Deaf Omani

Deaf Omanis are the citizens of Oman who use Omani Sign Language (لغة الإشارة العمانية) and take part in Deaf life: the signing community formed at the Al Amal School for the Deaf in Muscat, open since 1981, and gathered around the Omani Association for Persons with Hearing Disability and the Oman Deaf Sports Committee. Omani Sign Language belongs to the Arab sign-language family and shares the Arabic manual alphabet with its neighbours; the Ministry of Social Development teaches it from an Omani Sign Dictionary (القاموس الإشاري العماني, Level One), but no grammar is published, and how far it differs from the sign languages of the UAE and Saudi Arabia is unknown. About 5,500-9,000 citizens sign. Hearing impairment of every degree is the most common registered disability in Oman (14,414 citizens at the end of 2023, about 17,000 by 2026); Omanis who are hard of hearing or lose their hearing later and keep using spoken Arabic belong to their own peoples. Deaf signers come from every region, tribe and Muslim tradition, and cousin marriage adds to inherited deafness, as elsewhere in the Gulf.

Deaf social life centres on friendships from Al Amal school, the association and its regional branches (Dhofar among them), and sport: the Oman Deaf Sports Committee, chaired by Sayyida Naila bint Hamad al-Busaidi, fields deaf football, futsal, basketball and girls' volleyball teams; the national deaf futsal team, training at Al Amal Club in Muscat, played its first Asian championship in Kyrgyzstan in 2026 after winning the Gulf Friendship Championship in 2024. Since 2025 sign language has moved into public life: the government-backed Nafith platform (2026) offers video calls with interpreters, building on the SignBook service of 2018; the Ministry of Social Development and the association run sign classes for officials, parents and volunteers, including a summer programme in Dhofar during the 2026 khareef; young volunteers run 'Sign Without Borders', which about 2,100 people had joined by 2026; and Sultan Qaboos University is opening admission to deaf students with a filmed academic sign dictionary. Deaf adults also take Arabic reading and writing courses taught by deaf instructors. Deaf Omanis live within extended families and take part in weddings, Ramadan gatherings and national days, but the shortage of interpreters limits their access to services, work and study.

Deaf Omanis share their families' Islam: Ibadi in the interior, Sunni in Dhofar, the Batinah and Musandam, and Shia among some Muscat families. Friday sermons, Qur'an lessons and religious teaching are oral; the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs has run sign language courses and the SignBook service interprets religious content on request, but no regular sign-interpreted Friday sermon was found, so many deaf people learn practice by imitation and from relatives and receive little religious instruction.

No Scripture, JESUS Film or Christian video exists in Omani Sign Language, and no deaf ministry or deaf believers are known in Oman. Written Arabic Scripture is hard for many deaf readers; the nearest sign-language Scripture is the Gospel of Mark in Arabic Sign Language and Egyptian Sign Language recordings made in Egypt. The group is unengaged.