Deaf Emirian

Deaf Emiratis are the people of the United Arab Emirates who use Emirati Sign Language (لغة الإشارة الإماراتية) and take part in Deaf life, about 2,000 to 3,000 people. Most are Emirati citizens or children of long-resident Arab families; labour migrants are screened for health before arrival and rarely belong. Cousin marriage is common among citizens and inherited deafness is frequent: among deaf children studied, 74% had related parents, 86% a family history of deafness and 92% a recessive pattern. The language grew in the Al Amal School for the Deaf in Sharjah (1979) and among deaf adults. Until 2018 signs differed and conflicted between families and emirates, so the Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination and eight other bodies worked with 60 deaf people to compile the first official dictionary of about 5,000 signs; the Ministry of Community Development published its own 5,000-word dictionary in 2020. Emirati Sign Language is grouped with the Arab sign languages but has no ISO 639-3 code. The official term for deaf people is 'people of determination with hearing disability'. Emiratis who lose their hearing later in life and keep using spoken Arabic belong to their own peoples.

Community life gathers around the UAE Deaf Association (جمعية الإمارات للصم), licensed by the Ministry of Community Development as the voice of deaf people and a member of the World Federation of the Deaf since October 2017; its leaders have included chairman Musabah Saeed Al Nyadi, Hamad al-Darmaki and general secretary Abdullah Al Kamali. It runs sign courses for families and government staff, workshops, cultural and religious lectures and deaf sport with the Zayed Higher Organization. Arab Deaf Week each April is the community's yearly festival; in 2020 its theme was the deaf person's right to an easy marriage supported by community institutions. Deaf Emiratis share the family life of other citizens, majlis gatherings, Ramadan and Eid visits and weddings within the wider family. A sign-language cafe run by deaf staff opened in Dubai in 2021.

Deaf Emiratis belong to their families' faith, mostly Sunni with a Shia minority. Friday sermons, Quran classes and mosque teaching are spoken. Sharjah's Department of Islamic Affairs interprets the Friday sermon into sign each week at Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal Mosque, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque offers signed tours and sermons, and the deaf association gives religious lectures in sign, but most deaf people learn prayer and fasting by watching family, with limited access to the teaching behind them, and weak Arabic literacy limits reading.

No Scripture, JESUS film or other Christian media exist in Emirati Sign Language, and no deaf ministry, signed church service or deaf believers are known. Written Arabic Scripture is hard for many deaf readers, and materials in other Arab sign languages are the nearest resources. The group is unengaged.

Abu Dhabi will host the XX World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf on 19-23 September 2027, the first in an Arab country, organised by the Zayed Higher Organization with the UAE Deaf Association and expected to draw more than 2,000 deaf people from about 125 countries under the theme 'Sign Languages: Always and Everywhere'. In August 2025 the Federation acknowledged concerns over the choice; the organisers said all participants are welcome while public promotion of LGBTQ+ themes and public displays of affection are not allowed.