New Signs for Tomorrow

SignHow is a community sign language dictionary so some signs may not be official but are used in different communities around the world. This dictionary is useful in almost every situation:

Education
Add signs useful for your education: Art, English, Science, Drama, History, Maths - signs can be specific and or simple.

Workplace
Whether you work in banking, law, medicine or your own business - add signs (including work jargon) that you use among your work colleagues.

Travel
This dictionary is your one stop shop. With over 300 sign languages, you can learn whatever sign language on the fly!

Social
Met a deaf person? Keen to learn a bit of sign language? Learn to sign!

Our Humble Story

2010 – While at deaf-owned restaurant in Paris, Nikhil couldn’t understand a deaf waitress using French Sign Language. Nikhil wished he was able to learn basic French Sign Language online but did not know where to search.

2012 – Sophie and Nikhil met through mutual friends in Melbourne and have have worked together on number of projects for various deaf organistations in Melbourne.

2013 - Upon planning a holiday in Japan, Sophie discovered just how difficult to find a good sign language dictionary to help her learn Japanese Sign Language. She started to hope that there will be soon a global sign language dictionary.

2017 – Sophie became an Auslan teacher in Brisbane and began noticing that her past issues were similar to those of her students learning Auslan: there were no online resources to help students retain signs that they have learned in classes. Sophie decided to do further research on the idea of a sign language dictionary search engine for Auslan only. Upon inspiration, she asked Nikhil to join forces once a concept was made. Both agree with the idea of a global sign language dictonary that can be driven by the community. They both start on first design prototype immediately.

2018 - Sophie moved to Shanghai, China while continuing developing the concept with Nikhil back in Australia. She connected with Le Wagon Fullstack Bootcamp and four students developed the basic concept of SignHow. Meanwhile, Nikhil came second runner-up at Pitch X with Academy Xi, Two Spaces and HyperApp in Melbourne.

2021 - SignHow became one of the Gold Winners of LinkTree Passion Fund - a global grant program designed to support creators, activists and entrepreneurs in taking their passion to the next level.