VietNamNet Bridge – A pilot training course on road traffic rules for the hearing impaired was opened in Hanoi on July 8 with 88 trainees.

It is part of a project funded by the World Bank and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to educate deaf people on road traffic laws, understanding their rights and speaking out their needs for safe means of transport as well as to encourage them to travel with registered vehicles.

Director of the Coordination Office in Support of Vietnamese Disabled People, Nghiem Xuan Tue, said deaf people in Vietnam have not yet been given the chance to study traffic rules or use means of transport.

Authorities have been therefore drawing experiences from other countries to enable deaf people to ensure safe transport through traffic guiding boards on streets, Tue said.

The project also aims to popularise traffic rules among deaf people, thus providing practical conditions for the country to ratify the UN Convention on the Right of the Disabled soon after signing it on October 22, 2007, he explained.

The Convention clarifies the deaf people’s rights to access transport and information technology.

(Source: VNA)