To say AIDS in Kenyan Sign Language requires placing the index
finger and thumb of both hands close to the face, which is
supposed to be a re-creation of the skeletal appearance of a
victim on the verge of death. In other parts of Africa, other
signs are used for the disease. AIDS can be conveyed by
pretending to pluck clumps of hair out of one's head. Or by
forming the letter A with both hands. Or by running one's
fingers down the center of one's torso to indicate extreme
slenderness. Certainly most deaf people across Africa know there
is an awful disease out there. But their knowledge is very
limited. When it comes to education campaigns and prevention
efforts, deaf Africans and other disabled people across the
continent have been largely forgotten. ''AIDS is talked about so
much in your world,'' Dominic O. Majiwa, a regional director for
Africa at the World Federation for the Deaf, said using a sign-
language interpreter. ''Hearing people know all about it. But we
deaf people often don't get the information