This is a post from BibleTech, a conference focused on the intersection of the Bible and Technology. The conference was held March 25-26th, 2011 in Seattle Washington. Check them out at BibleTechConference.com
Neil Rees of the British & Foreign Bible Society delivered an interesting session about deafness, sign language and Bible translation.
Anyone who has a significant level of hearing loss is considered deaf, representing about 2% of the population. This 2% is further categorized in those who are “post-lingually deaf” (those who become deaf after having learned to speak) and “pre-lingually deaf” (those who were already deaf before they learned to speak).
Writing and Deafness
Because our writing system is largely based on speaking and since our alphabet is primarily phonetic, people who are pre-lingually deaf have difficulty learning to read as well. Books, subtitles and lip-reading are really only good for the post-lingually deaf.
There are two types of languages in the world: spoken languages and sign languages (SLs). Sign languages too have their own lexicon, grammar and dialects. Just as there is no universal spoken language, there is no universal sign language. So, for example, there are differences between American and British sign language and in Ireland it is divided into male and female forms.
Ethnologue.com estimates that there are about 400-500 different forms of sign language in the world yet there is only one complete sign language Bible. Modern technologies are expanding the possibilities for more sign language Bible translations. These include video streaming, avatar systems, cartoons, and animation systems.
Mr. Rees implored the room of developers and other technologists to consider the deaf when developing new Bible translation and study tools.
Speak your mind...