Summary

Noida Deaf Society (NDS) is a non-governmental organization that empowers the deaf community in India to lead sustainable and self-reliant lives through customized trainings and employment. NDS mentors, trains and teach young children and adults with hearing impairment. This institution works towards imparting primary education and vocational training for the deaf community. NDS is involved with teaching educational content and core life skills to students in the government schools for deaf while stressing on Indian Sign Language (ISL). The NGO also promotes Training of the Trainer program for the hearing teachers of these deaf schools, who in turn can teach the students using Sign Language. It also provides Basic English literacy as well as short-term trainings for work-place ethics and soft skills for the young adults through sign language to facilitate appropriate employment.

RuralShores Skills Academy (RSA) has partnered with NDS to further propel this noble work. IT provides training to deaf trainers on basic IT skills such as typing and data entry, logical reasoning and the professional skills constituting work behaviour, time management and punctuality, team work, conflict management, and empathy. RSA develops specific courseware for the trainers, which is more visual through captioned pictures and videos overlaid with subtitles. In short, the training content is more activity-based than theoretical. NDS customizes curriculum for primary schools and has collaborated with RSA in courseware development for class 1st to class 5th. RSA has introduced unique mechanism of online and practical assessments for the deaf children and youth, as their hearing impairment prevents the normal evaluation of their understanding through instant verbal interactions.