You're reading: Pyshnyy: Deaf people in Ukraine ‘are invisible’

Society as a whole has difficulty coping with the deaf.

Only two years ago, Andriy Pyshnyy, right-hand man to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was gearing up for his boss’ then-promising presidential election campaign.

But as winter set in, Pyshnyy began to lose his hearing. By the end of the year, he was almost completely deaf.

A member of a group – politicians – so often criticized for being isolated from average citizens, Pyshnyy suddenly found himself communicating with his wife and children using pen and paper, facing the tough challenges that confront people in Ukraine with a relatively common problem.

Some two million of the nation’s 46 million people are believed to be deaf or have serious trouble hearing, according to the Ukrainian Deaf Community, a support group.

Andriy Pyshnyy, a top aide to former Verkhovna Rada speaker Arseniy Yatensiuk, inexplicably became almost completely deaf two years ago. The experience opened his eyes to how badly deaf people are treated. (UNIAN)

Pyshnyy, a former deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council, found out the hard truth the hard way about life for deaf people in Ukraine.

He learned that few efforts are under way to improve deaf people’s lives.

Pyshnyy noted daily obstacles exist despite the fact that he – unlike many other deaf Ukrainian – had enough money to seek better medical treatment abroad.

The problems deaf people encounter are numerous and easy to list.

Television shows are not subtitled, and only a few news programs are accompanied by sign language.

Who could forget Natalya Dmitruk, the signer for deaf viewers who urged viewers not to believe the results of falsified presidential elections in 2004 at the start of the democratic Orange Revolution? But political programming and national messages, such as the president’s New Year address, are inaccessible to deaf Ukrainians.

Pyshnyy wrote to the most popular television channels, but got responses that subtitles were too expensive and there is no law to force channels to provide them.

Hearing aids are bought as if they were valenki (felt boots) – the same for everyone, though this process must be strictly individual.”

– Andriy Pyshnyy, right-hand man to Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

As a result, only foreign language films are subtitled.

Medical care is patchy and unfocused. Getting a hearing aid is crucial to helping restore at least some hearing, but hospitals have a “one-size-fits-all” approach, Pyshnyy said.

“Hearing aids are bought as if they were valenki (felt boots) – the same for everyone, though this process must be strictly individual,” he complained.

The Health Ministry and the State Statistics Committee keep poor track of the numbers of deaf people in Ukraine.

Mykola Fomenko, head of the monitoring department for higher education at the Education Ministry, said that of all people with disabilities, deaf are the most capable. “They can do a lot of work, are very focused and attentive, but of course they need to get education first,” he said.

There are 59 special schools for the deaf and partially deaf people in Ukraine and 13 universities of different accreditation levels that accept these children. In a positive step, the Ukrainian Deaf Community and the Education Ministry are cooperating to find workplaces for future graduates, while the ministry is helping deaf schoolchildren get a place at a university in the necessary specialization without taking tests. This year, 152 students were assigned to various universities.

But education isn’t a cure-all. Even if you’re well-educated, the jobs that are most frequently offered to the deaf are blue collar: cleaners, loaders, seamstresses and carpenters. Accountancy is a rare white-collar exception.

Society as a whole has difficulty coping with the deaf.

When I check into the hotel or buy something in a shop and ask someone to repeat what they said, they usually grin and think I’m stupid. But people need to understand: deaf doesn’t mean dumb. ”

– Andriy Pyshnyy, right-hand man to Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

“We are invisible,” said Pyshnyy.

“No people, no problems. Our people don’t know anything about us. … When I check into the hotel or buy something in a shop and ask someone to repeat what they said, they usually grin and think I’m stupid. But people need to understand: deaf doesn’t mean dumb. ”

Police officers are learning English for Euro 2012 guests, but they don’t know sign language to communicate with the large number of deaf compatriots.

As for Pyshnyy, he said he still hasn’t come to terms with his loss of hearing.

Nevertheless, he has managed to continue working in frontline politics. He has taught himself to lip read and, with the help of a hearing aid, can mostly make out what people are saying to him.

“It took a lot of time to adapt, though I still don’t feel I’ve totally got into the way deaf people live,” he said.

Kyiv Post staff writer Elena Zagrebina can be reached at [email protected]