Some 1,500 join charity walk to raise more than $320,000 for the deaf community

Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong (second from left) with participants at the charity walk on May 25. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG

Wong Yang

UPDATED May 25, 2025, 04:40 PM

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SINGAPORE - As a D eaf student in a mainstream secondary school in the 1990s , Ms April Chia struggled to communicate with her peers, who did not know sign language.

Unfazed, Ms Chia continued attending workshops for deaf individuals by the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf), which her parents had taken her to when she was a child.

She also received help from SADeaf’s resource teachers, who are specially trained to provide sign language interpretation and address the learning needs of Deaf students. Deaf, with a capital D, refers to people with hearing loss who use sign language as their preferred communication mode, and identify as members of the Deaf community.

Such programmes and resources helped her to become more confident and made her more comfortable to express herself, said Ms Chia, who is in her 40s .

Some three decades later, Ms Chia, who recently landed a new job as a public servant, has come full circle and teaches sign language and serves as a community interpreter at SADeaf.

Programmes by SADeaf that Ms Chia has engaged with throughout her life will get a boost following the association’s fund-raising of more than $320,000 through a charity walk – with 3km and 5km routes – along Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay on May 25.

SADeaf, which marks its 70th anniversary this year, estimates that there are about half a million people here with some form of hearing loss.

Ms April Chia said the programmes and resources by the Singapore Association for the Deaf helped her to become more confident and made her more comfortable to express herself. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG

Besides deaf education courses, the charity also provides sign language interpretation and employment support – among other services – to people with hearing loss.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ms Chia told The Straits Times: “SADeaf has helped deaf people like me enjoy more equal access to information.

“When I take my parents to the doctor, having an SADeaf interpreter by my side allows me to get fuller details and makes me feel more included compared with when the doctor has to communicate with me in writing.”

Addressing about 1,500 participants before he flagged off the walk, Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong thanked SADeaf for its work in raising awareness and advocating for the deaf community over the last seven decades.

He added that everyone in society – not just the deaf community – has a role to play in building a more inclusive Singapore.

“All the plans, all the programmes that we have won’t take us very far if you and I are not invested, (if) we are not aware, and we are not inclusive,” said Mr Tong.

At the event, participants wore T-shirts with the Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) alphabet emblazoned across the back.

Participants wore T-shirts with the Singapore Sign Language alphabet emblazoned across the back. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG

SgSL, which contains uniquely Singaporean signs and colloquial expressions, is the native sign language recognised and used by the deaf community here.

During the walk, participants tried their hand at learning basic SgSL phrases like “wow” and “Marina Bay Sands” with the aid of signboards at different points along the route.

The association’s executive director Josh Lye said sign-ups for SADeaf’s SgSL classes have increased over the past three years, particularly in the last year.

In its 2023-2024 financial year, SADeaf had more than 3,000 students, both deaf and hearing, in its SgSL classes, up from about 2,700 in the previous financial year.

Mr Lye said SADeaf plans to open more classes to meet the growing interest in SgSL, including from beyond the deaf community.

Ms Rashidah Zulkifli, a senior sign language interpreter at SADeaf, pointed to the video-relay service launched by SADeaf in December 2024 as another example of the inroads made in promoting accessibility for deaf individuals.

The service connects deaf individuals with interpreters on video conferencing platform Zoom to help them communicate with banks, hospitals or businesses over the phone.

However , the 33-year-old interpreter expressed that more needs to be done to “create a society where deaf people feel more included, not just accommodated,” such as by providing sign language interpretation at more events, the creation of more media content, and raising awareness of interpretation as a viable professional career.

Ms Rashidah Zulkifli pointed to the video-relay service launched by SADeaf in December 2024 as another example of the inroads made in promoting accessibility for deaf individuals. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG

A study by the National Council of Social Service revealed a decline in positive attitudes towards people with disabilities here in 2023, largely due to a dip in positive sentiments at the workplace.

Calling on employers to give deaf individuals an equal shot, Ms Rashidah said: “Employers play a big role in giving deaf people ways to contribute instead of assuming they cannot help.”

Participants of the charity walk , which was sponsored by property agency ERA Singapore, also set a new record in the Singapore Book of Records for the largest mass walk in SgSL T-shirts.

SADeaf was established by the government in 1955 to oversee the welfare of the deaf community in Singapore.

After its formation, SADeaf called for deaf individuals to register themselves with the association as it studied plans to build a school for deaf children staffed by specially-trained teachers.

In 1963, it opened the Singapore School for the Deaf for deaf children aged six to 16. It then started the Vocational Institute for the Handicapped for deaf students aged between 16 and 21 to learn basic technical skills in 1975.

Moving forward, SADeaf will work on supporting the growing number of seniors who are hard of hearing as Singapore’s population ages, said Mr Lye.

“We have about 400,000 to 500,000 seniors who already have hearing loss. That number doubles by 2030, so we don’t have a lot of time to address it... and we will work with our partners to address this.”

Wong Yang is a journalist at The Straits Times, covering housing, property, land use and community stories.

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