Germany · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Deutsche Gebärdensprache — 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 German 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
Germany's sign language is Deutsche Gebärdensprache (DGS) — recognised as an independent language by § 6 of the Federal Disability Equality Act on 1 May 2002, four years after Hesse recognised it first. The Deutscher Gehörlosen-Bund still campaigns for a dedicated sign-language act, because recognition on its own has not put DGS on screens.
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
recognises Deutsche Gebärdensprache as an independent language, in force since 1 May 2002; Hesse had recognised DGS at state level on 10 December 1998.
federal film funding is granted only if a barrier-free version — subtitles for the Deaf and audio description — exists by cinema release; the audio-description requirement dates from 2013.
Germany's transposition of the European Accessibility Act, binding on private products and services since 28 June 2025, with fines up to €100,000; micro-enterprises providing services are exempt.
Obligated buyers: federally funded film production and the cinemas that show it, public and private broadcasters, and — since 28 June 2025 — banks, e-commerce, e-books, transport ticketing, telecoms and every consumer product and service the BFSG covers.
The gap
German compliance is real and technical: barrier-free film versions are a federal funding condition, public broadcasters subtitle most of their output, and since June 2025 the BFSG reaches private products and services with six-figure fines. Almost none of it produces DGS. A subtitle assumes reading fluency in German; for the profoundly Deaf community the first language is signed.
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 BFSG became enforceable on 28 June 2025, with fines up to €100,000 and the private sector inside the duty for the first time. Section 47 FFG already withholds funding from any film without a barrier-free version. Germany is the largest EU market, and the playbook transposes across the single market under the same directive.
Germany transposes the European Accessibility Act, so a partner's playbook here is not confined to Germany — every EU member state carries an equivalent obligation under the same directive.
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 German market dossier, then terms.
Questions