Harare — A HARARE-BASED African Union agency has said work is in progress to develop a uniform sign language for Sub-Saharan Africa.

This was revealed by the executive director of the African Rehabilitation Institute, Mr Papa Malick Fal, in Harare recently.

He said his organisation had a direct responsibility for the rights of the disabled in the AU and was working with the National AssociationS of People with Disabilities to develop a uniform language for Africa.

"We are working with the National Associations of People with Disabilities to develop a uniform sign language for the whole continent so as to facilitate easy communication among people with hearing and speech impairments," he said. Mr Fall urged all people to learn sign language.

"Sign language is a conventional language and those people who use it should be respected.

"It should be promoted by all countries because disability is a human rights issue", he said.

His organisation, he said, was in the process of lobbying the AU Commission to add sign language among its official languages, which are English, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili.

Mr Fall said some countries did not have proper policies and legislation for people with disabilities and this was a major challenge for his organisation.

"Some countries do not have policies on people with disabilities while others lack the drive to implement their policies. I must take this opportunity to praise the Zimbabwean Government because it is among some few African countries that have managed to implement the different policies relating to people with disabilities.

"Zimbabwe is also among a few countries in Africa which have established schools for those with speech and hearing impairments", he said. Mr Fal paid tribute to Government for accepting to host the ARI head office since 1988 as well as its regional office for Southern Africa.

ARI is a specialised AU agency dealing with manpower development and research in the field of rehabilitation and disability prevention.