It’s nearly unthinkable that translated verses might be lost. And yet, more than 18,000 verses were missing from the celebration of sign language Bible progress.
Most of the verses had been translated and shared in local sign language communities. While these verses were generally counted toward our translation goals, they could not be attributed to specific sign languages. And they had yet to be shared globally. Nearly a third of the completed verses had yet to be counted or shared at all.
As a result, some Deaf communities were missing out on full access to Scripture already translated into their sign languages. Likewise, Deaf translators and sign language interpreters were unable to tap into these verses as a resource for accelerating future translations.
To solve this problem, a team from Deaf Bible Society created a plan to engage one by one with sign language translation teams across the world. They wanted to find verses lost between translation and distribution.
And so the global treasure hunt began.
Collaboration leads to questions and clues
If there’s a hero in this story, it is collective, not individual. God is raising up Deaf workers to change the trajectory of sign language Bible access for their own communities. The international network of Deaf Bible advocates is growing. And, Deaf teamwork is gaining momentum toward the goal of Bible access in more 350 sign languages.
An approach preferred by many Deaf communities is Chronological Bible Translation (CBT). Rather than following the traditional order of books from Genesis to Revelation, CBT traces a narrative arc—chapters and verses are spliced and integrated. For example, the Christmas story includes Scriptures from Matthew 1, Luke 1, and Luke 2.
The chronological approach makes it harder to account for chapters and verses associated with Book-by-Book (BBB) translation, which is the basis of the All Access Goals.
The suspected gap between translation and distribution raised questions. How much Scripture has actually been translated into sign languages, including CBT and BBB? What would it take to account for this progress?
In addition to storing completed Scripture videos on computer hard drives, some communities share the videos on devices such as tablets, DVDs, and memory cards. Many struggle with video uploading to make the videos accessible globally in the Deaf Bible app. Unstable Internet access compounds their struggle.
So, more questions: What would make video uploading processes more visual and intuitive to Deaf translators? How might we overcome unstable Internet connections that cause delays in uploading for Deaf Bible access?
Innovations expand Deaf Bible access
The Deaf Bible app is the largest library of sign language Scripture reaching Deaf communities worldwide. But the app’s strength also presented a challenge. Every verse in the Deaf Bible requires data tagging. The tags help users find verses and play a part in training A.I. models to locate sign language gestures.
When the Deaf Bible Society team began their treasure hunt, they learned that many videos were waiting up to eight months to be tagged. The tagging process was cumbersome and didn’t work well for chronological translations.
The prospect of finding lost treasure led to innovations that improved the Deaf Bible app. Now, Deaf translators all over the world can tag verses directly and easily using visual training resources. Videos can be efficiently uploaded and accessible in the Deaf Bible as soon as they are completed.
Eventually, six months of work revealed 18,000 verses of sign language Scripture—more than enough to fill two New Testaments. We celebrate this evidence of Deaf Bible progress and access for over two dozen sign language communities. The greatest gains benefit eight African sign language communities that include 1.9 million people in Burundi, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The technology innovations also benefit future work by preventing delays between translation and distribution. So, the life-changing message of the Bible can spread farther and faster to reach the hands and hearts of Deaf communities.
