Deaf people rely on sign language interpreters for access to spoken Urdu, which is the national
language of Pakistan. However, they cannot depend on interpreters every day in life mainly due to the
high costs and the difficulty in finding and scheduling qualified interpreters. Such was the rationale
against which the Project “ICT Assisted Learning Tools for the Deaf in Pakistan” was set. However,
even before one would begin to work on PSL based technology assisted learning solutions for the
deaf, there was a need to collect a comprehensive body of data on Pakistan Sign Language (PSL)
that is available to date in order to identify the standardized PSL symbols.
Central to this study has also been the desire to build a scenario of PSL in the context of the primary
users (Pakistani deaf). The demographic characteristics of the hearing impairment sector in Pakistan,
indicate the primary target audience of the final ICT product of the Project.
As part of Phase 1, this particular study has attempted to collate Pakistan Sign Language