Vietnam · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Vietnamese sign languages — 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 Vietnamese 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
Vietnam has three Deaf-community sign languages — Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong, roughly half cognate with each other. None is officially named, but Law 51/2010/QH12 requires sign language in classrooms (Article 27) and on Vietnam Television (Article 43). In a project that closed in September 2022, almost 400 Deaf adults trained as educators and taught nearly 2,000 Deaf children in 20 provinces; the education ministry then authorised their materials nationwide.
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 17 June 2010, in force from 1 January 2011. Article 27: persons with hearing and speaking impairment shall learn in classes using sign language. Article 43: Vietnam Television shall air programmes with Vietnamese subtitles and sign language as regulated by the Ministry of Information and Communications. Article 49: the state regulates national standards on sign language and Braille.
closed September 2022: almost 400 Deaf adults trained as sign-language educators, nearly 2,000 Deaf children in 20 provinces, 4,000 signs and 150 video lessons, 97% examination pass rate; materials authorised nationwide by the Ministry of Education and Training.
ten sign language interpreters in the whole country, per adult-education reporting.
Obligated buyers: Vietnam Television under Article 43, educational establishments under Article 27, information-technology and communication services under Article 43, and the state's sign-language standards duty under Article 49.
The gap
Vietnamese compliance exists on paper and in one classroom project. Article 43 obliges Vietnam Television to broadcast with subtitles and sign language 'as regulated by the Ministry of Information and Communications' — and only a limited number of news programmes have. The interpreter pool has been counted at ten. A duty with no delivery mechanism and no supply is the clearest version of this site's thesis.
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 Deaf-taught curriculum has been authorised nationwide since 2022 and the cohort of trained Deaf educators exists; Article 43 has waited fifteen years for a way to be delivered. A partner who turns that cohort into paid creators, and the law into signed broadcast, starts with a workforce already trained.
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 Vietnamese market dossier, then terms.
Questions