Every year in August, we Filipinos celebrate Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa. The late President Fidel V. Ramos, in his Proclamation No. 1041, said that our national language is essential in our communication, understanding, unity, and development as a nation.

But as we reflect on the language that we use, let’s also pause to consider Filipino Sign Language or FSL, which the government has recognized as the national sign language of the Philippines through the passage of Republic Act 11106 or the Filipino Sign Language Act in 2018.

The law declared FSL as “the official sign language of government in all transactions involving the Deaf”. It also mandated its use “in schools, broadcast media, and workplaces”.

This is one of the major steps towards Deaf inclusion. How else can those who can hear make changes so that the workplace, in particular, becomes more inclusive to the Deaf?

At Project SIGND, where OML Center has been collaborating with Deaf-led organizations to increase the Deaf’s ability to prepare for and adapt to climate-related risks and disasters for two years now, we have learned a lot about navigating a workplace where the Deaf and hearing work together.

All our activities, for example, are attended by interpreters so that the Deaf can understand what the hearing are saying, and the hearing can understand what the Deaf are signing. The hearing managers and staff are also regularly given training on FSL so they can use FSL to communicate with their Deaf colleagues. Special attention is given to FSL signs that convey climate change concepts because of our field of work.

Angelika Pizarro, a policy specialist who’s done research and co-authored reports on the state of Philippine laws and policies in relation to persons with disabilities and climate change, took FSL lessons early on in the project so that she could communicate with the Deaf members of the team even without the help of interpreters. Two years on, she is able to have simple conversations with her Deaf colleagues.

“There are many things and work practices that I had to unlearn and learn to more effectively work with the Deaf,” Pizarro says. “I’ve become much more sensitive and self-aware about my words, actions, expressions and even my feelings and thoughts towards the Deaf. I’ve realized how small changes in communication can significantly impact how the Deaf understand, perceive things, and even feel towards you. This sort of ‘greater’ self-awareness changed how I engage with others, both Deaf and hearing.”

She chooses her words more carefully to be able to explain herself better to those whose primary language is not based on text or sound, and is also more mindful of her facial expressions as her Deaf colleagues are quick to pick up on emotions based on these.

OML Center knowledge production manager Ayn Torres and knowledge production assistant manager Alfi Lorenz Cura are quick to correct the misconception that the Deaf are able to understand and use the written word at the same level as the hearing because they can use their eyes to read, anyway.

“Their main mode of communication is sign. They just fall back on written English if there’s no other option. We assume that if you’re not able to sign, you can just text the words and show it to them. Pero compromise na nila ‘yun (But that’s already a compromise for them),” Torres explains.

Cura adds that the Deaf use a different syntax. For example, to ask someone’s name in English, one might say, “What is your name?”, while the transcribed English of the FSL version would be glossed as “NAME-YOU-WHAT?” or “NAME-YOU?”

“In English, that’s wrong grammar. But in FSL grammar that is what is correct and what they can understand,” he says.

“Imagine if you’ve been signing all your life, and like Alfi said, the syntax is something that you don’t really have a good command of in terms of grammar, etcetera. It’s a very, very different language,” Torres says.

“We cannot say that language is only language if it can be spoken or written down.”

In her two years of working with the Deaf, meeting communities around the Philippines to do research on their vulnerability to climate change, Torres’ perception of what it means to communicate and relate with others has drastically changed.

“Kapag kausap ko ang Deaf tapos hindi ako makapag-sign, hiyang-hiya ako (I feel ashamed when I talk to a Deaf person and I can’t sign),” she says.

Mita Santiago, the manager of the team working on the vocabulary component that has collected and developed more than 1,000 FSL signs that convey climate change concepts, is one of two people on her team who is hearing. Having gone through the FSL learning program of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, she is able to have simple conversations with her Deaf colleagues.

Like Pizarro, one of the adjustments she made since she began working with the Deaf was to change the words she uses in meetings so that they’re easier for the interpreters to sign. She isn’t too technical; nor does she do “corporate speak”.

She has also adjusted the way she delivers her own messages to her team, sending these through multiple platforms because her teammates might not have certain applications on the gadgets they use, or they simply prefer to use certain methods more.

Specificity in the messages she sends is crucial. “It has to be done step by step. Sometimes you also have to explain what it is and what it is not so that it’s clear for them,” she explains.

Working with the Deaf also means it takes more time to complete tasks and projects. This is because of the additional steps that the hearing must take to be inclusive. For example, facilitating understanding about what is being discussed between the Deaf and the hearing during meetings can take time because another person, the interpreter, also processes turning the words into signs, and signs into words, all the while ensuring that he or she understands the message he or she is relaying, as well. This gets more complicated when the topic being discussed is a complex one, with ideas having to be clarified all the time.

Santiago also notes that she tries to avoid long working hours that can be tiring for her colleagues, so she doesn’t want them burning the midnight oil just to meet tight deadlines. In the first place, these deadlines must be set to accommodate these considerations for inclusion.

“Then there’s the added layer of being in remote work. The Deaf explicitly said that they prefer face-to-face. They get annoyed if they are reliant on technology with the thought that if we had only seen each other [in person], we would have finished much more quickly,” she says.

If organizations wish to be Deaf-inclusive, where do they start?

For Santiago, it begins with human resources having conversations with Deaf organizations to find out what the Deaf need in the workplace. Indeed, OML Center has partnered with Deaf organizations to implement Project SIGND. In particular, these are the Philippine Federation of the Deaf (PFD); Filipino Sign Language National Network (FSLN2); Deaf Disaster Assistance Team-Disaster Risk Reduction (DDAT-DRR); Dumaguete Effata Association of the Deaf (DEAF); and Deaf Accessibility Network of the Philippines (DNAP).

Parabukas, a consultancy focused on laws and policies related to climate change, the environment, and sustainable development, is OML Center’s only partner that is made up of hearing personnel.

Pizarro, who is from Parabukas, says, “Working closely with the Filipino Deaf community has inspired and motivated me to do more for the sector.”

A lot of work still has to be done to accomplish Project SIGND’s goal of showing that the Deaf can be more than mere victims of disasters and recipients of relief efforts; rather, they can be actors in disaster preparedness and resilience building.

It is this purpose that keeps the team going.

(Stay tuned for the second part of this story, which focuses on what it’s like for the Deaf managers and members of Project SIGND to work with the hearing, and what they think should be done for workplaces to be more inclusive.)