Egypt · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Egyptian Sign Language — 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 Egyptian 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
Egypt's sign language is Egyptian Sign Language — recognised by Article 19 of Law No. 10 of 2018 as a language of instruction and a medium of public services, in the most populous Arab country and the one that produces most of the region's film and television. The same law obliges state broadcasters to interpret major bulletins and official addresses, and the courts and police to provide interpreters. A National Council for Persons with Disabilities, created by Law 11 of 2019, enforces it.
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
issued 20 February 2018, replacing the 1975 rehabilitation law. Article 19: Egyptian Sign Language as a language of instruction for Deaf students and a medium for accessing public services; state broadcasters to interpret major news bulletins and official addresses; courts and police to provide interpreters; a certified-interpreter register at the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
the State guarantees the health, economic, social, cultural, entertainment, sporting and educational rights of persons with disabilities, and adapts public facilities to their needs.
the enforcement and oversight body for Law 10/2018.
Obligated buyers: state broadcasters under Law 10/2018, courts and police, public services under Article 19, and every entity the National Council reaches; film and streaming by no duty yet.
The gap
Egyptian compliance is real at the state broadcaster and absent everywhere else. The daily bulletin is signed; the films and series Egypt exports to every Arab market are not, and no law says they must be. The Ministry of Social Solidarity's register of certified interpreters is small against a Deaf population counted in the millions. Egyptian Sign Language is also the most widely seen in the region, which makes the gap here a gap for the whole Arabic-speaking screen.
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 law is seven years old and the enforcement body five; the state has shown it will sign the bulletin. The commercial screen — Egypt's real export — is untouched, and whoever makes Egyptian Sign Language routine on it sets the standard for the Arabic-speaking world.
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 Egyptian market dossier, then terms.
Questions