After IPL, This Platform Is Making T20 World Cup More Inclusive

The swinging deliveries of Mitchell Starc that rattled the stumps of batters in the knockout matches of the Indian Premier League were sights to behold. Equally remarkable were the matches interpreted in Indian Sign Language on Star Sports in this edition.

Just as the much-trolled speedster's redemption by returning to his menacing form was a highlight of the 2024 IPL, the inclusion of Indian Sign Language for accessibility was a welcome and truly satisfying change.

Thanks to India Signing Hands, who was part of the initiative to ensure that the broadcasting becomes more inclusive. The platform has recently announced its collaboration to make the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 accessible for the community, with matches interpreted in the Indian Sign Language being available on both Disney+ Hotstar and Star Sports 3.

"Growing up in the 60s as a deaf child born to hearing parents, I faced the same issues that almost every differently abled child goes through even today," Alok Kejriwal, founder of ISH, says.

The World Health Organization estimates that in India there are approximately 6.3 crore people who are suffering from significant auditory impairment, according to its website. Literacy is a big challenge for the community, as schools that can cater to children with such disabilities are limited.

Founded on April 24, 2017, ISH started out as a news accessibility platform for people with speech and hearing impairments, as well as children of deaf adults or CODAs.

People with hearing impairments constitute most of the team, which includes anchors, writers, video editors and graphic designers. "These individuals are equally passionate, if not more, about providing free access to news and information to everyone,” Kejriwal said.

For a very long time, DD News was the only news channel that offered news bulletins for individuals with speech and hearing impairments since it launched its weekly sign language news bulletin in 1987.

Even after privatisation, there have been several initiatives taken up by news channels for inclusivity — India TV made sign interpretations of its crowd favourite show, Aap Ki Adalat, available on its YouTube channel in 2023. But initiatives with the focus of making news accessible to the community have been sparse. 

In February 2020, the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre, under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, had released a list of institutions that impart education to deaf children across India. The directory had 37 names. This added to issues related to news and information consumption for people with hearing impairments, which led Kejriwal to start ISH.

"Most of the news or information is circulated in spoken or written form, which is inaccessible to those who rely on sign language and cannot read or write clearly," he told NDTV Profit in an interview. "This lack of accessibility has further marginalised the deaf community, who were already striving to achieve equal status with their hearing peers."

ISH makes news and movies accessible to people from the community, through its website and social media handles. It also offers courses on its education vertical ISH Shiksha. These include classes on the Indian Sign Language for anyone above the age of 18 years, as well as a course on the English language. 

"My father is a lawyer and so, news would be playing at our home every night and the entire family would have dinner together while watching prime-time news," Kejriwal said. "I used to feel somewhat excluded since everyone else could hear the news, while I had to rely on reading the ticker or just watching the visuals to understand what was going on."

“I moved on to reading newspapers to get my news, but a majority of the deaf population struggles with reading comprehension, so it's not the best option for us," he said.

A lack of information in the age of disinformation is another challenge that several hearing-impaired individuals face. "In India, disinformation and misinformation are serious problems for everyone, but they are especially challenging for people with hearing or speech impairments," Kejriwal said.

"Since none of the mainstream news outlets have accessibility for sign-language users, there are no reliable sources of information for us. This leads them to rely on second-hand information from their peers or other members of society, which can lead to misinformation,” he said.

Even social media, which has now become a key source of information, is not very user-friendly for people with hearing impairments. This makes it hard for them to understand and verify information, increasing the risk of falling for false information and scams, according to Kejriwal.

Against this backdrop, the Lok Sabha election became a tricky terrain. Even the Election Commision of India launched its 'Myth vs Reality Register' platform to restrict the spread of misinformation and retain the integrity of the electoral process. And ISH News has also been doing its bit to make information accessible to people from the community. 

"At ISH News, we maintain an unbiased stance towards all political parties. Our agenda was clear from the beginning, we will simply translate the manifestos of various parties into Indian Sign Language, without including any of our opinions and make this information available to our viewers," Kejriwal said.

This has empowered deaf individuals to make informed decisions and vote according to their own choices, he said. "Since the launch of our channel in 2017, many deaf individuals voted for the first time in their lives. This milestone is one of our proudest achievements."

But the latest feather in its cap has been its partnership with Star Sports to make the IPL accessible. The platform first approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2021. Negotiations and discussions with Star Sports worked out in December 2023, leading to a collaboration. And in 2024, IPL was aired live on the sports channel, with Indian Sign Language interpretation in collaboration with ISH. 

"As they say, nothing unites our country like cricket and Bollywood. ISH had been making movies accessible through Indian Sign Language interpretation for some time now, so cricket was my next aim. I've always loved watching cricket and a lot of deaf people also enjoy it, even though we can't hear the commentary or the crowd," Kejriwal said.

He gives credit to the Star Sports team for giving this idea a platform as big as IPL and for allowing it to grow even bigger by continuing this association for the T20 World Cup. Kejriwal would like to see this initiative extend to mainstream sports news broadcasts and even entertainment.

ISH majorly depends on revenue from its YouTube channels and partnerships with brands, networks and movie producers. "Free and easy access to knowledge, information and entertainment is the cornerstone of everything that we do because I truly believe in the potential it can unlock within the deaf community,” Kejriwal said. 

Some of ISH's upcoming goals include enhancing the quality of life within the deaf community by increasing access to knowledge, information and even entertainment and help them become contributors to the society and the country's economy, he said.

"We welcome collaborations with any individuals or institutions that wish to make their services or products accessible for hearing and speech impaired individuals."