Dates: 2023
Principal Investigator: Dr. Hamzah Luqman
Description: Hearing loss affects a significant part of the world’s population. According to the World Report on Hearing published by The World Health Organization, 5.5% of the global population suffer from hearing loss with the majority living in developing countries. The deaf rely on sign language as their primary means of communication. However, few people know sign language which makes it difficult for the deaf to communicate with others resulting in their isolation in the community. Sign language is a visual language expressed by manual and non-manual gestures. Manual gestures involve hand movements whilst non-manual gestures involve mouthing, facial expressions, head and body movements. Sign language is not universal, and each country has its own sign language. Sign languages vary even with countries that share the same spoken language, for instance American sign language and British sign language differ drastically.