With a leap of faith, I moved to India from USA in September 2016 to launch a project- Centum-GRO Initiative (Advanced Skills training in New Delhi). I assembled an outstanding team of 9 Deaf experts from USA and India to design a curriculum for a unique course - 'Deaf Empowerment and Leadership' - and implemented it with innovative and deaf-centric teaching methodologies.

- Dr. Alim ChanDAni, Founder of Access Mantra, an accessible Resource and Innovation Centre of the Deaf in India. Dr. Alim's greatest passion is to show the Deaf community that "impossible dreams can become possible." 

Achievements of Access Mantra in the past two years are:

• 550+ Deaf young adults trained from all over India

• 65% current employment rate

• 150 hours worth of content on 'Deaf Empowerment and Leadership'

• 12,000+ Likes on Facebook Page 

• Large scale inclusive community events such as Indian Sign Language Trivia in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore

• Organised several informative gatherings to bring in a collective community such as Deaf Leadership Conclave and Ethics on Professional Interpreter's Code (EPIC) Summit and much more - check our Facebook Page

The Association of People with Disability (APD, India) is transforming the lives of underprivileged people with disability since 1959. Based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, we run extensive programs in rural and urban Karnataka to enable, equip and empower children and adults with a range of disabilities including locomotor, spinal cord injury, speech and hearing, cerebral palsy, and to some extent, mental issues. Till date, we have impacted 500,000+ lives of people with disability. 

Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs

Despite the Right to Education (RTE), many children with disability (CwD) are unable to receive an education because of financial hardship, inaccessibility in mainstream schools, and lack of sensitization to their needs. While there are policies to ensure education for all, implementation models are inadequate. Without comprehensive education, the future of underprivileged children with special needs is impaired. With APD’s Inclusive Education program, we impact the lives of thousands of children while building the capacity of various stakeholders such as parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and government officials.

Speech and Hearing Special Assistance

Children with hearing impairment are part of regular classes where sign language and audio-visual technology are also used to impart education. There is only one language for the hearing impaired. And then there’s Maths, Science, and other subjects. Additional support is provided for subjects and communication skills, an extra 8-10 hour per week. There are 3 special educators for hearing impairment at SIS.

Livelihood Support for People with Disability

Despite the implementation of The Persons with Disability Act, 1995 (revised in 2016), people with disability (PwDs) struggle to get jobs. Presently, there are many skilled and semi-skilled jobs across industries that can be performed by PwDs. But there is a lack of awareness and sensitivity among recruiters, poor job-readiness of the PwDs themselves along with lack of awareness and training in required skills. 

APD works to mobilize marginalized youth with disability, train them through formal and informal courses, and place them in jobs that are suitable to their qualification and ability. We also sensitize employers towards the needs of PwDs for an equitable work environment.

Training

Training is conducted based on the recommendations of the Placement team along with regular ongoing courses.

Foundation Course

• Before any domain training PwDs lacking life-skills go through a 2-month foundation course, a unique job-readiness program from APD. The course involves skilling up on self-management, daily living, basic communication, calligraphy and English language, basic mathematics, sign language, and more.

• The required PwDs receive therapy support as well as aids & appliances. All candidates can access government entitlement schemes such as pension, disability ID cards, transport passes and more.

Employer Led Training (ELT)

As part of this program, APD identifies candidates (through the recruitment unit) and provides them job-appropriate training for placement in the government or private sector. The curriculum is jointly developed with training partners, tailor-made to the needs of selected employers. The training period includes capacity building of the potential employers on a rights-based approach to recruitment, induction and mentoring, to promote a work culture that values diversity.

• BPO ELT: Intensive 8-weeks on-the-job training (OJT) and practical sessions to enhance the candidates’ communication, computer, customer service and life skills.

• Hospitality ELT: Intensive 8-weeks training for the hospitality industry, conducted in collaboration with training centres or academic institutions such as the Presidency College of Hotel Management and YUM Academy.

