There are approximately 600,000 individuals in South Africa who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as their first language. More than 70% of these individuals are profoundly Deaf, so SASL becomes a visual solution for those who cannot read or write. To make the Bible available to the Deaf in South Africa, a team of Deaf translators are working to translate the written English Bible into SASL in video format – a Visual Bible for the Deaf.

What the Deaf translators are actually producing is more like a study Bible in South African Sign Language -- filming each Bible story translation, together with an introduction, as well as questions and answers to each story being translated. We pray this approach will have a huge impact on the largely unchurched Deaf population.

Everything that has been translated so far can be found here.

When asked about how the visual Bible for the Deaf has been received, Agnes Kunene shared,

“they’ll always say, “wow I never thought of it this way!” You get goosebumps when you see it in your own language. Many Deaf people’s hearts have been touched because they now suddenly have so many questions that they never had before. So it aids true understanding of the Bible.”

We are grateful that the disciples story set in South African Sign Language was launched on 23 March 2023. They will now start on the next story set.

Other countries in southern Africa are also starting to do Bible Translations in their various sign languages. Hands with Words and the respective Bible Societies have been doing surveys to assess the needs. Some countries, like Botswana and Zimbabwe, have already had training in translation and have started work already.