Italy · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Lingua dei segni italiana — 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 Italian 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
Italy's sign language is Lingua dei segni italiana (LIS). On 19 May 2021 the Republic recognised, promoted and protected LIS and tactile LIS — article 34-ter of the Sostegni decree, converted by Law 69/2021 — making Italy the last EU member state to recognise its national sign language. The Ente Nazionale Sordi carried the bill through decades of legislatures.
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
the Republic recognises, promotes and protects LIS and LIST, recognises LIS interpreters as a profession, and adds €4 million to the fund for the inclusion of Deaf people; in force since 19 May 2021.
conditions incentives and contributions on meeting the needs of people with disabilities, with specific reference to subtitles and audio description; tax-credit applicants deposit both with the Cineteca Nazionale.
found 77.5% of Italian films released in 2024 not usable by people with sensory disabilities, comparing advertised titles against the Moviereading catalogue. An observatory finding, not a statute — cited as the measure of the gap.
Obligated buyers: publicly funded and tax-credited film production, the public broadcaster under its service contract, public administrations under the 2021 recognition, and every private product and service covered by the EU accessibility act since June 2025.
The gap
Italian compliance is a funding condition: Law 220/2016 ties cinema incentives to subtitles and audio description, and the tax credit requires both deposited with the Cineteca Nazionale. Yet an accessibility observatory found 77.5% of Italian films released in 2024 unwatchable for people with sensory disabilities. Produced is not the same as shown; subtitled is not the same as 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 2021 recognition put €4 million into the inclusion fund and recognised LIS interpreters as a profession; the 2016 cinema law already conditions money on accessibility; and the EU accessibility act reaches private services since June 2025. The gap between films that qualify for funding and films that can actually be watched is the market — and it is measured, in public, at four in five.
Italy transposes the European Accessibility Act, so a partner's playbook here is not confined to Italy — 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 Italian market dossier, then terms.
Questions