A town where most speak sign language
Temas
Detalles
Kata Kolok, literally meaning ‘deaf talk’ in Indonesian, is a unique sign language that is currently the primary means of communication for just 44 people on the entire planet. For about six generations, an unusually large proportion of Bengkala’s population has been born deaf – something that locals for many years attributed to a curse, but which scientists have more recently pinned down to a recessive gene (known as DFNB3) that over the decades has resulted in about one in 50 babies in this community being born deaf. But in many ways these people – all deaf from birth and referred to as ‘kolok’ (deaf) by their fellow villagers – are more fortunate than deaf people in other areas. That’s because more than half of the hearing people in the highland village of Bengkala have also learned Kata Kolok, solely for the benefit of communicating with deaf family members and friends.