Researchers push for ISL as official language to aid deaf education in India

Around one in five (over 19%) of India's deaf and hard-of-hearing children were out-of-school in 2014, according to a survey conducted for the Indian Government. A new study calls on the government to address this ongoing educational crisis by recognizing Indian Sign Language (ISL) as an official language; rejecting "oralism," the belief that deaf people can and should communicate exclusively by lipreading and speech; and opening more schools and higher education institutions for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students.