Chile · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Lengua de Señas Chilena — pending How this page is tested
This page in sign language
Signed end to end by a Deaf creator, credited by name. International Sign on the global site; your national sign language on your country page.
ally is a platform where creators make sign language, captions and audio description — and one API delivers it to any screen. We are looking for the partner who will build the Chilean operation with us.
Why we are looking for a partner
One partner video — spoken, captioned and signed by a creator we already work with. It is shared across every open-market page. We do not fake a local signer to look established here.
The people
Chile's sign language is Lengua de Señas Chilena, declared by Ley 21.303 on 15 January 2021 the natural, original language and intangible heritage of Deaf people and recognised by the State as their official language. Article 25 of Ley 20.422 has required subtitles and sign language on emergency broadcasts, national addresses, presidential debates and public campaigns since 2010, and the courts have enforced it against the channels in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
In plain words
Below is who lives here and what reaches them. Every number on this page is a research seed, not an audited claim — we mark them, rather than publish numbers we cannot yet stand behind.
Why captions alone do not close this gap → Why sign language
The mandate
enacted 15 January 2021, published 22 January 2021: Chilean Sign Language is the natural, original language and intangible heritage of Deaf people; the State recognises it as their official language; replaces Article 26 of Ley 20.422.
public campaigns financed with public funds, electoral propaganda, presidential debates, national broadcasts, emergency information and news blocks during emergencies must be transmitted with subtitles and sign language.
2019: confirmed the ruling against channels that did not sign the Arica climate emergency; 2021: ordered channels to broadcast pandemic information with subtitles and sign language; 2023: unsigned coverage of the war in Ukraine breached Deaf viewers' equality before the law.
Obligated buyers: every television and audiovisual outlet under Article 25, the four ANATEL news channels under the CNTV calendar, public bodies under Ley 21.303's promotion duty, and health services under the same law.
The gap
Chilean compliance is litigated, not delivered. The duty is precise and the courts have upheld it three times, each time for one category of broadcast — an emergency, a pandemic, a war. Nothing has turned the duty into routine, and the CNTV's news-interpretation calendar covers the four ANATEL channels' bulletins and no more. Subtitles assume reading fluency in Spanish; LSCh is the Deaf community's first language.
What we bring
These are patterns, not promises — each one happened somewhere, and each carries its source. The place is abstracted because the pattern is what transposes.
Pattern
A replicable template: the ordinance language, the budget logic and the service behind it travel together. Any city can copy it.
Two city ordinances — one on healthcare accessibility, one on cinema accessibility — have passed first reading, with ally as technical partner.
Receipt: Parañaque City Council records
Pattern
The platform exists before the first contract. Buyers pay for a service, not for research.
ally's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact
Pattern
Real usage, real feedback, and the model for any school or district that wants signed content on what students already watch.
A telco-funded 2021 pilot brought the platform to a Deaf school community of about 800 users.
Receipt: company fact
We publish our signals — including the zeros — on the impact page.
The partnership
The structure is a licensed market operation, built with the local community. Terms are discussed directly.
The playbook
The partner
Operators with standing in accessibility, media, telecom, or government services. Deaf-led organisations and entrepreneurs are explicitly welcome — the best operator of an accessibility market may come from the community itself. Investors are welcome alongside an operator, or to introduce one.
Why now
The 2021 law is fresh and the court record is the strongest in Latin America. A partner who can deliver Chilean Sign Language at scale gives the channels a way to comply before the next ruling — and the regulator a supplier to point to.
Next step
Write to us — by form, by email, or with a signed or spoken video message. From there: an introductory call, an NDA, the Chilean market dossier, then terms.
Questions