A new collection of symbols is helping blind and Deaf people read the Scriptures, many for the first time.
David is 19 years old and lives in West Africa. He is both Deaf and blind and has spent most of his life sitting in a corner of his house, unable to interact with the rest of his family. Until now.
Wycliffe Associates recently developed SUN (Symbolic Universal Notation), a simple and intuitive collection of universally recognized symbols that Deaf people can learn in a matter of days. And there’s a 3-D raised version for those who are also blind.
Soon after the inception of SUN, David attended a special workshop where he learned the first 20 symbols with help from a local facilitator. Five days later, David was able to read two sentences of the SUN New Testament. He has since made a salvation decision and has been teaching his Muslim family how to read the Scriptures using SUN!
Why SUN Is Important
Of the 70 million people worldwide born Deaf, only 20 percent are educated in one of the nearly 400 different sign languages. This means that for millions of people, SUN is the quickest way to be able to read God’s Word. SUN is currently one of only a few attempts to bring the Scriptures to them.
The 3-D version of SUN allows the approximately 600,000 people who are both Deaf and blind to learn 80 core symbols and corresponding combinations in a very short period of time it takes to learn Braille. This means they can read of God’s love for them sooner rather than later.
Thank you for the important role you’re playing in bringing God’s uniquely translated Word to people like David.
