Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot Virtually Releases‘3rd Edition of Indian Sign Language Dictionary with 10,000 Terms’

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot virtually released the “3^rd edition of the Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary with 10,000 terms (including 6,000 earlier terms)”today in a virtual programme. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar graced the occasion as Guest of Honour. The Dictionary has been brought out by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), an autonomous Institute under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

Applauding the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) for bring out such a valuable Dictionary, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot said that it was a proud moment to witness the Tableau of ISLRTC in the Republic Day Parade on Rajpath, Delhi this year. He said that the 1^st edition of the ISL Dictionary was launched on 23^rd March 2018 with 3000 terms and the 2^nd edition with 6000 terms (including earlier 3000 terms) was launched on 27^th February 2019. Now the 3^rd edition of the ISL Dictionary released today contains total 10,000 terms of everyday use, academic terms, legal & administrative terms, medical terms, technical terms and agricultural terms. The Dictionary also contains regional signs used in different parts of the country. He affirmed that the Union Government is fully committed to the overall welfare of Divyangjan of our country and several new initiatives have been taken and several new schemes have been launched for Divyangjan including reservation of seats in educational institutions and also in jobs during past seven years.

In his address Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar said that the ISLRTC under DEPwD is doing remarkable job for the welfare of Hearing Impaired persons and they are running many Courses also to educate and enlighten them. He hoped that this Dictionary with 10000 terms will fully serve its purpose

The ISL Dictionary with 10,000 terms is the culmination of an innovative 4 year project that was initiated in November 2016 by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), an autonomous Institute under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. The 1^st Edition of the ISL Dictionary was launched on 23^rd March, 2018 with 3000 terms and the 2^nd Edition with 6000 terms (including earlier 3000 terms) was launched on 27^th February, 2019.

The 3^rd Edition of the ISL Dictionary contains a total of 10,000 terms of everyday use, academic terms, legal & administrative terms, medical terms, technical terms and agricultural terms. The videos contain the sign, the English term for the sign and pictures where relevant. The Dictionary also contains regional signs used in different parts of the country.

The Dictionary has been made with the full involvement of the Deaf community by ensuring that only Deaf experts have provided the signs for the Dictionary. Additionally, the signs in the Dictionary have been validated by Deaf experts from across India in three National Workshops conducted during 7^th – 9^th February, 2018, 22^nd – 24^th January, 2019 and 3^rd – 6^th March, 2020.

Since the launch of the 1^st Edition in 2018, the ISL Dictionary has been utilized by special educators, ISL interpreters, parents of children with hearing disabilities, professionals in the field, organizations working with people with hearing disabilities as well as by the general public. The Dictionary is also being used as a resource to develop educational content for children with disabilities and speech/text-to-sign and sign-to-speech/text machine translation software. The ISL Dictionary is a crucial resource for promoting awareness about ISL, facilitating communication and providing better accessibility services to persons with hearing disabilities, and thus is a necessary step in realizing the goals of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.