Prof. Lars Willians

AllAfrica.com reported on Lars Willians, a University of Stockholm professor who has been in Uganda since 2001 to oversee the Ugandan Sign Language project.His team has traveled to six areas of the country to film and analyze different signs for possible inclusion in the 2,000-word dictionary that Willians expects to complete soon."We selected only those signs that the deaf communities agreed on," he said.Meanwhile, last Friday in Angola, a sign language dictionary was presented by the board of the local special education school.

When I met Assistant Professor, Lars Willians at UNISE, Kyambogo, he only smiled when I greeted him.It was after I attended a workshop where he was a facilitator that I learnt of his impairment.Lars has an interpreter.

OPTIMISTIC: Prof Lars Willians at Kyambogo
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OPTIMISTIC: Prof Lars Willians at Kyambogo
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When I met Assistant Professor, Lars Willians at UNISE, Kyambogo, he only smiled when I greeted him.It was after I attended a workshop where he was a facilitator that I learnt of his impairment.Lars has an interpreter.Sitting in the office of the chairperson of Uganda Sign Language, UNISE, Lars keeps on smiling and beaming at me although he cannot hear what I am saying.The 56-year-old was asked by the Danish Deaf Association (DDA) to come up with a dictionary for Ugandans with a hearing impairment.The dictionary, which he plans to complete soon, will contain 2,000 words for a start.The Uganda Sign Language project, under which Lars is operating, started in 2000 in Denmark.Lars came to Uganda 2001.It was then that he organised workshops with colleagues from UNISE. "We began training and giving eachother ideas.They gave me ideas on the Uganda sign language, how to analyse signs and language, and prepare the dictionary in our first phrase," Lars says through an interpreter.He then travelled to the pilot districts of Gulu, Lira, Ngora, Kampala, Luwero and Mbarara, where they had identified deaf communities.Lars, also a consultant with the Uganda Sign Language Project, says the team filmed different models and analysed different signs that would be used."We selected only those signs that the deaf communities agreed on and we shall include the face hand, body and shapes with sentences explaining the signs," Lars said.Also a lecturer at the University of Stockholm, Lars got his PhD in sign language in 1994.He basically uses Swedish language.So when he came to Uganda he had to learn Ugandan sign language which he praises. "You have a sign language which interpreters for television and deaf groups.You have a strong deaf association, which is not common in other countries," says Lars.Lars has called for the teaching of Uganda's sign language in all institutions of learning.Lars is married to an actress with a hearing impairement.