With eye on inclusivity, India launching several initiatives for hearing-impaired on International Sign Language Day`

The Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre in New Delhi will be celebrating the International Sign Language Day-2023 today based on the theme “A World Where Deaf People Everywhere Can Sign Anywhere!”. The Centre which works under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will be unveiling several programmes and initiatives on this day.

The objective of these initiatives is to ensure that deaf people are seen as a part of the natural range of human diversity, and national sign languages are celebrated and used everywhere as part of national societies.

The Centre will launch basic communication skills in Indian Sign Language. This will be an online self-learning course and its primary aim is to foster basic communication skills in Indian Sign Language. What makes it rather distinctive and useful is that it is tailor-made for parents of deaf children, siblings, educators, and individuals interested in acquiring basic knowledge of ISL.

The course has 10 modules, covering 30 essential topics, ensuring a comprehensive grasp of basic ISL communication.

With money and finance playing a pivotal role in the daily lives of people, the Centre will launch 267 signs of financial terms in ISL. These have been jointly developed by ISLRTC, Society General and V-Shesh.

These signs denoting the financial terms have been developed to facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people working in the financial and banking sector. It is expected that this project will help improve the employment prospects of hearing-impaired youth.

A set of 10,000 ISL dictionary terms and an ISL course in Special Schools for hearing impaired will be unveiled.

Launch of a Video Relay Service for the deaf community through whatsapp video call is also on the anvil. This service is a video telecommunication service to allow deaf people to communicate with hearing people via a remote sign language interpreter linked through video communication.

The service offered by this facility can be used in hospitals, government offices, educational institutions, bank, work place, interviews, police station and court etc and is expected to prove helpful for effective communication.

The service will be provided free on Whatsapp No. 8929667579.

The winners of the 6th Indian Sign Language Competition, 2023 will also be felicitated by the Centre. Held for students with hearing disabilities, this national-level competition saw participants showcasing their creativity and knowledge. The winners will be given a trophy and certificate during the Sign Language Day 2023 programme.

September 23 was declared as International Day of Sign Languages by the United Nations. Every year ISLRTC observes the day by bringing together stakeholders including deaf schools, NGOs, activists, educators, and service-providing agencies to create positive awareness about Indian Sign Language among all sections of our society.

The Centre also stresses on this day the need and importance of preserving sign languages as a part of linguistic and cultural diversity.

Among those who will attend the programme will be Pratima Bhoumik, Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment as Guest of Honour.