Variations exist in the sign languages used by members of the deaf community, with significant differences sometimes occurring between sign languages used in urban and rural communities. There is worldwide concern that a number of these village sign languages are in danger of becoming extinct without ever having been documented.

Dr. Keren Cumberbatch, Department of Language, Linguistics & Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities & Education, is working on the documentation of Country Sign, the indigenous sign language of Jamaica alongside deaf signers like Mrs. Lurline Dewar. Deaf signers in Jamaica mainly use Jamaican Sign Language, although some older signers living in a rural deaf community in the Southwest of Jamaica still use Country Sign as a second language. Country Sign began in Top Hill, St. Elizabeth and spread to a few other communities in Southern Jamaica.  It has been on its deathbed for the past two decades.  The Country Sign Research Project in its first phase began a revitalisation of the language and establishment of its heritage status. The second phase of the project is investigating its linguistic structure and building a language corpus.