First of all, let’s give our praise to Allah Swt Who has guided us and given us the

blessings of Islam and health. Blessings and salutations on our prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him, his family, and his disciples. Ladies and gentlemen, A warm
welcome to each and every one of you. Hi, my name is Arfiandhika Aqila Nugraha.
and today, I stand before you to explain a topic that is more than just words, it’s
about connecting with everyone. Listening and speaking are natural abilities of
humans. Unfortunately, there are many people who do not have these abilities and
cannot easily communicate with others. These are the people who experience
deafness and muteness, not like us who can chat away. They need a different
middleman to speak, and that middleman is sign language. I'm gonna share a story
that I read, and maybe some of you don't know about it. It's one of those stories that
inspired me to talk about this. In the 19th century, there was this 8-year-old kid who
was super fluent in English and German. He was crazy talented boy, but
unfortunately, he got hit with scarlet fever, which ended up making him deaf. For
those who aren't familiar with scarlet fever, it's sort of like a feverish thing caused by
some bacteria camping out in your throat, eventually leading to symptoms like fever
and a scratchy throat. And in those days, people with such disorders were seen as
useless. They thought people like this were of no use. But this kind of situation didn't
stop the kid from living life. He started to learn sign language for 6 years until he was
14.

Long story short, he started going to school, graduated, joined organizations. And
you know what? He became the president of the National Association of the Deaf in
1904, and what caught my attention was that he made a film called 'The Preservation
of Language,' videotaping himself using sign language with the purpose of
diminishing discrimination. He’s name is George W Veditz. And this is what makes
me want to talk about this topic. In a world where some people are treated unfairly,
especially those who can't hear well, sign language becomes a strong tool for making
things better. Sign language helps deaf people join in and do things just like everyone
else, making things more equal. In today's connected world, it's more important than
ever to communicate well with people from different backgrounds. Sign language, is
like a bridge connecting people from various languages and cultures. It's a universal
language that breaks down language barriers So, that's why I think sign language is
super important, and it should be considered one of the international languages. Not
just to break language barriers, but to foster equality. When others learn sign
language, it helps them understand how challenging it is to be deaf and mute