E-COURSES USING SIGN LANGUAGE TO PROVID...

During the last two decades, Europe has witnessed a huge application of ICT and e-content in the vocational and educational training sectors. Due to the restrictions on personal contact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of e-learning tools has increased even more and there is an urgent need for digital education opportunities. Although lifelong e-learning is more important than ever, suitable opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people are still scarce.

Hearing people often believe that texts or close captions are enough to make online materials accessible. However, due to a lack of bilingual education in most countries, the majority of deaf people still has not fully mastered their national written language. Deaf people are therefore mostly excluded from using existing e-learning courses, as the contents are not fully comprehensible to them. In contrast, sign language is not only completely accessible, but also the first or preferred language for many deaf people. Therefore it is vital to offer them e-learning in their own visual language.

During earlier projects, we noticed that many deaf adults lacked a basic knowledge about languages and how they work. Being aware of the general properties of languages, as well as their forms and functions, aids people in learning any language and/or improving their language skills. This is especially important for deaf people for whom even the spoken language of their home country is often a second language and who frequently struggle to learn foreign languages.

We decided to approach this problem with the Erasmus+ project “Deaf Language Awareness”, which addresses the need for accessible e-learning material suitable for deaf adults, while enhancing language awareness amongst deaf people. It provides deaf people with bilingual e-courses where all content is presented both in the national sign language and the national written language. The e-courses cover 18 topics related to language awareness, massively exploiting visual resources such as pictures, animations and sign language videos.