Research project Edusign & Signedu
Edusign & Signedu is a European collaborative project that aims to increase society's awareness of deaf-related issues and create opportunities for more countries to train sign language interpreters.
Despite international efforts and legal actions, deaf individuals continue to suffer from injustice, including in the education system. Communication problems resulting from a lack of interpretation are a common example. There is still a great need to raise society's awareness of deaf-related issues and there is a need for more sign language interpreters.
Sweden and Finland have a long history of supporting research in sign language and linguistic accessibility for the deaf. For half a century, these countries have made efforts to secure deaf citizens' access to sign language interpretation, to education in sign language and they have provided sign language interpreter (SLI) training, first in vocational, later in higher education.
In other European countries, great efforts are still required to ensure that deaf people get access to education and the opportunity to work professionally, which are considered human rights. Turkey is a country that is in great need of more sign language interpreters to ensure that deaf citizens are included in society, get education and the opportunity for employment.
Edusign & Signedu is a European collaborative project that aims to raise awareness of deaf-related issues and create opportunities for more countries to train sign language interpreters. The aim of the project is to establish an international platform for deaf studies and sign language studies in order to be able to
- coordinate studies and efforts to raise awareness about the Deaf community
- function as an academic body to study sign language teaching, sign language interpreting, and technological innovation.
Project description
Considering the objectives of the Erasmus project, first, a sign language coordination network is suggested to coordinate a data-driven approach for initiating and/or revising curriculum for sign language interpreting in order to increase both the number of sign language interpreting undergraduate programs and certificate programs, and qualified sign language interpreters. The coordination network will also be responsible for a common disciplined sign language education curriculum across countries, which also form the basis of proposed sign language prep school to make students have enough competence to follow sign language-medium instruction.
A platform for Deaf Studies and Sign Language Studies is planned to be established to coordinate studies and efforts to raise awareness about the Deaf community, and function as an academic body to study sign language teaching, sign language interpreting, and technological innovation.
Project members
Project managers
Members
Johanna Mesch
Professor
Magnus Ryttervik
Lecturer