• Retail ELT: Intensive 8-weeks training to equip trainees on communication, customer interaction, labelling and selling.

ASLI is represent the Interpreters for the deaf in India. The deaf community of India has not had a formal interpreting organization until now. The concept of sign language interpreting as a professional service for deaf persons has yet to take hold in India. The apex organizations for the deaf are already campaigning for this to take place.

There is a lot that ASLI will be doing to support and enable the local organization of the deaf. You have already been working in interpreting albeit with or without formal training for some time now. All persons who have been serving the deaf community selflessly for years by providing interpreting services will now have ASLI to support them in their endeavors by building awareness of the need for interpreters and advocating the need for linguistic access for deaf persons.

It is our aim to have interpreters in each and every district in the country whether they are amateur or professional. Over time, as the concept of interpreting develops and the compliance with the UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is popularized, interpreting will become an important profession.

Mission

• Our aim is to provide the deaf community of India with quality interpreting services, empowering them to live fuller better lives, while providing our members with quality training and opportunities for growth in their profession.

Objectives

• Creating a Registry of Sign language Interpreters

• Providing Training in Interpreting.

• Creating awareness in the general public with regard to interpreters for the deaf.

• Providing continuing education to Interpreters.

• Liaising with international agencies in the field of interpreting

• Conducting workshops and seminars on interpreting.

• Networking with local organizations and NGO’s working with the deaf to promote the use of sign language interpreters.

• Networking with the relevant Govt. departments on the need for deaf persons to have access to interpreters.

• Setting up an institute for the training and support of interpreters.

• Promotion of the profession of Interpreting in India.

• Advocating for the rights of the deaf community to have interpreters.

The Association of Sign Language Interpreters is an Indian not-for-profit organization affiliated with National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and The Deaf Way Foundation. The mandate is to provide a voice for The Deaf of India through the standardization, organization and continued practice of their Indian Sign Language Interpreters — for which no other organization exists. As a start up organization, Marlowe Andreyko was there to take part in creating their identity. 

Indian Sign Language Interpreters Association (ISLIA) started in 2008. Working in the field of Sign Language Interpretation Services. Providing Sign language Interpreters all over India.

ISLIA is a national member of WASLI from India.

The Deaf community is extremely empowered and has started fighting for their rights. There is severe need of interpreters to help translate Deaf persons impassionate arguments while protesting. Many interpreters fail to translate this. This workshop helped to train interpreters. untry” he added. He encouraged young entrepreneurs to come forward to initiate and reach out ISL interpreting facility using web-cam, high-speed internet and other technology innovation in communication.

Mission statement of ISLIA aims to maintain quality of sign language interpreters in India and support the continued growth and development of interpreting as a profession. While doing so, ISLIA will provide international, national, state and local forums with an organizational structure for the continued growth and development of the profession of interpretation and transliteration of Indian Sign Language and English or any other languages in India. ISLIA also aims to create awareness among the hearing and deaf community in India about the successful use of ISL interpreting facilities. For more details please

LEED Pune is dedicated to bring about a positive change to the Deaf Youth in Pune. Developing English Literacy by adapting a Bilingual mode of instruction, building confidence and skill sets and empowering the Deaf youth through various workshops by inviting Deaf Role Models, LEED Pune is taking the lead to make the Deaf youth community realize that access to information, education is not just a Dream but a REALITY.

Major activities launched

• English Literacy for the Deaf in Pune city

• Workshop for Hearing on Communicating with Deaf in collaboration with NGO in Pune. 

• Workshop for Hearing kids age group 3 to 18 on introduction to Deaf and Indian Sign Language in collaboration with Ignatius Church Youth Centre Kirkee Pune 

Major achievements

• Conducted Introduction to English for Deaf Individuals for 6 months 2009 Pune 

• English Literacy Summer sessions for 21 Days for students of Red Cross School for the Deaf, Pune

• Actively involved in English Literacy for the Deaf in Pune

• Actively involved in Empowerment for the Deaf in Maharashtra

• Active involvement in spreading Awareness among hearing and Deaf individuals on deafness, sign language, Deaf issues in Education & society. 

