A PARTYLIST lawmaker yesterday called on government to include sign language studies in the elementary education curriculum.

Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy stressed that proficiency in sign language will also give an edge in participating in revolutionary information and communications technology.

Herrera-Dy addressed the appeal to the Department of Education at the launching of Signals for Hand and Oral Understanding Training program in Quezon City.

The lady lawmaker said that the SHOUT program, a project initiated by the Rotary Club of Quirino-QC, has piloted a sign language training at the Batino Elementary School in Project 2, Quezon City which conducts regular special classes for HI students.

Jointly sponsored by the RCQQC and BH Partylist with the cooperation of the Division of Quezon City Schools, the SHOUT program has initially enrolled 25 Grade IV and V students to learn and allow them to communicate with HI students.

“With this project, we hope to widen an HI individual’s sphere of communications which currently limited to their fellow HIs and their relatives,” explained Herrera-Dy.

The partylist lawmaker said that the SHOUT program will complement the Video Relay Service (Call Center) Training Program that her party-list organization launched in Makati last August.

She said that the VRS has been developed by a leading ICT firm to help hearing-impaired and people with speech difficulties communicate with other people.

The VRS includes sign language proficiency training and video relay computer program education, which are the main components of call center services for the deaf.

Herrera-Dy noted that VRS centers have started mushrooming in the United States and other countries that have strong government programs for persons with disabilities.