ORLANDO, FL — Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, has developed and launched an app for iOS and Android that brings the Bible’s New Testament to life through seven sign languages used in the African nations of Benin, Cameroon-Anglo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, and Togo. The “Sign Language Bible” is now available on Play Store.
The free app gives members of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities access to clear and engaging sign language videos that provide users with access to the New Testament in their preferred language.
“We hope to see these translations impact thousands of Deaf people to know Jesus,” says Mark Stedman, Vice President of Technology at Wycliffe Associates. “After we launched the Sign Language Bible website and began to share it back to our translators on the field, their first question was, ‘When will this be an app, so we can download the chapters to our phones?’ And it was this that motivated us to create the app. Deaf people cannot only watch the Bible but can download and save it on their phones for offline usage.”
The website and app were a joint effort between Wycliffe Associates’ Deaf Owned Translation team, led by Michael Ropp, and the Tech Advance team, led by Shawn Gray.
The teams worked approximately four months, initially launching the Deaf Bible Translation videos at https://slbible.com/. Next, they created the iOS and Android apps as companions to the website, available for download at the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).
As completed Sign Language Bibles become available, Wycliffe Associates will upload them.
The app and website are the newest resources that Wycliffe Associates has developed for the Deaf
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 700 million people (one in every 10) will have disabling hearing loss by 2050.
About Wycliffe Associates
One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.
Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently accelerating Bible translations throughout the world. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org.
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