Over 70 million people in the world use sign languages as their “first” or “heart” language. Over 400 sign languages exist in the world today with each country having a unique one. Only 10% of the 70 million have any scripture and those that do have very little.
No Sign Language has a full Bible yet although American Sign language (ASL) comes closest and has a complete New Testament.
United Bible Societies is working closely with international partners to help meet the significant scripture needs of this unreached people group.
There are currently 35 ongoing Sign Language Projects facilitated by national Bible Societies around the world and many more are in the planning stages. This work has the potential to impact over 12 million Deaf people and will continue to develop as Bible Societies and their partners invest in training and support for the growing number of Deaf translation teams.