The recent rise in the number of cases afflicted with hearing loss in Saudi Arabia has led to the setting up special centers for people with hearing disabilities in different regions of the Kingdom. Specialists attribute this increase due to the lack of awareness of hereditary diseases often resulting from marriage between close relatives, as well as a rise in the number of medical errors during delivery. A female employee at a center in Jeddah for the hearing impaired highlighted the rising number of persons afflicted with hearing loss within a single family which numbered four or five deaf siblings in the center. She attributed this to the family's ignorance on hereditary diseases. She pointed out that many girls who are members of the center but are from outside Jeddah suffer from loneliness and depression, adding that opening centers in different regions is a good step. She also called for the education of society to this malady, especially in the villages and rural areas. Hana Muhammad, another employee said people who have lost their sense of hearing are capable of lip reading. They rely on what the other person is saying by watching his/her lip movements as well as those of the tongue and throat when pronouncing words. She said deaf persons who have been provided with proper care and training since an early age are more adapt at handling their disability. Hana said that there is a unified international encyclopedia in Arabic for sign language, which is revised every year in order to include any new additions. Also, all female teachers undergo six months of training on the new sign language, aside from teaching their pupils on to how to assemble and use hearing aid devices like speakers, touch-pads and the like. Faiza Natto, Chairwoman of the center for the hearing impaired in Jeddah said the centers for the deaf existing in Saudi Arabia has reached three or four in number. She said the club for the deaf in Jeddah is the only one existing in the Kingdom as a club, aside from the Cultural Center in Riyadh and a similar one in the Eastern Province. She added that each of these centers functions independently of the other. Official statistics indicate that there over 500,000 deaf and dumb people in the Kingdom and some government and private authorities wield a variety of efforts to integrate them into society. Meanwhile, Abdullah Aal Tawi, Director General of Social Affairs in Makkah region, said those afflicted with these disabilities are being groomed by his Ministry to integrate into society. He does not think that there is a need for the establishment of special centers for them. __
