Exploring Inclusive Design and Digital Humanities: Enabling Bilingual Digital Narratives for Deaf Children

The collaboration between designers and digital humanists has indeed gained increasing significance in crafting effective projects, with design serving as a centralizing force in the realm of digital humanities by establishing interfaces for individuals to engage with technological resources. Therefore, design's methodological practices, encompassing various research and experiential facets, play a pivotal role in enhancing the usability and accessibility of digital resources within the social sphere. This study aims to expand the discourse on the characteristics and potential of the interplay between inclusive design and digital humanities practices, with a specific focus on the development of bilingual digital narratives (utilizing Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese). The research adopts a collaborative, qualitative approach, encompassing processes of evaluation, validation, and enhancement. Digital visual narratives are presented as a facilitating tool for integrating LIBRAS and Portuguese, thereby aiding in language acquisition for deaf children. The article contributes to the discussion of the humanistic approach to design, emphasizing the values of empathy, ethics, and social responsibility in the creation of inclusive and accessible projects

Deaf on stage: The cultural impact of performing Signed Songs

Signed Song – the aesthetic production or adaptation of lyrics and rhythm into signed languages – is an emerging artistic product within Deaf communities. This thesis is an international study, exploring Signed Songs in Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa - LGP) and British Sign Language (BSL), particularly those created1 and performed by Deaf adults. This work constitutes interdisciplinary research drawing from Deaf Studies, Translation Studies and Performance Studies, theoretically framing Signed Song as a Deaf cultural product, as a translation product and a performing art. Research focuses on how Signed Songs are perceived by audience members and what they learn about the languages and cultures of Deaf people, but also investigates the views of Signed Song practitioners. Specific goals are to trace Signed Songs throughout history in Portugal and in the UK, and to gather the insights from audience members and artists. At a broader level, this thesis contributes to a more generalised conception of Deaf communities as minority cultures, and to preserving Deaf cultural heritage. Research design encompasses a multidisciplinary literature review, archival work, and fieldwork with artists and audiences from both countries, composed of a qualitative study exploring the views of Portuguese and British audiences via online and in situ questionnaires, and the views of artists via in-depth interviews. This thesis provides an understanding of the roles of Signed Song performances in the two localised Deaf communities, as well as in the Portuguese and British hearing communities, as a cultural product of Deaf minorities but also as an artform with an intercultural outreach. Conclusions show that Signed Songs are creative forms of translation which convey Deaf cultural resistance, defy traditions in Deaf communities and general conceptions of music, and draw attention to Deaf intersectionality. The Portuguese and British practices display differences which mirror the local situation of each Deaf community and national context, namely regarding the existing Deaf accessibility conditions to artistic settings and general mainstream services. This research proposes a definition of a good-quality Signed Song, built from the perspective of Portuguese and British Deaf audiences but also inclusive of hearing people who do not know sign language

Google Glass App for Displaying ASL Videos for Deaf Children – The Preliminary Race

Glass Vision 3D is a grant-funded project focused on the goal of developing and researching the feasibility & usability of a Google Glass app that will allow young Deaf children to look at an object in the classroom and see an augmented reality projection that displays an American Sign Language (ASL) related video. Session will show the system (Glass app) that was developed and summarize feedback gathered during focus-group testing of the prototype

Google Glass App for Displaying ASL Videos for Deaf Children – The Preliminary Race

Glass Vision 3D is a grant-funded project focused on the goal of developing and researching the feasibility & usability of a Google Glass app that will allow young Deaf children to look at an object in the classroom and see an augmented reality projection that displays an American Sign Language (ASL) related video. Session will show the system (Glass app) that was developed and summarize feedback gathered during focus-group testing of the prototype

An analysis of how metalinguistic terms are realised in British Sign Language in the context of teaching English to deaf learners

This study set out to investigate how teachers of English to deaf sign language users refer to metalanguage in the classroom, and more specifically, how these terms might be realised in British Sign Language (BSL). The study was structured in two phases. The first and longer phase of the study involved an initial round of interviews and a targeted elicitation task using a word list of 87 metalinguistic terms. How the participants expressed the terms in BSL was captured on video and analysed using ELAN, a multi-media annotation software designed for the creation of time-aligned text annotations to audio and video files. The elicited ways of expressing metalinguistic terms were subsequently re-created by two deaf presenters, unconnected to the study, for the purposes of sharing the data back to the participants to prepare for the second phase of the study that sought participants’ reflections and observations. The data evidenced considerable linguistic variation and motivation in terms of how metalinguistic terms were articulated. Many variants evidenced strong visually motivated form-meaning mapping (iconicity and transparency), while some were more arbitrary in nature. Some variants demonstrated borrowing from English, through fingerspelling, loan translations and mouthing. Others provided evidence of semantic change (broadening) by using signs from other contexts, and some terms were realised using multiple signs that served as an explanation of the meaning. A considerable number of variants evidenced multiple features/motivations. The investigation was framed as practitioner research and as a collaborative enquiry. In addition to exploring the issue under investigation, the study simultaneously set out to establish a community of practice comprising of teachers of English to sign language users, willing to work together as a collaborative enquiry group to explore future research

Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe

The Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe describes what Easy Language is and how it is used in European countries. It demonstrates the great diversity of actors, instruments and outcomes related to Easy Language throughout Europe. All people, despite their limitations, have an equal right to information, inclusion, and social participation. This results in requirements for understandable language. The notion of Easy Language refers to modified forms of standard languages that aim to facilitate reading and language comprehension. This handbook describes the historical background, the principles and the practices of Easy Language in 21 European countries. Its topics include terminological definitions, legal status, stakeholders, target groups, guidelines, practical outcomes, education, research, and a reflection on future perspectives related to Easy Language in each country. Written in an academic yet interesting and understandable style, this Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe aims to find a wide audience

Adult Learning Sign Language by combining video, interactivity and play

One in every six persons in the UK suffers a hearing loss, either as a condition they have been born with or a disorder they acquired during their life. 900,000 people in the UK are severely or profoundly deaf and based on a study by Action On Hearing Loss UK in 2013 only 17 percent of this population, can use the British Sign Language (BSL). That leaves a massive proportion of people with a hearing impediment who do not use sign language struggling in social interaction and suffering from emotional distress, and an even larger proportion of Hearing people who cannot communicate with those of the deaf community. This paper presents a theoretical framework for the design of interactive games to support learning BSL supporting the entire learning cycle, instruction, practice and assessment. It then describes the proposed design of a game based on this framework aiming to close the communication gap between able hearing people and people with a hearing impediment, by providing a tool that facilitates BSL learning targeting adult population. The paper concludes with the planning of a large scale study and directions for further development of this educational resource

Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe

The Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe describes what Easy Language is and how it is used in European countries. It demonstrates the great diversity of actors, instruments and outcomes related to Easy Language throughout Europe. All people, despite their limitations, have an equal right to information, inclusion, and social participation. This results in requirements for understandable language. The notion of Easy Language refers to modified forms of standard languages that aim to facilitate reading and language comprehension. This handbook describes the historical background, the principles and the practices of Easy Language in 21 European countries. Its topics include terminological definitions, legal status, stakeholders, target groups, guidelines, practical outcomes, education, research, and a reflection on future perspectives related to Easy Language in each country. Written in an academic yet interesting and understandable style, this Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe aims to find a wide audience

Putting the reader in the picture. Screen translation and foreign-language learning

Although Portugal is traditionally a subtitling country, with regular exposure to English audiovisual materials, the population's foreign-language skills (English) appear as statistically low. This research seeks to evaluate translation, as an activity in the educational area, and its relevance to foreign-language development and learning; it aims specifically at evaluating the effectiveness of subtitling as a language-learning tool amongst learners in Portugal.The data resulted from three studies. The first two tested the understanding of content through exposure to subtitles. The third evaluated the production skills of EFL students, in a very specific area of language - idiomatic expressions-, via the use of the mother-tongue, after prior exposure to subtitled material.The findings from the 3 studies indicate that the presence of subtitles, interlingual or intralingual, always contribute towards viewers' comprehension of the content, even in culture-specific areas such as idioms. Putting the reader in the picture: screen translation and foreign-language learning Abstract Although Portugal is traditionally a subtitling country, with regular exposure to English audiovisual materials, the population's foreign-language skills (English) appear as statistically low. This research seeks to evaluate translation, as an activity in the educational area, and its relevance to foreign-language development and learning; it aims specifically at evaluating the effectiveness of subtitling as a language-learning tool amongst learners in Portugal. The data resulted from three studies. The first two tested the understanding of content through exposure to subtitles. The third evaluated the production skills of EFL students, in a very specific area of language - idiomatic expressions-, via the use of the mother-tongue, after prior exposure to subtitled material. The findings from the 3 studies indicate that the presence of subtitles, interlingual or intralingual, always contribute towards viewers' comprehension of the content, even in culture-specific areas such as idioms

Integrated adaptive skills program model (IASP)

Integrated Adaptive Skills Program Model (IASP) is designed to offer supportive services to disabled students seeking to integrate into a local after-school program. IASP Model focuses on teaching adaptive skills to disabled students that would prepare them to be fully included into an after-school program with their same age peers. The program offers support, training, and consultation to the students and staff involved in the program. A variety of research-methods and assessment screening tools are used to determine eligibility and program implementation. The IASP Model was piloted during the 2011-2012 school year, in California, United States, but due to limited local and state funds the program could not continue. Students with disabilities deserve to be involved in the community and should not be excluded based on funds. Teaching and educating others on how to integrate students with disabilities into programs will minimize and/or eliminate exclusion of participating in recreation programs within residing communities.https://scholar.dominican.edu/books/1179/thumbnail.jp