NAMSLAP — Namibia's First National Sign-Language Mobile App

Namibian Sign Language has had limited digital learning resources, leaving many hearing and deaf Namibians without an easy way to learn or practise it outside specialist settings.

On 24 September 2025, during International Deaf Week, the Namibian Sign Language Mobile App (NAMSLAP) launched in Walvis Bay, officiated by Namibia's Vice President. Built by South African developer Yobi Code (previously behind the South African 'DEAFinition' app) for the Namibia National Association of the Deaf (NNAD), with funding from the German Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF), NAMSLAP is free on Android and iOS and includes a searchable sign library, category-based lessons, a workplace-vocabulary section and a daily 'Word of the Day' feature.

Yobi Code's earlier, comparable South African app has connected 'tens of thousands' of users to free sign-language learning, according to the developer - though that figure describes the separate South African app, not NAMSLAP itself.

No Namibia-specific download or usage figures, nor any outcome evaluation, have been published for NAMSLAP; its evidence base rests on documented launch details and funder/partner credibility rather than measured reach.

Read the full analysis: https://www.kas.de/en/web/namibia/veranstaltungen/detail/-/content/launch-of-the-namibian-sign-language-mobile-app