Shanghai TV offers news in sign language

SHANGHAI — When Zhao Minghua turned on the evening news as usual, he was pleasantly surprised to see a window in the corner of the screen with a newsreader conveying the news in sign language.

Zhao is a Shanghai resident with a hearing impairment. "We've seen this sign-language interpreter before, but only on lunchtime TV news shows," he said.

"Although it's a small window, it's a big step forward in the city's services for hearing-impaired residents," he later wrote, sharing the news with his hearing-impaired friends through WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform.

Since Jan 13, the Shanghai Media Group has added sign-language interpretation to its two main live nighttime TV news programs to help the hearing-impaired keep up-to-date with the news.

Head interpreter Kou Chenzhu was just delighted as she prepared ahead of the evening show. For the past five years, she has mainly been responsible for translating live lunchtime TV news. Kou is one of a team of nine trained by the Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation. The small group serves some 90,000 hearing-impaired residents in the city.

"Adding sign-language interpretation to live nighttime TV news is a way of showing respect for viewers with hearing loss," said Kou, adding that the new service is useful for those who cannot watch live news programs at lunchtime. "Previously, some hearing-impaired people were able to guess what was being said on the nighttime news," she said. "They have been looking forward to sign-language interpretation for prime-time news, and now their dream has come true."

SMG said that it first added sign language to TV news shows in 2000, and from March 2015, it added sign language to its lunchtime news.

Sun Xianzhong, an official with the Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation, said that live sign-language interpretation not only ensures the hearing-impaired gain equal access to public information, but also embodies the humane nature of care in Shanghai.

Xinhua