{"id":72713,"date":"2026-10-02T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/?p=72713"},"modified":"2026-10-02T10:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:00:32","slug":"shamal-holding-launches-deeply-able-building-a-movement-for-inclusion-of-the-deaf-community-across-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/shamal-holding-launches-deeply-able-building-a-movement-for-inclusion-of-the-deaf-community-across-dubai\/","title":{"rendered":"Shamal Holding Launches Deeply Able, Building A Movement For Inclusion Of The Deaf Community Across Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a moment every guest knows: the moment someone looks you in the eye and says hello. For hundreds of thousands of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the UAE<\/a>, that moment too often doesn’t happen, not because no one is willing, but because no one yet knows how. Today, Shamal Holding sets out to change that, with the launch of Deeply Able: a citywide movement combining Emirati Sign Language training for its own employees, a public awareness campaign across Dubai through multiple channels, a permanent Digital Learning Hub, and an AI-powered signing avatar that can teach and translate Emirati Sign Language on demand, all built around a call for the whole city to learn, use and pass on the language of welcome.<\/p>\n

Deeply Able is not a lesson. It is a promise that every Shamal destination, whether corporate or guest-facing, will be a place where a Deaf guest is not an exception to be accommodated, but a guest to be welcomed, in their own language, like anyone else.<\/p>\n

It is also a citywide campaign in its own right: over the next few weeks, #SignItForward will reach Dubai through outdoor media, social content, and on-ground activations across multiple channels in Dubai \u00a0alongside Shamal employees, learning Emirati Sign Language as part of their daily guest interactions.<\/p>\n

It builds directly on the momentum created by the Community Development Authority (CDA), whose Dubai Communicates in Sign Language initiative brought more than 6,000 people together last January for the world’s largest online Emirati Sign Language lesson, a Guinness World Record, and a clear signal of how much appetite there is across the city to connect differently. This work aligns with the objectives of the Dubai Social Agenda 33 and Dubai’s Strategy for People of Determination, which together aim to strengthen Dubai’s position as a global model for inclusive cities. Shamal, with Deeply Able, is one of the first private-sector organisations to answer that call at scale, turning a moment of civic pride into a daily, lived reality.<\/p>\n

Why now<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dubai has declared its ambition to be one of the most inclusive cities in the world. For a company whose portfolio touches so much of daily life in this city, Shamal believes that ambition cannot be left to policy alone. It has to show up in the small, human moments: a greeting understood, a welcome signed as easily as it is spoken.<\/p>\n

Deeply Able is Shamal’s answer to that responsibility. It begins with the people who welcome Shamal’s guests every day, and grows toward a city where a few signs, shared and passed on, become simply part of how Dubai says hello. Join the movement in building a more inclusive society.<\/p>\n

Her Excellency Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Director General of the Community Development Authority in Dubai<\/b><\/strong>, said: “We built a great momentum when we had more than 6,000 people come together last January for our sign language class. It showed just how much appetite there is across this city to learn and connect in more<\/i><\/em>\u00a0inclusive <\/i><\/em>ways. That moment was a call to every organisation in Dubai to take ownership of this direction and help carry it forward. We are proud to see that movement growing, with companies like Shamal stepping up this year through initiatives such as Deeply Able.”<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

Abdulla Binhabtoor, CEO at Shamal Holding<\/b><\/strong>, said: “Dubai has set a bold vision for what an inclusive city can look and sound like. As investors in so many of the places where people live, work and spend their time, we believe that visio<\/i><\/em>n has to become part of everyday life, not remain an aspiration. Every <\/i><\/em>destination and every guest interaction is an opportunity to make inclusion real, not a statement on a wall, but a hand raised in welcome. Deeply Able starts with our own teams and grows into a company-wide effort, so that learning a few signs becomes simply part of how people in this city connect.”<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

Where sign language already lives: underwater<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deeply Able begins at Deep Dive Dubai, a choice that carries its own quiet symbolism. Beneath the surface, every diver already communicates the same way: in silence, through the hands. It is, without exception, the one place in the city where\u00a0hand signals are not the exception but the rule.<\/p>\n

It is here that Deeply Able’s first lesson was shot underwater, led by Deaf educator and Emirati Sign Language instructor Abdulsalam Zourob, co-creating the curriculum and public lessons with Eton Institute, in consultation with members of the Deaf community. Not as a guest voice invited to an initiative about them, but as the person leading it.<\/p>\n

The “Sign It Forward” call from Shamal, launched today, invites all to learn, use and share the first sign \u201cMarhaba Al-Saa\u201d, an Emirati expression of welcome, and to pass it on. What begins as one gesture, shared underwater, is designed to surface across the whole city.<\/p>\n

From one sign to twenty, and a promise that outlasts the launch<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

From that first sign, Deeply Able expands into a permanent Digital Learning Hub hosted on the Deep Dive Dubai website, a first-of-its-kind library of Emirati Sign Language lessons, filmed underwater but built for everyday life above it. The hub carries 20 practical signs and phrases, from greetings to everyday responses, and will remain live at Shamal Deeply Able Emirate Sign Initiative at Deep Dive Dubai<\/u><\/a>\u00a0long after the campaign’s launch day fades from the news cycle, because inclusion is not a moment \u2014 it is a habit.<\/p>\n

To make sure the story keeps going, Deep Dive Dubai is introducing a full new set of guest-facing touchpoints: an introductory lesson before arrival, a signed welcome at check-in, Emirati Sign Language woven into the dive briefing alongside the hand signals every diver already learns, and underwater panels along the dive route that let guests practise as they go. Deep Dive Dubai becomes the first Shamal destination to turn an initiative into a lived guest experience, and a new set of courses will keep that experience current and evolving throughout the year.<\/p>\n

A movement designed to grow, brand by brand, hand by hand<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deeply Able does not stop at one destination. Over the next few weeks, Shamal will train guest-facing employees across Five Guys, Dubai Harbour, Kite Beach, Skydive Dubai, Deep Dive Dubai and Shamal’s own headquarters, with corporate employees invited to take part too. Each brand will adapt the twenty words to the interactions most relevant to its own guests, because inclusion, to mean anything, has to be specific, not generic.<\/p>\n

An AI-powered signing avatar, developed with Eshara, a UAE-born accessibility technology company specialising in sign-language translation, and embedded across selected Shamal brand websites, letting anyone choose a word or phrase and see it signed back to them, any time, day or night.<\/p>\n

Visit Shamal Deeply Able Emirate Sign Initiative at Deep Dive Dubai<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to watch the Deeply Able film, take part in Sign It Forward, and access the public learning hub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a moment every guest knows: the moment someone looks you in the eye and says hello. For hundreds of thousands of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the UAE, that moment too often doesn’t happen, not because no one is willing, but because no one yet knows how. Today, Shamal Holding sets out to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","animate-on-scroll"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72715,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72713\/revisions\/72715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}