" En nanparkale, inru nan unkalukku solkiren, enave inrum nalaiyum nam siramankalai entrikontalum, enakku
innum our kanavu irukkiratu, Itu amerikka kanavil alamaka verunriya kanavu, Irukirathu. enravatu our nal
elucci perru atan nampikkaiyin unmaiyana arttattai velippatuttum enru nan our kanavu kankiren, inta
unmaikali nankal cuyamaka velippatuttukirom, ella manitarkalum camamaka uruvakkapputukirarkal
Enatu nanku kulantaikalum our nal our tecattil valvarkal enru nan kanavu kankiren, avarkal tolin nirattal
tirmanikkappata mattarkal, anal avarkalin kunattin ullatakkattal tirmanikkappatuvarkal."
@Akila Madam from WinVinaya Foundation gave me this insight!
The above seemingly gibberish is Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream..." speech translated into Tamil, written in English. I am certain that even my friends and colleagues who know Tamil would find it difficult to comprehend this.
It is naive of us to assume just because I translated someone's ENGLISH speech into TAMIL, it is comprehendable by Tamilians. Similarly adding closed captions in English and assuming the deaf community will now have full access to the content is also naive. English is not the primary language for millions of people (including deaf) around the world. Any other spoken and written language is not not their first language - Sign Langauge is!
Yes! It helps to a certain extent to get the context and also helping some deaf people who do not know sign language fully to relate words to signs and pick up sign langauge. Yet it is not the "One Solution" to solve accessibility challenges!
When organizations resolve and commit to make their products & services accessible for millions of deaf community users / consumers, Please walk the path in letter & spirit. Not the easy way out!
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