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Vishwajit Nair


Vishwajit Nair was born in Thane, Mumbai in a deaf family - 20 members including his parents are deaf in his family. Though he had the sign language access from the beginning - he was still expected to learn speech and lip reading in his deaf school. The concept of sign language as the mother tongue was unheard of. Even his own parents, who were deaf themselves, supported oral education. The teachers in his school were never able to build interest or translate concepts. He was an extremely naughty child, and his parents were actually quite worried for him. But today he is a role model, currently working at Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center, ISLRTC, New Delhi as Instructor of Sign Linguistics.

As a child, Vishwajit was very fond of arts - he could draw a portrait even at an early age of 10. He was also talented in sports. When he passed class 10th, he was rather confused in life. He joined 'Ishara Foundation' in Bombay and it was then, that he found out that Sign Language is a full fledged language. He got interested in the field of sign language and joined the pilot batch of BA (HONS) in Applied Sign Language Studies – BAASLS run by University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom (UCLan) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. This course was an outstanding, one of a kind experience not just for him, but for all his deaf batch-mates. This course truly empowered him and gave his life a direction. He is currently pursuing M.A. Linguistics (2nd year).

He had worked as Sign Language Annotator for Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, and collaborated with various multimedia projects related to Sign Language as a Director, Editor and Film-maker.

He is passionate about his work with Deaf Community, Deaf Culture and Sign Linguistics, but he feels concerned about the dismal state of education of the deaf in India. He says : "99% of the teachers in deaf schools of India don't know Sign Language and thus they are not able explain concepts meaningfully and not able to develop the writing skills which are very critical for the deaf. As a result, the deaf struggle with written language throughout their life. It is deeply disappointing that they get limited educational and career opportunities due to their limited language competency. Additionally, there is a rising need for quality interpreting services in India for providing equal access to the deaf, especially with regards to higher education."

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