"One of the unique characteristics of the village is the interaction and communication between the hearing and deaf villagers. [...] Sign language is used in all spheres of life, where both deaf and hearing people often communicate without much difficulty. [...] Most retailers in Alipur seem to have some level of signing proficiency in order to communicate with deaf customers. Due to the extensive network of multiple cross-cutting relationships between extended families, all families have some connection or other with deaf rela­tives, either immediate or further removed (e.g. a second cousin).

This situation has resulted in a need for communication with deaf indi­viduals for almost all villagers, who are exposed to sign language in various forms and with greater or lesser limitations. Recently, there have been efforts to promote the use of APSL in Alipur more actively. Interestingly, Alipur has its own television channel (Ali Channel), which recently began broad­ casting some APSL signs as a community initiative (see Dikyuva, Escobedo Delgado, Panda & Zeshan, this volume). The multimedia video with APSL vocabularies and dialogues has been helpful for spreading APSL among the villagers."