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India’s first language dictionary launched

23.03.2018

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment launched First Indian Sign Language Dictionary. At present, it consist of 3000 words, new words would be added with the passage of time. The dictionary has been developed by Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre (ISLR&TC) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). It would benefit deaf and hearing communities to bridge communications barriers. During the launch, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot said that the basic aim is to give Deaf people the constitutional right to speech and opportunity of freedom of expression and also bringing them into the main stream of the society. He said that soon many new words will be added in this dictionary. The ISL dictionary has focused on providing more information in Indian Sign Language. He hoped that more and more people use this dictionary and get the benefit of learning Indian Sign Language.

For last one and a half years, ISLR&TC has been working to complete its project of developing the Indian Sign Language Dictionary. As per the census 2011, there are 50, 71,007 Deaf people and 19, 98,535 with speech disability in India. ISLRTC has developed an ISL Dictionary for Deaf people and Hearing people, offering them the maximum words to learn and expressing their feelings, ideas etc. ISL dictionary consists of various categories of words. The Department of Social Justice & Empowerment is entrusted with the empowerment of the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society. The Ministry has been implementing various programmes/schemes for social, educational and economic development of the target groups. As a result, there has been considerable improvement in the welfare of these groups.

The English and Hindi terms for the dictionary will also help deaf children to learn English. The ISL dictionary consists of words of five categories. First category includes terms that are used in everyday communication. The videos contain the sign and the corresponding English term. Second category includes videos for 237 legal terms help explain complicated legal terminology like “Affidavit”, “Acquittal”, etc. That are used in various legal situations. Third category is Academic Terms which will help deaf children understand complex academic concepts, the academic dictionary contains explanations for terms like “Nervous System”, “Rotation” and “Revolution”, etc. The words are from various subjects like Physics, Geography, Biology, Maths, etc. This category contains 229 videos for 212 terms. Fourth category includes 200 sign videos for 200 medical terms will help the deaf community to better understand medical terminology used in hospitals and in medical situations. Last category has 206 videos of sign and explanations in ISL for 204 technical terms that are used in vocational training or in computer courses.

Tags : Sign Language Dictionary Launch

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