Indian Sign Language gets to wider audience, thanks to GiftAbled Foundation

Indian Sign language is a rich and vibrant form of communication, one that needs to be promoted more in India, not just among people who are deaf and hard of hearing. Bengaluru-based NGO GiftAbled foundation is among the many organizations working to promote greater awareness about ISL.

GiftAbled is doing this through workshops in Bengaluru and other parts of India. They started this initiative five years ago and collaborate with companies and individuals. They say more people are coming forward which is a good thing.

Recently, they organized a half day workshop for Cisco employees in Bengaluru, where people without disabilities took part as well. The event lasted for over four hours.

Prarthana Kaul, co-founder of GiftAbled, is a sign language interpreter as well and she strongly believes that everyone should learn sign language. .

We are very glad that more companies and individuals are coming forward to learn ISL. We try and promote this amongst companies and individuals. – Prarthana Kaul, Co-founder, GiftAbled Foundation.

Prarthana fondly remembers how Signathon, an event they led last year was a huge success. Prarthana taught sign language to one person who taught it to another 10 people. The chain kept growing!

In September this year, Giftabled organized an event at the Forum Mall signal in Bengaluru on traffic awareness. Many people took part in the event and were taught sign language as well.

Jessy Samuel is the Principal of Sheila Kothavala Institute for Deaf in Bengaluru. She has many deaf students who work with companies.

“A student of mine used to work with IBM. He came and told me that his colleagues learnt ISL for him. He was super thrilled. It is high time that work places promote ISL. It is always good to know what a deaf colleague wants to communicate”, says Jessy.

Prarthana says that once you start learning sign language you wouldn’t have an option but fall in love with it! GiftAbled Foundation hopes to partner with more companies and individuals to make a better and wider impact.

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