Taiwan · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Taiwan 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 Taiwanese 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
Taiwan's sign language is Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) — a national language under the Development of National Languages Act, passed 25 December 2018 and in force from 9 January 2019, which names sign language explicitly. In 2020 the Central Epidemic Command Center's near-daily briefings put a TSL interpreter beside the commander, and most of the country saw its sign language every day for the first time.
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
passed 25 December 2018, in force 9 January 2019: national languages include the natural languages and sign languages of Taiwan's ethnic groups; citizens have the right to use them in accessing public services.
near-daily press briefings with a Taiwan Sign Language interpreter and live subtitles; the CECC issued certificates of appreciation to the interpreters when it stood down.
Taiwan's framework disability statute, including information and communication access duties.
Obligated buyers: public services under the National Languages Act, the public broadcaster, and providers under the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act.
The gap
Taiwan's compliance is a right, not a duty: citizens may use national languages in accessing public services, and the 2020 briefings showed the state can deliver TSL when it chooses. Television, film and platforms carry no obligation to sign, and the daily interpreter left with the briefing room. Subtitles are near-universal in Mandarin — which assumes reading fluency in a written language that is not the Deaf community's first.
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 National Languages Act obliges the state to develop and promote its national languages, TSL included, and the 2020 briefings created a public expectation that has not gone away. A partner who makes TSL delivery routine rather than exceptional arrives while the language's status is fresh and the precedent is remembered.
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 Taiwanese market dossier, then terms.
Questions