Painful

If you walk from the Vrieshof towards the university library, you will see a fire assembly sign around the corner. A fire assembly point is the designated safe place to gather when an evacuation is taking place.

‘Painful’ is the word used by a university lecturer of sign language studies during a conversation I had with her. She told me how her colleagues were forgotten during a fire drill. That word has stayed with me. I thought back to what the lecturer had said as I walked past the assembly point sign at my faculty. The sign depicts a group of people. The contrast between a group of hearing people safely outside with one or more deaf people inside is indeed a painful contrast.

Additionally, the sign illustrates the gap that arises between a deaf person and their hearing peers who do not have to worry about not being able to hear a fire alarm. That gap does not need to be there: as previously mentioned, a visual fire alarm works for both deaf and hearing people. Now that’s a good example of inclusivity! Furthermore, by carrying out a curb-effect solution, those involved no longer become those responsible. By giving a deaf person a sticker or requiring them to report daily that they are in the building and that they are deaf, the responsibility is placed too heavily on the person whose task this should never have been in the first place. This only widens the gap. Safety is a basic right that should be there for everyone. Everyone ought to be allowed to be one of the people on the assembly sign’s icon.