The socio-historical background of a sign language involves the history of the emergence of a sign language, the varieties of the sign language, information about the cultural aspects of the signers as a community, as well as the status of the sign language as regarded by state policies, educational institutions, and the attitudes of the non-signer community.
The organization of this part is in four chapters. The first chapter outlines the emergence of Turkish Sign Language in the Ottoman era by the late 19th century, and its spreading through Turkey through educational institutions in the Turkish Republic,1923 onwards. The second chapter describes the community characteristics of sign language users such as the number of users, Deaf culture, and Deaf education. The third chapter elucidates the international legislations about sign languages as well as the developments of legislations and projects by the state institutions of Turkey. The last chapter portrays the scientific studies on TÄ°D and the geographical variation in TÄ°D.