Singapore · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Singapore 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 Singaporean 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
Singapore's sign language is Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) — the Deaf community's own, not yet named in any law. The Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf) trains and supplies the country's interpreters and has pressed for interpreters and subtitles on every national broadcast since Singapore ratified the CRPD in 2012. A government study on recognising SgSL as the official sign language has been underway since 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
since April 2020, TV broadcasts of significant national and public interest, such as the National Day Rally and Budget speeches, must be accompanied by SgSL interpretation; stated in the government's parliamentary reply of 20 March 2023, which also confirms a study on recognising SgSL as Singapore's official sign language is underway.
Singapore's national policy framework for inclusion and accessibility to 2030, led by the Ministry of Social and Family Development.
the basis on which SADeaf has pressed for interpreters and subtitles on all national broadcasts.
a community-run relay through a central pool of SgSL interpreters, for everyday services.
Obligated buyers: broadcasters for national-significance events under the MDDI requirement, public agencies under the Enabling Masterplan 2030, and — once recognition lands — whatever the new instrument reaches.
The gap
Singapore's compliance is targeted and thin: SgSL interpretation is required on broadcasts of national significance since April 2020, and the Enabling Masterplan 2030 promises access to information. Everything else — the news, films, streaming, services — carries no duty at all. With fewer than seventy interpreters in the country, the promise cannot be met by booking people; it can only be met by a platform.
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
Recognition is under active study; whoever has SgSL delivery running when it lands sets the standard. The community launched its own video relay service in 2025, so demand and the interpreter pool are already organised under one roof. Singapore is small enough to do end to end, and referenced across the region.
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 Singaporean market dossier, then terms.
Questions