KUCHING: The Hand and Sign Day 2025 celebration at The Association of Churches today highlighted efforts to promote equal communication access through wider use of Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM), or Malaysian Sign Language.
Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng commended the Sarawak Society for the Deaf (SSD) for organising the event and its co-host SeDidik Sarawak, under the Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, for their commitment to inclusive and high-quality early childhood care and education.
“Today we gather with a simple, profound purpose: to make communication a right, not a privilege.
“For our neighbours who are deaf or hard of hearing, language access is not merely a convenience. It is the bridge to education, employment, health, safety and full participation in community life,” he said, adding that BIM serves as that bridge in Malaysia.
He praised SSD and SeDidik for translating inclusion into action by training teachers, equipping preschools, encouraging families, and normalising the use of interpreters in community spaces.
“Early exposure matters. When a child – hearing or deaf – meets and learns from a deaf adult, or sees BIM used confidently in class, they learn two lessons at once: language can be visual, and difference is not deficit,” he added.
Wee described the integration of inclusive practices into early childhood care and education as nation-building work, saying that every classroom that adopts visual schedules, captioned videos or quiet corners helps widen the doorway to learning.
He also encouraged parents and caregivers to play their part by learning basic signs and celebrating small milestones at home.
However, he stressed that inclusion must extend beyond schools to all public and private spaces, including clinics, banks, police stations, places of worship, workplaces and supermarkets.
“If every frontline counter in Kuching mastered just 30 signs, the daily experience of deaf citizens would change overnight,” he said.
Wee added that inspiration must be followed by infrastructure, including policies, budgets, training and habits that sustain inclusion beyond the event itself.
He congratulated SSD and SeDidik for their leadership and dedication in championing the cause, while thanking sponsors, volunteers, teachers, interpreters, parents and the deaf community for their support and resilience.
