In the 1600s, the court of the Ottoman Empire employed some 40 deaf servants. Sultan Selim III in front of the Gate of Felicity (1789) via Wikimedia Commons They were chosen not in spite of their deafness, but because of it. The deaf servants were favored companions of the sultan, and their facility in nonverbal communication made them indispensable to the court, where decorum restricted speech in the sultan’s presence. Read the fascinating story of the deaf servants here . .

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was born November 24, 1712, in Versailles, France. L'Épée become known as the "Father of the Deaf"after...

Black American Sign Language was born out of segregation. (Image from ABC video) ABC News’ Kyra Phillips has a video report on the efforts to recognize and preserve the language.

Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of AI chips, says it is launching an AI platform to make learning sign language easier. The platform is...

A new app called Sign Now will be available for the FIFA 2022 World Cup taking place in Qatar this November. image: i24news video Sign...

A study of sign language in Europe has found that Spanish sign language is possibly the oldest in existence. A map of sign language...

Nicaraguan Sign Language is the first language to be developed without the influence of another language. The History Channel has details...

Israel’s only deaf rabbi says he wants to make Judaism accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing. (image from Yehoshua Soudakoff's...