This project forms an integrated part of a new civil initiative in Romania, started by the Senzor Foundation (Satu - Mare) in co-operation with the University of Partium (Oradea). The Senzor Foundation has been established in 1999 in order to help hearing impaired in their special social, cultural and educational needs. The aim of the Foundation is to offer support to the social integration of the deaf.

To our knowledge, this is the first such no-governmental organization in Romania, which emerged as a response to pressing social needs. Ten years after the revolutionary changes which swept Eastern Europe it is becoming more and more clear that in certain respects we are not exactly heading to the right direction.

In Western Europe equity has long ago become a household concept. Preoccupations to combat social exclusion are at the very core of public life. By contrast, in the countries from the Eastern part of the continent affected by the communist past a new culture and cult of inequality is emerging.   Inequality is justified and reinforced by all means -economically, politically and ideologically – as a perquisite of successful capitalist development and of achieving prosperity. In such circumstances, the situation of disadvantaged social groups – such as the homeless, the unemployed and the handicapped – is becoming increasingly precarious in the absence of an adequate legal and institutional framework to protect their rights and interests.

The situation of persons with hearing disability is distinct – and distinctively vulnerable- even among the various categories of handicapped. Social exclusion of the deaf has strong roots in the mentality at individual, group, community and societal levels, generating overt and covert, formal and informal  discrimination. The core manifestations of such negative attitudes have one very important source, which is probably also a consequence of the homogenizing nature of past communist ideological and political practices: namely, the inability to accept difference and to acknowledge people who are different as equal partners in life, who deserve the same dignity and recognition.

The individuals with hearing disability suffer serious disadvantages also as a consequence of hard communicational barriers between them and the rest of society. For many deaf, sign language is the only accessible mean of communication, but most hearing people are not familiar with this visual language. There is therefore a strong need for professional interpreters to serve in public offices and agencies. Although this need have been officially recognized recently by the Romanian government, in practice very little has been done to train and appoint such interpreters.

The situation is particularly worrying as far as the availability of information to deaf is concerned. Due to the lack of special communicational arrangements (particularly the absence of sign language, and teletext- translation), most of  the television programs transmitting audio- information (news, documentaries, interviews etc.) are not available to deaf.

Arguments of financial and technical nature are usually invoked to justify this absence The deeper causes are however rooted in the mentality of population. Most hearing people do not know and are not preoccupied to learn how to relate correctly to a deaf person and what should be done to communicate effectively. Decision- makers do not perceive the problem in its complexity and do not have a coherent vision concerning its solution. Deaf are generally treated without regard to the specificity of their situation and to the resulting communicational difficulties encountered.

This general outlook is reflected by the absence of special media policies  for deaf and the lack of  television programs  designed for them. Television companies have to face a serious internal competition and therefore are mainly preoccupied to satisfy the expectations of large social groups who form the greater part of their potential audience, rather than to adopt costly and technically difficult solutions for the needs of small minority groups, like the deaf. Visual media leaders also fear that the implementation of special measures might be perceived as non-convenient by part of the hearing population and might thus reduce the level of popularity of their television stations.

My research aims to evaluate to what extent hearing impaired in Romania are prevented from access to information transmitted by audio-visual means and what are the resources to be used in order to ameliorate the situation. I have proposed to take an inquiry of the main social factors which determine the exclusion of deaf from access to television programs in Romania and how  is this exclusion caused

- to improve understanding  what communicational barriers encounter deaf in the Romania visual media

- to describe and measure incidences of lack of availability of television transmitted information to people with hearing disability

- to identify the ways and means promoting access of deaf to the television programs

- to find out how best to involve excluded people, as well as the public and private social actors concerned, in the process of identifying exclusion and promoting inclusion

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