Georgia’s first sign language website launches

A new website showing hundreds of sign language symbols and gestures has been launched, giving additional support to Georgia’s deaf community.

The country’s first online dictionary outlined 500 sign language gestures was published in Georgian but had sections in English and Russian.

The innovative website showed gestures for each alphabet, as well as video tutorials on how to spell certain words.

The website www.geodeaf.ge also had a search bar which enabled visitors to type in their desired word, to which a corresponding video tutorial will pop up for viewers to learn the gesture.

Members of Georgia’s deaf community were involved in the creation of the website. Some of these people featured in the website’s video tutorials.

The project was created by the Deaf Union of Georgia and financially supported by Georgian charity Tree of Life.

Tree of Life director Tornike Guruli said many children in Georgia with hearing problems were isolated because the people around them did not know sign language and could not communicate with them.

Meanwhile Maia Metonidze of Deaf Union of Georgia emphasized that the new website was not only for people with hearing disabilities but for anyone who wanted to learn sign language.

"I would like each of you to learn the basic gestures for simple words [so we can] better understand and communicate with each other,” she said.

The Tree of Life charity w was created in 2008 by the Bank of Georgia. It aimed to support issues of concern to the public.