الإمارات · United Arab Emirates
مرحباً. هذه قصتنا.
We wrote our own sign language down. Sixty Deaf people held the pen.
Access on this page: Signed: Emirati Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
Federal Law No. 29 of 2006 gave people with special needs — since 2017, people of determination — rights in law. But the language itself had no reference: Deaf Emiratis signed differently from emirate to emirate, and the region's institutions were promoting a 'unified' Arab sign language that Deaf communities across the Arab world say they cannot understand. So in 2018 the Zayed Higher Organization, with eight authorities and sixty Deaf people and sign-language specialists, compiled the first Emirati Sign Language dictionary — 5,000 signs, to standardise the language, teach it and train its interpreters — and the Cabinet adopted it. The language is written down. The law is ours. The screens come next.
Emirati Sign Language video — this story, in our language
A named Emirati Deaf creator tells this page's story in Emirati Sign Language. The video is the page, and the text is its transcript's cousin. This video existing is the reason this page is allowed to exist.
Our language has a dictionary and a Cabinet decision.
Now it needs a screen — we are building it.
What do you want to do?
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I want access
Watch.Understand.Belong.
Television, film, and services — in Emirati Sign Language, captions, or audio description.
Go -
I create access
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf signers, interpreters, captioners, audio describers — your work, your name, your income.
Go -
I provide access
One API.Every screen.
Platforms, governments, cinemas, companies — deliver real access with one integration.
Go -
I back access
Host.Sponsor.Invest.
The builders who will put a dictionary of 5,000 signs on the screen — be part of the firsts.
Go
More than one of these can be yours. The access is for you, and you can be paid to help make it.
Access in United Arab Emirates today
The law now says:
People of determination have the right to live with dignity, with access to education, work and services — Federal Law No. 29 of 2006. Emirati Sign Language is the country's reference sign language: a 5,000-sign dictionary compiled with sixty Deaf people, adopted by the Cabinet in 2018, for teaching and for training interpreters.
And we know the exhausting part: a dictionary is not a broadcast duty. No law yet requires a signed bulletin or a captioned film, and the region's 'unified' sign language still competes for the classroom.
We wrote our language down. The delivery comes next — made by us. That is what ally is: Deaf and blind creators, paid to make the access — Emirati Sign Language, captions, audio description — delivered to any screen.
In plain words
The law is on your side. What is missing is the service — and that is what gets built here, with the community.
Why captions alone are not enough → Why sign language
Talk to us
Tell us who you are
Write in your own language. We reply in it.
- Emailpartners@a11y.media
- Video messageSend a signed video — no writing needed
Contact us by form, email, or a signed video message — never voice-only.