VietNamNet Bridge - Hearing-impaired foreign tourists should no longer be concerned about visiting Viet Nam.

A guide uses sign-language on a tour of Duc Ba Cathedral.

That’s according to Hoang Thi Minh Thi, director of Smile Tours Service Int. Co. Ltd, whose company has started a tour aimed specifically at deaf tourists.

The guides to this special tour can relate to their clients – they are hearing impaired themselves.

Huynh Quang Dung, Dinh Tuyet Mai, Ho Hai Dang Khoa and Ton Tuan Anh are Viet Nam’s first deaf tour guides.

They learned their new profession through a free training course offered by Thi. The course taught them international sign language, tour guide skills and information on Viet Nam’s history, culture and society.

Teaching them was not always easy, Thi said.

Their vocabulary was very limited and they had minimal knowledge of society and politics. When she tried to teach them some abstract architectural terms, they simply did not understand, she remembered.

However, through hard work and perseverance, the learners overcame their difficulties and have found success.

Hearing-impaired tourists guided by the group said that they had a great time while visiting the country. “During the tours, we visited schools and clubs for the hearing- impaired. We hope to return to Viet Nam and travel to other places in the near future,” said an Australian tourist.

So far, the group has guided three tours for deaf foreign tourists. Destinations have included HCM City and Tien Giang Province’s My Tho City.

Tour guide Dung said that he enjoyed his job. He especially enjoyed being able to travel and work with people who also have hearing difficulties.

He and the rest of the group are keen to show that disabled people can work just as well as everyone else.

Thi said that Dung and his colleagues were studious and could become professional tour guides in the future.

“I am very happy and satisfied with them. In previous tours, I’d go with them. Now I let them go without me. I have full confidence in them,” Thi said.

The idea to start travel tours for deaf people came at the suggestion of an American friend of Thi’s. He wanted to bring deaf Americans to Viet Nam, but couldn’t find any local groups to guide them.

Thi loved the idea and went about turning it into reality. She also was motivated by creating jobs for the deaf, who she felt were marginalised by society.

Despite facing obstacles, Thi was able to establish the training course with the support and encouragement of her friends.

Thi was also careful to note that her company serviced not only the deaf, but all those with disabilities. She hopes Viet Nam will be an attractive destination for all the world’s people, the disabled not least among them.

(Source: VNS)