Deaf Algerian

Locations

Identity

Deaf Algerians are the people who use Algerian Sign Language (Langue des signes algérienne, LSA) and take part in Deaf life: schools, associations and gatherings. They come from every Algerian people, Arab, Kabyle, Chaoui, Mozabite and Tuareg, and share a language their hearing families rarely learn. LSA belongs to the French Sign Language family, a legacy of French deaf education, and was recognised by Algeria's 2002 disability law as the language of the deaf; it varies from region to region and has no published dictionary or grammar. Its influence reaches across the border to Oujda in Morocco. A separate village sign language, Algerian Jewish Sign Language, grew up in the Jewish community of Ghardaia and left with it for Israel and France in 1962.

Culture & traditions

Deaf identity forms in Algeria's schools for the deaf, the first opened in Algiers in 1972, and in local associations under the Fédération nationale des sourds d'Algérie, which also runs the website sourdinet.dz. Deaf Algerians gather in clubs and cafés (a café run for deaf customers opened in Algeria in 2016) and share the family life, food and feasts of their hearing relatives, communicating at home through signs, gestures and lip-reading.

Religious practices

Deaf Algerians belong to Muslim families, but Friday sermons, Quran schools and religious television are in spoken or written Arabic, so many grow up knowing the outward forms of prayer and fasting with little explanation of their meaning. In January 2025 the state launched a Sign Language Quran project to make the Quran accessible in LSA, and one religious programme on television carries sign interpretation.

Gospel access

No Scripture has been published in Algerian Sign Language; Joshua Project records the translation as started, and Scripture Earth lists nothing for the language. No JESUS film or Bible stories in LSA were found. Written French or Arabic Bibles reach only Deaf people who read well, and many Deaf adults left school with weak literacy.

Algerian Jewish Sign Language (AJSL)

A distinct village sign language that developed within the Jewish community of Ghardaia in the M'zab Valley. After the mass departure of Algeria's Jewish community in 1962, AJSL was carried to Israel and possibly France. The language is now considered moribund, with an unknown number of elderly signers surviving. AJSL has its own ISO 639-3 code (ajs) and is linguistically distinct from Algerian Sign Language.

At a glance

Language: Algerian Sign Language
Language family: Sign Language
Affinity bloc: Deaf
People cluster: Deaf
Primary religion: Sunni Islam (Maliki school)
Bible status: Translation started
Jesus Film: No
Audio recordings: No
Gospel recordings: Not Available
Radio broadcasts: Not Available
Religious school: Maliki

Religious breakdown

Religion	%	Denomination	Notes
Islam	~99%	Sunni (Maliki); Ibadi among Mozabite Deaf	Deaf Algerians belong to Muslim families; many learn little formal religion because sermons and Quran classes are in spoken Arabic
Christianity	<1%	Protestant and Catholic	Within Algeria's small Christian minority

Presence by country

AlgeriaNativeVerified presence

Population: 80,000
Location: Throughout Algeria, mostly in the northern cities around schools for the deaf and associations

Algeria's Deaf community, about 80,000 people, shares Algerian Sign Language, a language of the French Sign Language family that grew up in schools for the deaf, the first opened in Algiers in 1972, and that Algeria's 2002 disability law recognises. Deaf Algerians come from Arab, Kabyle, Chaoui, Mozabite and Tuareg families alike and meet in clubs, cafés and associations under a national federation. Their sign language varies from region to region and has no published dictionary, only a few hundred interpreters serve the whole country, and most of their teachers are hearing people with little signing. The state has trained over 800 teachers of the deaf and in 2025 began rendering the Quran in sign language.