Reading presents a significant challenge for individuals who are born deaf because they cannot hear the language that is encoded in printed letters

Imagine having to learn to read in Thai without knowing the sound that goes with each letter.  For example, the word ‘มม้า’ means ‘horse’ and is pronounced (approximately) “maa” (the vowel sound in “apple” but stretched out). This is the same difficulty for the Deaf when learning to read. They cannot associate the letters with sounds of spoken words that they already know.  Instead, each set of letters must be directly associated with a meaning. 

This is one of the many reasons why it is difficult for the Deaf to understand the Bible translations currently available on the market. We’ve come to understand that we can share the message of salvation without the Bible, but it is extremely difficult to disciple new converts without the Bible. Millions of semi-illiterate people could read the Bible if a translation like ours were available to them. To make passionate, serious followers of Jesus, new believers need the Bible. Having a Bible they can read and understand is vital for growing in their relationship with God.

Our vision is to help the Deaf lift themselves out of poverty and break the poverty cycles in which they are trapped. We understand that reading is the foundational discipline to all fields of study, and education is the key to overcome poverty.

The Easy Spanish Bible was made with the special needs of the deaf community in mind. For example, a particular difficulty for the Deaf is to correctly identify pronoun references. So the Easy Spanish Bible, when possible, uses the name of the person instead of using a pronoun.

Another of the difficulties the Deaf face when reading (and this is particularly true in Spanish with many irregular and highly inflected verbs) is to correctly identify the verb tense and mood. Our workaround to this problem is to include a note in an easy-to-find location indicating the infinitive form of the verb, which is the form basic readers are more likely to understand.

The text of the Easy Spanish Bible goes through a series of checking sessions with members of the Deaf community from different backgrounds, both religious and educational. During these sessions we adjust the texts according to the feedback received making sure the texts are clearly understood. Even more difficult, but just as important, we attempt to make the texts difficult to misunderstand. 

Our heart of love and compassion for the Deaf is what started us in this mission. The Deaf are a largely unreached people group which has suffered from all kinds of abuse and rejection. They are a community that needs to know that there is a loving God who wants to show them how important they are to him. If you want to join us in our mission, you can