Meghalaya Signbank mobile app of the Office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities won the e-NorthEast Award 2023 for Learning and Education.
The prestigious award was conferred at the award ceremony jointly organized by the Council for Social and Digital Development (CSDD), Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), and North East Development Foundation in Guwahati on November 25.
The app provides users with a complete library of Meghalaya Sign Language signs and gestures for successful communication. It covers everything from everyday sentences to expert vocabulary.
Social Welfare Commissioner and Secretary Pravin Bakshi in a statement today said the user-friendly app interface allows users to search for and make signs in real-time, making it simple to express themselves spontaneously. It app facilitates real-time conversations with both deaf and hearing individuals, fostering inclusivity.
“Users can type text messages, and the app instantly converts them into finger spelling sign language, allowing for swift communication via text. Some of the features included are, when users write English/Khasi/Garo words, the matching sign appears in video format,” he said.
The app includes signs from different regions within Meghalaya, showcasing the dialectical richness of the language. The Lexical entries are classified, making it simple to locate signs relating to specific topics. Cultural nuances are preserved by including socio-cultural phrases and local locale.
The Meghalaya SignBank initiative was a collaborative effort initiated by the office in partnership with the National Informatics Center (NIC) and Dr. Melissa G. Wallang, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the North East Regional Institute of Education, a unit of NCERT, Shillong, and the deaf community members and sign language experts of Meghalaya.
