Mission 
The Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies, established in 2003, is monumental to a new era of linguistic research and deaf training in the Asia-Pacific region. The mission of the Centre is:

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    • To develop interdisciplinary research and training programmes on sign linguistics, deaf culture and deaf education.
    • To raise public awareness towards the well-being of the Deaf, in particular, their educational and social opportunities.
    • To improve communication between the Deaf and the Hearing.

Ongoing projects
Development of Sign Language Linguistic documentation and Deaf Education
(Donation from Dr. Alex K Yasumoto, Jan 2006)

We gratefully accept a donation from Dr. Alex K Yasumoto in support of the Development of Sign Language Linguistic Documentation and Deaf Education. The donation has been initially used to support a team of deaf and hearing researchers in continuing to construct the existing HKSL child language corpus as well as on other sign language acquisition projects.

Jockey Club Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrollment in Deaf Education Programme (JC-SLCO)
(The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Project # S/N Ref 2007/0001, 2006-2013)

In August 2006, the Centre received a major donation from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to conduct an experimental programme on a form of education that potentially benefits both deaf and hearing students linguistically and academically. This 7-year project explores an alternative model of deaf education that draws insight from recent advances in sign linguistics and sign bilingualism research as well as co-enrolment in deaf education. The project also evaluates the effectiveness of this model with respect to speech and literacy developments in spoken language, sign language development and classroom process. The project has the capacity of nurturing local expertise in conducting research on deaf education through postgraduate and undergraduate training in sign linguistics. (Link to website: Jockey Club Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrolment in Deaf Education Programme (JC-SLCO))

Asia Pacific Sign Linguistics Research and Training Program
(Nippon Foundation, Project #2006014770, 2006-2012)

The Asia Pacific Sign Linguistics (APSL) Research and Training Program supported by the Nippon Foundation is a multi-country and multi-phase project that aims at developing sign linguistics as an academic discipline and providing sign language research training to deaf people in the Asia-Pacific Region with an ultimate goal of Deaf empowerment. Teams of professionally trained sign language researchers will be generated to support the establishment of sign linguistics research and training at the region, which ultimately promotes the concept of incorporating sign language in deaf education at different levels. The first phase of the project ‘Practical Dictionaries of Asian-Pacific Sign Languages’ involved four sites in Asia, namely, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, and Hong Kong. It focused on providing linguistics and sign language teaching training to deaf adults of these four countries so that they could produce sign language dictionaries as well as sign language teaching materials. The second phase of the research project will last for 6 years during which a series of sub-degree programs will be launched, aiming to provide centralized training in sign linguistics and sign language teaching to deaf and hearing students in the Asia Pacific region.

The program will benefit up to 4 Asian countries at the Certificate/ Diploma level, among which 2 Asian countries will proceed to Higher Diploma level, leading to the possibility of tertiary education. In addition to the establishment of sign language research and training in the Asia Pacific region, this program will maintain the sprits of Phase I – the training has the goal of publishing dictionaries and teaching/ learning materials based on specific sign languages in the Asia Pacific region.(Link to website: Asia Pacific Sign Linguistics Research and Training Program (APSL))

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