Following our first Grundtvig Partnership Project meeting in Trondheim, Norway, in November 2011, seven of us visited Lille in France for our second seminar.
Four Deaf and three hearing people, including two British Sign Language interpreters, attended the two-day seminar which included presentations on the use of ICT, a museum visit to use a new sign language ipod and a tour of old Lille with a Deaf presenter. The Deaf attendees also participated in a research project using eye-tracking technology to understand what types of sign language videos are easiest to understand.
It was like greeting old friends, and we even picked up an honorary Englishman in the shape of a Deaf presenter from a museum in New York who is fluent in BSL.
And just like in November, we were in awe of the sign language interpreters who translated spoken English into French and Norwegian sign languages respectively. Well done them!
What a really useful and interesting seminar pushing back the boundaries for reaching out to deaf visitors in our sites and in other European locations. The technology sounds as if it has great potential but more importantly the collaboration and shared knowledge will be invaluable.