Sign language frees Cambodian deaf from 'prison'

This photo taken on October 15, 2013 shows deaf Cambodian students training at a hairdresser's shop in Phnom Penh. -AFP

PHNOM PENH: At a hairdresser's shop in the Cambodian capital, there is none of the usual chit chat you might expect when getting a haircut -- because the barbers are all deaf.

They have graduated from the only education course for deaf adults in Cambodia, where the vast majority of people with hearing problems never had the opportunity to learn sign language.