Welcome to DEF home page
The Deaf Empowerment Foundation (DEF) was established in December 2004 by a group of deaf and hearing academics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Our aim is to provide university-level education to the many talented deaf people in developing countries. In partnership with other institutions and organizations, we are establishing educational networks in order to run pre-university preparatory classes, distance education programs, literacy improvement courses, and ultimately full-fledged tertiary education streams for deaf students. All courses are taught in the sign language medium, and academics associated with DEF conduct research into novel educational approaches based on the use of sign languages in developing countries. DEF also runs an academic publishing press (Ishara Press) specializing in worldwide sign language research and deaf studies.
DEF has been supporting activities in Pakistan, India, Ghana, Uganda, and Turkey, and we are continuously expanding our international network of activities.
