Being Deaf in an Inclusive Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Being Deaf in an Inclusive Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The beneficiaries of Being Deaf in an Inclusive Europe Project are deaf adult people. The success of their social and professional integration depends on education, on access to information and also on the ability to research on information. Unfortunately, the deaf people’s possibilities to inform themselves mainly depends on the speech language level and on a good knowledge of spoken and written verbal language because there are few informational and educational materials using Sign Language as main communication instrument.

The project was implemented through a strategic partnership between 5 non- profit organisations from 5 European countries: Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Poland and Germany. All partners provide services to Deaf people and have experience in working with Deaf people and in producing multimedia educational or informative materials using Sign Language.

According to the statistics, in Romania there are, approximately 25 000 hearing impaired people, in Turkey, approximately 350 000, in Poland, approximately 50 000, in Slovakia 50 000 and in Germany approx. 100 000 deaf people. In total, in partner organisations’ countries, there are approx. 575 000 deaf people. Over 150 000 from them are Sign language users. One of the major barriers to for Deaf people is the lack of recognition, acceptance and use of sign language in all areas of life as well as lack of respect for Deaf people’s cultural and linguistic identity. This leads to marginalization of Deaf people. By raising the level of awareness for the entire society on this issue this attitude can be changed and the Deaf Community can be recognized as linguistic community. That’s why one of the priorities of our project targeted reducing disparities in learning outcomes affecting Deaf Adult Learners.

Bilingual education is a wide spread concept on European and also on global level, referring to children and young deaf people. The innovation of our project consists in transferring this concept in education throughout Life Long Learning of deaf adults. The access to bilingual education (using verbal communication and Sign Language at the same time) for deaf adults is quite limited on European level and almost absent on national level because of the small number of interprets and because of limited financial resources assigned to this domain.

The main Project Objectives were:
– development of social and professional abilities of integration for the adult deaf and hearing impaired persons by forming and informing them about the labour market, the opportunities that digital technology and it’s continuum upgrading offers them in terms of communication and social integration, Human Rights, social integration abilities, Deaf Community Culture;
– facilitating the access to Open Educational Resources for Deaf people through the creation and development of a free e-Learning Platform containing video informative materials on various topics of interest for Deaf Community using Sign Language as primary means of communication.

These objectives where achieved primarily through 5 Training Activities (Blended mobility of adult learners) including 80 mobilities for direct beneficiaries and by producing of 5 educational materials tailored to their special needs and e-Learning specific (available in five languages of partner countries). The main activities and tools which ensured internal and external communication and, also, dissemination, exploitation of project results and its impact, where the project website, a virtual Learning Platform to Deaf adult learners and 5 national multiplier events addressing in special to Deaf Community and including Press Conferences.

The main results and impact envisaged where:
– increasing the socio-professional integration skills of the beneficiaries;
– informing deaf people about the opportunities that digital technology and it’s continuum upgrading offers them in terms of communication and social integration and developing the necessary skills and competences in order to use digital technology;
– increasing the self-esteem and developing the cultural identity for European Deaf Community;
– new educational strategies which can be duplicated in the beneficiaries’ institutions and other European similar institutions and new open educational resources adapted to deaf people special needs.

A virtual Learning Platform was developed and, it is an important source for information and lifelong learning for Deaf Adults.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 199898,82 Eur

Project Coordinator

Asociatia Nationala a Profesorilor pentru Elevi cu Deficiente de Auz Virgil Florea & Country: RO

Project Partners

• Centrum Edukacji i Wsparcia “RES-GEST”
• Uluslararasi Buyuk Egitimciler ve Ozel Egitimciler Dernegi (UBED)
• Narodne komunikacne a informacne centrum nepocujucich a nedoslychavych v SR
• Gehörlosenverband Hamburg e.V.