Donate
Donate

About Us

Islamic Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ISDHH) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as well as a community that promotes and empowers Leaders for the deaf through leadership, education advocacy, determination, excellence and servitude.

ISDHH was established in 2015 as a Non-Profit organization to advocate and empower the Muslim deaf community, and facilitate their understanding of Islam and their integration within the Muslim community. Due to lack of understanding of the needs of the deaf both intellectually and spiritually, they are always excluded from the learning process including Jummah Khutbah and religious education by Muslim scholars, or even a Du’a in Ramadan which made deaf Muslims feel disenfranchised and not cared for by their brothers and sisters in faith. Due to lack of resources, deaf Muslims have minimal to no knowledge of what the Holy Qur’an contains or what the different narrations of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) teach us. They are very eager to learn Islam and they need and want to feel inclusive in our hearing Muslim community.

Our Accomplishments

ISDHH has succeeded to create awareness, education and understanding, and to start off a basic resource program that helps our hearing Muslim community to understand sign language, deaf culture and the mindset of deaf Muslim people. The road is still very long to go, as we need to put together a culture that respects human rights and religious freedom of deaf Muslims into their Muslim communities.

Classes to teach American Sign Language to Muslims

National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) performances in 2015 and 2016

ASL Interpreters for Jummah Khutba at VRIC and ICI                   

Educational project to display Prophets’ stories in ASL to teach Deaf Muslims
Through our matrimonial services, we have 6 successful deaf marriages
We have 14 deaf Shahadah

Meet Our Team

The people who work at ISDHH share the same vision and values as the deaf community, and genuinely enjoy what they do.
Khadar Omar Vice-President of ISDHH
Gray scale photo of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, CT.
Gallaudet University for the deaf and hard of hearing in Washington, D.C.
The American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
Gray scale image of Edward Miner Gallaudet, founder of Gallaudet University, Washington D.C.

American Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) is the predominant sign language of deaf communities in the United States. ASL originated in the early 19th century in the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut, from a situation of language contact. Since then, ASL use has propagated widely via schools for the deaf and deaf community organizations. Despite its wide use, no accurate count of ASL users has been taken, though reliable estimates for American ASL users range from 250,000 to 500,000 persons, including a number of children of deaf adults.

History of American Sign Language Early in the 1800s, there were only a few thousand deaf Americans. No standard signed language existed at this time, but various signing systems were created in the deaf communities. These sign systems are now known as Old American Sign Language. The American Sign Language of today is actually related to this language.

History of American Sign Language

Scroll to Top