Founded in 1972, Mook Badhir Mandal, is working on education, empowerment, and awareness for Deaf People involving education, awareness, Indian Sign Language (ISL), and career. This NGO is run by experienced deaf leaders and conducts workshops, seminars, art exhibits, deaf sports, deaf tourism, conferences, and much more.

Mission

• What we believe determines how we live

MBM is built on following pillars:

• Boosting education in Indian Sign Language (ISL)

• Promoting sports

• Inculcating cultural and social spirit

MBM focusses on e-Learning a strong Website HUB dedicated to the Education, Empowerment and Awareness for the Deaf People in India:

• ISL Dictionary: Learn Indian Sign Language from the library of videos, fetched after typing in the words of your choice

• Baby ISL: A collection of videos intended for ease of communication between the parents and their deaf children

• Health: For prevention of diseases for the deaf people, awareness on vaccines, cancer, AIDs and pregnancy care are displayed

• News: Latest news updates relating to deaf such as new announcements, conferences, programmes, technologies for deaf, etc.

• Tutorials: Different kinds of guides for the deaf in technology, process and paper work, conveyed via ISL

• Deaf Channels: Shares the the rich deaf culture in India along with various facts and knowledges conveyed in sign language via the videos

MBM also conducts several events and workshops, and national surveys regularly.

Major activities launched

• Primary Education for children in the age group of 5 to 14 

• Remedial Education for School Going Deaf Children 

• Vocational Training for Deaf youth Employment 

Major achievements

• 5 Training Centres (2 in Noida (U.P.) , 1 in Prem Nagar (Delhi), 1 in Hisar (Haryana), 1 in Jaipur (Rajasthan)) 

• Impacted over 2200 deaf children and youth till date 

• Facilitated employment for over 500 youth Employment network of over 70 employers 

• Developed specialized curriculum for deaf youth and trainers 

• Strong pool of deaf trainers 

Training @ NDS

Creation of Specialized Curricula

Desktop publishing/graphic design, hardware and networking, MS Office, English communication, Indian Sign Language, hospitality and workplace readiness for the deaf community in India. Each of these curricula has been developed keeping the needs of deaf learners in mind while also aligning them with the requirements of industry. 

Creation of a pool of trainers/special educators/interpreters for the deaf community: NDS trained trainers are also being employed at other organizations to teach deaf children and youth.

Primary Education

NDS has started a primary education program to attempt to make quality learning accessible to children in the age group of 5 to 14. Learning is facilitated in a nurturing environment through play way methods and visual aids that enable children to develop cognitive, social, and academic skills. 

Supplementary Education

This is a specialized program for school-going school hours at NDS where the focus is to bridge the gap between what is being taught in the school viz-a-viz what students understand. These children are taught through Educomp Smart Class interactive, audio visual medium.

Vocational Training

Innate visual abilities of the deaf are leveraged through use of information technology. NDS follows lingual method wherein a strong language base is developed (Indian Sign Language) and through which other skills are taught in an interactive and participative environment by deaf trainers. Trainings are based on intense market research and are job oriented in nature. Employability quotient is enhanced through industry accreditation of IT training programs.

Industry Engagement

NDS has been actively engaging with the industry to build sensitivity and raise awareness about the deaf through workshops, mentoring programs, collaborative industrial training, employee volunteering and sign languages orientation. Trainings are accredited by industry players. 

For example, all IT trainings (DTP/graphic design, computer networking and hardware and MS Office) are evaluated and certified by NIIT Foundation. Hospitality training is accredited by Shargri-La Eros Hotels. 

The Technical Training Centre for the Deaf is situated in Bangalore Karnataka have ITI trade.