Pakistan

Voice for the voiceless: When hands tell a story

Pakistan’s first sign language digital dictionary launched.

Our Correspondent January 24, 2015

Lack of facilities: 1.25m children in Pakistan are deaf. Of these, less than 2% have access to education. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: A digital learning resource developed to bridge the existing gap in educational materials for those with hearing disabilities was launched here on Thursday night.

There are an estimated 1.25 million deaf children in Pakistan, yet only two per cent of them attend schools. The reason behind most deaf children missing out on schooling is the lack of special schools, and more importantly, lack of a developed sign language for deaf people.

Family Education Services Foundation (FESF), a Karachi-based organisation which is helping deaf children realise their dreams through its Deaf Reach Schools, undertook the initiative and develop ed‘Pakistan Sign Language’ (PSL) and other digital learning resources for the deaf.

FESF, in collaboration with ILM Ideas, developed a digital PSL lexicon with 5,000 words and phrases which was launched on Thursday evening.

“There is no standard universal sign language in the world because a sign language comes from the grassroots and hence is very indigenous to each country,” said FESF Executive Director Richard Geary at the launch.

The journey behind PSL lexicon started from an informal centre for about 15 deaf students in Karachi 25 years ago to seven Deaf Reach Schools in Sindh and Lahore.

The dictionary contains 5,000 words in English and Urdu and their signs. It also has signs for Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal and other indigenous words.

A documentary on the story of FESF and PSL was also screened at the launch.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2015.