ASL Translation of the Book of Mormon Now Available on the Gospel Library App

The LDS Church has made the Gospel Library a lot more awesome by putting up the ASL translation of the Book of Mormon in the App. Here's how you access the ASL translation:

1. Open the Gospel Library app on your mobile devise
(or download it if you don’t already have it)
2. Go to “settings”
3. Under “content,” select “American Sign Language”
4. Click on “scriptures”
5. Download “Book of Mormon”
6. Enjoy!

Additionally, the LDS Church has also made available ASL translations of other Church resources such as the Ezra Taft Benson manual on the App. For example if you wanted to see the Ezra Taft Benson manual in ASL, then after completing steps 1-3 above, click on “Teachings of the Presidents” and download “Ezra Taft Benson.”

You can switch back and forth between your ASL materials and your English materials any time you want by going to "settings" and switching the language.

You can also view the General Conference videos in ASL on your smart phone, tablet or other device.

NOTE: Several users have been reporting difficulties in accessing ASL translated materials on Android. The LDS Church has already recieved feedback on this problem and are currently reviewing the issue to fix it.

The LDS Church Reaching Out To People Who Have A Hearing Loss

The LDS Church is being aggressive in spreading the gospel online by creating a lot of new websites. The LDS Church is also being very proactive to meeting the needs of those who have some kind of hearing loss and would like to view Church videos online. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has announced that all videos posted online will be closed captioned: 

In the past, closed captioning has been offered for the live broadcast on television and satellite, but not on the Church’s website. Archived general conference content on LDS.org has included conference videos in American Sign Language (available by selecting ASL from the language drop-down menu), but not everyone who is Deaf or hard of hearing knows or uses ASL, said Christopher Phillips, manager of Disabilities Services for the Church.

Closed captioning, on the other hand, is more widely accessible and can be helpful to those without hearing disabilities as well. Captions also can help make video content more searchable online.

“This improvement will be a benefit to many who struggle with hearing loss, including those who might have lost their hearing later in life and haven’t had the opportunity to learn sign language,” said Karen Staley, a member of the Church who lives in Maryland and is Deaf. “The captioned videos will help make the gospel more accessible to a large group of people.”

The LDS Church has also posted the entire ASL translation of the Book of Mormon is now online for viewing by LDS members who communicate in American Sign Language. It also realize that this also great for Deaf members that belong to any Restorationist branch that would like to have access to the Book of Mormon in their language online. 

To go behind the scenes on what it took to create the ASL translation of the Book of Mormon, I highly recommend watching this interview between Richard Sutton and Minnie-Mae Wilding Diaz: