She was sitting in front of the stage, the lights flashing as the people on stage swayed and danced. The bass resonated deep in his chest and the vibrations echoed through his bones. But she wanted more, because music wasn’t just vibrations. It was rhythm, beats and emotions woven into notes.

Soon, however, her heart leapt with joy when she noticed performers off stage, creating a musical experience with hand gestures in Indian sign language. “My first live concert left me with a feeling of peace and calm that one feels after extreme happiness, similar to what hearing people feel,” said A Soumya Rao, a profoundly deaf person who consults for startups technology and NGOs. Profound deafness is actually a shortened form of bilateral profound sensorineural deafness. “Profound means 100% deafness and above,” explains Soumya.

When hanging out with friends at music events, Soumya enjoys music by letting her body absorb the vibrations from the ground and surroundings. But at a recent concert in Delhi, she experienced music performed in sign language for the first time.

The world celebrated the International Day of Sign Languages ​​in the last week of September and India joined the global celebration by achieving a remarkable milestone. Around 2,500 new terms, including English and Hindi words, have been added to the Indian Sign Language (ISL) dictionary. Another aspect of ISL’s expansion has been to facilitate the deaf community’s engagement in one of the fundamental human experiences: music.

“They were signing and I was looking at them to figure out what the song was about. Then for a moment I felt the vibrations and let the sounds travel through the body. There were women dressed in traditional clothing dancing to the beat so we could imitate their movements and dance with them. This whole process was so much fun,” recalls Soumya Rao. This experience not only made her happy, but also allowed her to change her perspective on how music can be experienced by a deaf person.

New entries to the ISL

The expansion of the ISL lexicon has been led by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center (ISLRTC), an initiative dedicated to research, promoting access to education and promoting Indian Sign Language as a linguistic system.

Often, people from the Deaf community communicating via ISL must spell individual letters by hand due to the lack of appropriate signs for niche scientific and cultural terms or new Internet jargon. This latest extension aims to reduce these challenges by providing panels for informal conversations as well as on specific topics.

The new ISL dictionary entries reflect both cultural and technological relevance. They featured English terms like algorithm, Aadhaar card, blockchain and cognitive load, as well as traditional words like Bihu festival. Besides English, the extension also included signs for Hindi words for energy, the Ursa Nebula, estrogen and many other essential terms in science, sports, accessibility and daily infrastructure.

Along with these presentations, Bangalore has also witnessed events that highlight the expressive power of ISL. Beyond Signs: The Power of Gesture, organized by EnAble India – an organization that empowers people with disabilities through skill development and employment – ​​exhibited a mix of artworks, sculptures and short films. One of the highlights was Visual Vernacular, a unique storytelling technique that combines expressive body movements, facial expressions, and ISL to create immersive experiences that can help foster a connection between the deaf and hearing communities.

Music meets gestures

Dr. Alim Chandani, Head of Mission of Hear A Million, an EnAble India initiative, shares his experience at a Diljit Dosanjh concert in 2017 where he had an interpreter in the audience interpreting the concert for him in sign language . Despite obstacles such as performers not being allowed on stage and people from the audience jostling him, the event allowed Mr Chandani to show how access should be granted even in informal settings. He then collaborated with concert organizers AR Rahman Sufi to select a team of performers to sign the songs. He worked with the performers to help them understand the content of the lyrics and after a week of practice, they were ready to convey the music with gestures.

“Music in sign language is like a completely visual representation. We really need to work with deaf experts, hearing interpreters who understand the music and literally decode the meaning of each verse. Performers must be careful to carefully interpret the true intention of the song sung by the singer. Many of the songs are metaphorical and have no direct meaning. The key is to forget the words, focus on the meaning and ensure clarity,” Mr. Chandani said in an e-mail correspondence with The Hindu.

This aspect of visual richness and the intuitive nature of signing is what Kanika Agarwal, a Thane-based deaf educator, loves about ISL. Speech is often arbitrary, with no direct relationship between an object and the word assigned to it, but ISL offers signs that visually capture the essence of the object. “The word TREE does not give any information about the visual or any other aspect of the tree. However, the TREE sign gives a visual description of the tree. So, the correlation between the signs and the visual aspects of the objects is clear,” added Ms. Agarwal.

This philosophy is echoed by CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and ISL performer Shivoy Sharma, who recalls collaborating with Dr Alim during preparations for an AR Rahman concert. Although he was unable to attend the event, he participated in discussions with deaf signers and hearing experts, ensuring the interpretation was visually appealing, musically and culturally appropriate. Mr. Sharma recalls how instrumental sections such as guitar and drum solos are conveyed through body language that reflects the mood of the music, whether happy, romantic or sad. Additionally, when a song transitions from a male to a female voice, performers subtly change their body posture, such as from left to right, to indicate the change.

Speech is often arbitrary, with no direct relationship between an object and the word assigned to it, but ISL offers signs that visually capture the essence of the object.

While interpretation requires adaptability, Shivoy emphasizes the importance of respecting ethical boundaries. It is essential to ensure that interpreters act as neutral linguistic facilitators, conveying the words and emotions of the person they are signing for without introducing personal bias.

“Here, the interpreting profession does not understand the “role” of an interpreter. They are meant to serve as a bridge between two languages. However, many deaf and hearing people themselves are not fully aware of the limitations that apply to the role of an interpreter, which can contribute to confusion,” said Dr Alim Chandani sharing his experience training ISL interpreters.

Need for awareness and community building

Drawing on her experience as a deaf educator, Kanika Agarwal observed a lack of awareness in society, including among families with deaf children. Research shows that in the majority of cases, a deaf child is the first deaf person a family meets. Parents are often pressured by society to fit in and be “normal.” Furthermore, until very recently, even Indian doctors discouraged the use of sign language. They warned that exposure to signs would harm a child’s ability to speak and therefore their success as an individual.

Eager to connect with the deaf community in India, one of the first things Dr. Chandani chose to do after leaving the United States for India was to “mute” his voice even though he speaks very well. “This decision stems from the societal perception that deaf people who can speak and hear are often seen as more successful than those who communicate primarily through sign language. It’s a flawed assumption that vocal ability somehow defines success, and I wanted to challenge that notion. I wanted to show that a deaf person who signs and does not speak can be as successful as any other “normal” person.

A crucial step in breaking this notion is raising awareness and fostering a sense of community among the broad spectrum of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) individuals. This includes encouraging them to learn sign language and embrace the beauty of deaf culture, thereby recognizing the shared experiences of “audism,” he says.

Soumya, who lost his hearing in middle school and spent much of the next 21 years relying on lip reading to communicate, reflects on how managing hospital visits during the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge major. While the masks prevented him from reading lips, it forced him to realize that something was missing in his life. “I was able to realize that what I was missing was the deaf community that I hadn’t been a part of for the 21 years since my hearing loss,” she says.

Luckily, she was introduced to the deaf community in Bengaluru where she not only learned ISL but also observed children’s understanding of bilingual education in English and ISL. “I have been involved for two years now. I am happy to report that the sense of community and belonging has increased, which further boosts morale and the feeling of living as a deaf person. It’s having an inclusive and accessible environment where I don’t have to struggle hard to meet my communication needs,” added Soumya.