India’s first sign language dictionary of 3000 words launched

The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment has launched India’s first Sign Language Dictionary of 3000. The dictionary has been developed by Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre (ISLR&TC) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). This dictionary is available in both print and video formats. It will help to bring uniformity in sign languages which are used by differently abled people especially people with hearing or speech impairment.

Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary

ISL dictionary consists of various categories of words for example legal terms, medical terms, academic terms, technical terms and daily use words. It also contains videos with subtitles and focuses on providing more information in ISL. It has English and Hindi terms to help deaf children to learn English. The ISL dictionary consists words of five categories:

• Everyday Terms: It includes terms that are used in everyday communication. The videos contain the sign and corresponding English term.
• Legal Terms: It includes videos for 237 legal terms help explain complicated legal terminologies that are used in various legal situations.
• Academic Terms: It contains 229 videos for 212 terms to help deaf children understand complex academic concepts. It has words from various subjects like Physics, Geography, Biology, Maths, etc.
• Medical Terms: It includes 200 sign videos for 200 medical terms will help deaf community to better understand medical terminology used in hospitals and in medical situations.
• Technical Terms: It includes 206 videos of sign and explanations in Indian Sign Language (ISL) for 204 technical terms that are used in vocational training or in computer courses.

Significance

As per 2011 census, there are 50,71,007 deaf people and 19, 98,535 with speech disability in India. The ISL Dictionary aims to remove communications barriers between deaf and provide more information in ISL. It also aims to give deaf people constitutional right to speech and opportunity of freedom of expression and also bringing them into the main stream of society. Soon many new words will be added in it.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2018