Speaking Hands, Serving Hearts: An Initiative to Foster Inclusive Communication Among University Students

Prepared by: Joyce Gan Jia Huey

20 December 2025, Serdang – The Academic and Intellectual Development Secretariat, College Representative Council, Tan Sri Mustaffa Babjee College (KTMB) session 2025/2026 organized the Speaking Hands, Serving Hearts program located at the Reading Room of Tan Sri Mustaffa Babjee College, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). This program is an initiative that aims to provide basic exposure to Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) to students as well as increase understanding of the background and communication challenges faced by the hearing impaired community.

Through this program, participants have the opportunity to learn the basics of communication in sign language including the alphabet, numbers, daily phrases and simple conversations. A total of 25 KTMB students and 16 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students participated in this program.

This program is honored to receive Dr. Khairul Farhah Binti Khairuddin, University Lecturer from the Center for Education & Community Wellbeing Studies, UKM as a trainer. He is active in the academic field as well as community involvement, especially in community development, improving the quality of education and social well-being.

The program began at 9.00 am with participant registration, followed by a welcome speech by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurul Hayah Binti Khairuddin, Principal of KTMB at 9.15 am. The program then continued with a souvenir presentation session from KTMB to UKM as a token of appreciation for the cooperation and commitment given.

Physical registration of participants at the Reading Room of Tan Sri Mustaffa Babjee College

At 9.45 am, participants joined the first session, which was the Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) Introduction Workshop presented by Dr. Khairul Farhah Binti Khairuddin. This session provided participants with initial exposure to the basics of non-verbal communication as well as increased understanding of the needs of the hearing impaired. The program continued at 10.30 am with the BIM Learning Workshop which emphasized practical learning through training, group activities and simulations of daily situations.

Introduction to Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) Workshop conducted by Dr. Khairul Farhah Binti Khairuddin from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) Learning Workshop

At 2.00 pm, the program continued with the Explorace non-verbal communication activity which emphasized the creativity and understanding of participants in conveying messages without using words. This activity involved several game stations. The first station was the poisoned chair, where participants had to walk around the chair while music was playing, and participants who did not have time to sit down had to introduce themselves using sign language. The second station was the broken radio, which required participants to convey a message in sign language from front to back before the last participant repeated and guessed the original sentence. 

The next station was the picture arrangement, where participants had to arrange the sign language in the correct order based on the pictures provided and show it to the facilitator. The fourth station was the role play, where participants created a situation and acted out the character using sign language, with each participant required to convey at least one sentence. The last station was true or false, which required a group representative to act out words using sign language and other group members to guess the message conveyed. This interactive learning approach successfully increased participant engagement and helped them understand the real communication challenges of the hearing impaired. The ceremony concluded with a photo session at 4.15 pm before the Speaking Hands, Serving Hearts program officially ended at 4.30 pm.

Explorace Non-verbal Communication Activity

Photography session with the trainers, participants, facilitators, and programme committee members

Overall, this program is expected to have a positive impact by increasing knowledge and basic sign language skills that participants can utilize in their daily lives. 

Date of Input: 20/01/2026 | Updated: 20/01/2026 | s_syazana