While memes may seem like harmless fun, trolling can often go too far. Pakistan’s first deaf engineer, Wamiq Hasan ended up becoming a meme after he made his public appearance at PSL.
Recently, some trolls turned Wamiq Hasan into a meme on Twitter. Wamiq Hasan made a television appearance on Pakistan Super League (PSL) segment ‘Humarey Heroes’. While the segment was aimed at appreciating and highlighting his contributions to society he became a meme over the way he speaks.
Co-Foudner and CTO @DeafTawk Wamiq Hasan at #PSL6 Hamaray Heroes.
Join hands with DeafTawk to build an inclusive society and normalize sign language.#PSL6 #deaftawk #humarayheros #Kkvslq #signlanguage #pakistancricketboard pic.twitter.com/pKtAygoPMy— DeafTawk (@DeafTawk) February 28, 2021
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One Twitter user was quick to call out the jokes that were in bad taste. Making fun of a man that cannot speak properly because he has a hearing impairment is a very shallow act. Part of learning speech requires listening and replicating the sounds we hear others speak.
The man, in face of his disability, beat the odds and made an effort to speak rather than sticking to sign language. This indeed is an exemplary feat.
Saw some people making memes on him, just wanted to tell this guy is the first deaf engineer of pakistan, he can't speak properly but still he's working for deaf community of pak, kindly watch out. pic.twitter.com/mpTm2z6luw
— Saith Abdullah (@SaithAbdullah99) February 28, 2021
Pakistan’s First Deaf Engineer
Not only is this deaf engineer an inspiration for the masses he’s also making an effort to uplift others with disabilities. Wamiq Hasan is the co-founder of ‘DeafTawk’, an on-demand sign language interpretation service in Pakistan and Singapore.
DeafTawk is an app used by thousands of deaf people to conduct basic day-to-day tasks. DeafTawk’s other founders include a blind and partially deaf partner, Ali Shabbar and Abdul Qadeer.
Wamiq, Ali and Qadeer are founders of one of the first few startups that we worked with as part of the @NIC_Pakistan and @JazzXlr8. They came to us with just an idea on how they want to bridge the gap for the deaf community in Pakistan. All three of them are differently abled. https://t.co/tnmUmqrSTD
— Ali Rizvi (@Rizvinator) February 28, 2021
Making fun of someone’s disability is not funny. When it comes to memes and jokes, someone ends up as the butt of the joke, but we need to be more responsible and be mindful of other’s feelings.
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