones, surely, as compared to habits that create barriers

between those who hear and those who don't, aren't they?

[Giuseppe Petrucci] Of course, this Bologna bar is a pilot experiment,

the first experiment that really shows

an integration between deaf and hearing people, where hearers

strive to use sign language towards integration,

and thanks to this effort, they can can get a discount.

As the broadcast shows, interaction happens very naturally

and I think that this experiment must be extended to other parts of Italy

and this is really important, because it is a message of integration and solidarity;

and it is very important for the recognition of sign language

and it gives us a feedback

for continuing to advocate the recognition of sign language.

Seeing how deaf people

communicate very naturally in a bar

can become a way to communicate, and hence demonstrate

that LIS is a true language.

[Tommasi] In other words: a way to learn to converse.

The initiative of the Rome Questura (police forces) is on the same line too.

Roberto Maugeri, how does this "SMS for life" work?

[Mugeri] Look, the "SMS for life" project

arises from the awareness of the need to ensure that deaf people too can access a fundamental service,

which is the 113 emergency phone number.

Thus, in collaboration with the National Institute of the Dead (ENS), and in particular

with its Rome province section, we developed this project, which consists in

a system that can receive SMS sent by deaf people

and hence, through the reception of the message,

enable an immediate response by police forces or by the institution

requested by the deaf person.

Because...
[Tommasi] [inaudible] Thus everybody can send an SMS.

[Maugeri] No: we have a protection system that

only allows deaf people to access this service: they must sign up via a written request

for the service, and when they request it, the Operation room

of the Rome Questura will automatically send them an SMS telling them

that the service has been activated and giving them a restricted phone number - which must remain restricted -

to be used in order to contact us.

[Tommasi] I meant that it's a kind of technology that also enables

people who can't hear to interact normally,

[Maugeri] Yes, but the barrier is precisely that this restricted number must remain restricted.

[Tommasi] ... yes: obviously restricted: obviously, we who can hear normally cannot

also invade this.
[Maugeri] We use ... already many fields

[Tommasi] We already expand in many fields.
[Maugeri] Exactly.

President Petrucci, ENS also set up a taxi service for the deaf.

ENS also set up a taxi service for the deaf.

Let's look at this poster and comment it together, shall we?

(ENS Taxi for the Deaf - Available on Android Market - Available on App Store)

as you have seen, the logo refers to the taxi service

limited to deaf people. By accessing this Android or Apple Store

- hence on iTunes, one can easily

call this taxi service,

indicating also the address etc.

Thus, thanks to technological innovation and development

deaf people don't need

to ask other people for help.

In this way, from their cell phone, thanks to this application

they can ask for this taxi service

and when they send this message, the operation center replies

that yes, the service will be available within two minutes

at the requested address.

Thus, this service is a further development

of deaf people's autonomy

And as the Vicequestore said about "an SMS for life"

- and that's very important - he said

in case of burglary or of family troubles,

various violences, it's now possible to call directly

by sending this SMS

to the operational central, and the place of origin of the call

gets identified, thus enabling an intervention.

Obviously, there is also a collaboration with the Ministry of Internal affairs

to make this service

really direct and operational,

and we expect the same for the taxi service.

And we are working at spreading this service

in other parts of Italy, obviously.

[Tommasi] Thank you, President. Now, let's see Giuseppina Alessio's report

on the new frontiers in medicine too, and on the new auxiliary technologies for deaf people.

[Off voice] Voices, sounds and music are nothing obvious for ca 8 millions Italians:

that's how many have hearing problems, according to data from AIRS

Italian Association for Research on Deafness.
I.e., 12% of Italian people.

There have been impressive progresses in surgical therapies and in technologies to overcome deafness

in the last years, and it is now possible to restore hearing

to almost all people who lost it.
However, it important to intervene

very early on children, just after birth and at least within two years,

experts say, and to use the most advanced tools for grown ups.

Deafness and hearing loss, on the other hand, hit

a total 5% of the people, i.e. 2 and half millions people in Italy.

This proportion rises to 30% among people over 50,

and to 50% for those over 85.

However, today, there are many tools to fight hearing troubles.

External hearing aids of yore are bygones. Today, hearing prostheses,

even the cheapest ones, are rather sophisticated computers

that gather sounds and reshape them to make them compatible

with each single patient's brain.

[Tommasi] President Petrucci, what do you think of these new technologies?

Can they be important solutions for the deaf?

[Petrucci] About cochlear implants and, as you said,

there are also other types of digital and also analogical prostheses:

that's true.

And as to these analogical prostheses, there has been

an impressive evolution in these types of auxiliary means.

Clearly, they aren't external anymore: as you said and as the report showed, now there are

digital auxiliary means but anyhow,

these means are not given by the welfare service, because presently

you must still by them, whereas if you ask for an old-fashioned prosthesis,

it is offered for free.

As to cochlear implants,

there have indeed been remarkable progresses. However, what worries me

is what kind of guarantee we have for the results of this intervention.

There are rehab centers in connection to this kind of intervention all over Italy.

So I think it should be each person's free choice.

Hence the need to know where those rehab centers, connected to the operation, are:

in order to avoid this inequality in the whole Italian territory.