International seminar on sign language
and tactile sign language for deafblind
City of Plovdiv, 25-30.05.2010

BULGARIAN DEAFBLIND IN NOBLE COOPERATION WITH ORGANIZATIONS OF DEAFBLIND PEOPLE FROM EUROPE AND THE WORLD

Dimitar Parapanov,
President of the National Association of the Deafblind in Bulgaria
Director of the “Helen Keller” National Centre for Rehabilitation of the Deafblind

As it has been known for centuries, for deaf people the sign language is the only means of communication with the rest. Among deaf and blind people there are also such people who are deprived both of eyesight and hearing – deafblind. The worst is the case of the totally deafblind who communicate only with their hands – tactile sign language. Deaf people with partial or very weak eyesight are forced by necessity to use sign language at a very short distance, almost in front of the face. Regretfully, Bulgarian universities do not prepare special pedagogues for training and rehabilitation of deafblind people. The National Association of the Deafblind in Bulgaria (NADbBg) is one of the young organizations of the deafblind in Europe and the world. It devotes efforts to locate, organize, assist and provide rehabilitation for people who have combined sensor and hearing impairments. Priority is the rehabilitation mostly of the totally deafblind and of the people with severe hearing and visual impairments. For that purpose in 2004 NADbBg established the Helen Keller” National Centre for Rehabilitation of the Deafblind (“Helen Keller” NCRDb) in Plovdiv. The management of the association and the centre devote efforts to prepare young special pedagogues for training and rehabilitation of deafblind people. Principal element is the acquisition of the sign and tactile sign languages. With regard to that, huge assistance is provided by the specialists of the Union of the Deaf in Bulgaria (UDB) and its National Centre for Sign Language. We would therefore like to express our gratitude and thanks to the president of UDB – Vasil Panev, to the specialists Miryana Mosheva, Spaska Dzhangozova, Hristina Garkova and others, who provide us with competent help.
By participating in a number of international conferences on deafblindness, we have reached the conviction that we have to train our young special pedagogues by means of exchange of experience with colleagues from foreign countries that have considerable background in rehabilitation of the deafblind. The first steps in this direction have already been made. In the end of March 2010, the lecturers of the “Helen Keller” NCRDb participated in a Seminar on the provision of services for deafblind people in the East and Central European countries which was held in Hungary.
Owing to our membership in the European Deafblind Union (EDBU) and the World Federation of the Deafblind (WFDB), we established active contacts with specialists from Russia, Norway, the United Kingdom and other countries. Following the exchange principle, we will look for the most suitable forms of training our specialists and for exchange of experience. This idea is supported by the holding of an international seminar in Bulgaria with distinguished specialists from Russia, Norway and Croatia. We would like to express our most sincere thanks to Sergey Sirotkin – President of the European Deafblind Union and President of the Elvira Association in Russia, Geir Jensen (Norway) – Secretary General of the World Federation of the Deafblind and of the European Deafblind Union, Sanja Tarczay from Croatia – Master in tactile sign language and sign language, President of the Croatian Deafblind Association, Vice-president of EDBU and member of the Executive Board of WFDB as a regional representative for Europe. These people have real contribution to the rehabilitation and integration of the deafblind not only in Bulgaria, but also in Europe and the world.
Allow me, on behalf of the Managing Board and the members of NADbBg, to wish success to the International Seminar on Sign Language and Tactile Sign Language, good health and new achievements to all participants in this noble cause for the integration of the deafblind into the society.        

 

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