<< Objectives >>-Contribution to development of a authentic inclusive society by improving communication between deaf and hearing people through appropriate mediation with the help of competent mediators that ensure the interpretation into sign language and the translation of messages communicated in sign language into spoken language.- Increasing the quality of sign language interpretation services, especially in terms of professional ethics, knowledge and respect for the Deaf Culture.<< Implementation >>Transnational Project Meeting - Project Start UpCurriculum: “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers”eBook: “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers”LTT - adults training event: “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers”Multiplier Event “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers” DEMultiplier Event “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers” ROTransnational Project Meeting Follow UpProject management<< Results >>- Training for Sign Language Interpreters: “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers”- Best practice guide for sign language interpreters: “Ambassador of the Deaf Community to the World of Hearers”- Improving communication between deaf and hearing people through appropriate mediation with the help of competent mediators that ensure the interpretation into sign language and the translation of messages communicated in sign language into spoken language.

"The project ""Effective Methodology – Teaching of the Sign Language"" was implemented for a period of 36 months in cooperation with three organizations working for people with disabilities - Deaf people who use sign language. The partnership was undertaken with three organizations from the following countries: Romania, Germany and Poland, with the latter being the leading organization. Partner countries engage in education in the use of sign language to facilitate communication with deaf people in various social and professional situations. Participating organizations see significant limitations in access to materials that facilitate learning of this language, and the lack of appropriate methods to facilitate this process. For this reason, the aim of the project was to develop a common methodology for sign language teaching, dedicated to students and sign language teachers. The partnership prepared a methodology based on their national experience in sign language teaching, which allowed the selection of the best methods for joint implementation under the project.Project activities included first learning the strengths and weaknesses of the methods previously used in sign language courses in each country.As part of learning-related activities, project participants learned about the specificity of sign language in each country and took part in organized sign language courses.Based on this experience, the project's result is the development of one common teaching methodology that takes into account the specificities of each national sign language. Expert meetings were organized in each country, a number of consultations with sign language educators were carried out, course scenarios were developed, pilot courses were conducted and materials for teachers and course participants in national languages were prepared. As part of the methodology, a course program covering 180-200 teaching hours was prepared, which includes classes via the created Internet platform: https://tsl-migowy.online and face-to-face classes with a sign language instructor. A handbook for learning sign language was prepared in versions for the student and the teacher, in both printed and electronic versions.Registered participants of the course were given access to photos and videos covered by the curriculum in three language versions: https://tsl-migowy.online/pl/slownik/, https://tsl-migowy.online/ro/dictionar/, https://tsl-migowy.online/de/woerterbuch/. The platform and textbooks have been made available to students of all partner organizations free of charge for the usage in educational work related to the sign language.As a result of the dissemination activities carried out, we reached several hundred teachers and people interested in learning sign language.The resulting tool is a great help in learning sign language, because it allows you to combine online learning with the traditional way of teaching. This tool, at the will of the partners, will continue to be used and developed for learning sign language. The beneficiary will expand the database by adding new vocabulary of Polish Sign Language, creating a database of words to learn at subsequent levels of sign language courses. It is planned to expand its functionality with the possibility of individual consultations with the teacher and conducting online classes."

"Sign languages are an important part of Europe’s multilingual diversity. An estimated 1 person in 1,000 uses a national sign language as their first language - i.e. about 500,000 people EU-wide. Others may use sign language as a second or third language, for example the family and friends of deaf and hearing-impaired people. Depending on the perception, deafness is considered as a disability or as an enrichment with an own culture. Unfortunately, different studies of partner organizations shows that there are still few people who know that there is one DEAF CULTURE which refers to a group of people who have common beliefs and practices, who have a set of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, specific language, customs and traditions that are transmitted through sign language. The vast majority of people continue to see deafness just as a deficiency. More, there are still few members of Deaf Community who are truly aware of their own cultural identity. To ensure the inclusion of deaf people in European society it's necessary raising the level of awareness for the entire society on this issue, on the hand, and awareness of their own cultural identity by deaf people and active involving in promoting it, on the other hand. The direct beneficiaries of the project were Deaf persons, students and adults, aged between 16 and 90 years, who also participated in the project activities and events. They are members of Deaf Community from different countries, who identify themselves as members of the Deaf Community with a distinct language and culture. Over 500 direct beneficiaries were involved in project activities in the realization of intellectual products, transnational and national learning activities, multiplication events etc. of which about 400, Deaf beneficiaries. The longer term benefits is increasing of the the chances of social inclusion for Deaf people by forming and developing the cultural identity for Deaf Community members and making the hearing community be aware of the existence of Deaf Community cultural identity. Our aim was not only to promote the culture of Deaf Community and the Sign Language but also to help the process of developing the Deaf Culture by encouraging its members to create and perform in specific artistic moments, to became active citizens in promoting their own culture, which was also successfully achieved by implementing the project. The project objectives where: - Promoting Deaf Community Culture in order to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of Deaf Culture and Sign Language by creating and dissemination of a Virtual Cultural Center of the Deaf which contains different cultural products of the Deaf Community and informative multimedia educational materials about Deaf Culture. - Forming and developing the cultural identity for Deaf Community members by offering accessible information in Sign Language regarding own community culture and encouraging active involvement in creation of new products of entertainment and life long learning for deaf audiences like Sign Language Songs, Sign Language Comedy Shows, other relevant leisure and educational multimedia materials. The main results and impact envisaged are: - Educational and entertainment resources for Deaf people: Multimedia Open Educational Resources about Deaf Culture available in four versions (using partners countries Sign Languages) and videos with specific cultural manifestation of Deaf Community; - ""International Virtual Cultural Centre of the Deaf"" website that will include all our project results any many other resources in the topic, resources created by partner organizations but by other organizations, too. It will be a ""virtual cultural treasure"" about Deaf Culture where any interested person/organization will find open educational and entertainment resources, links to other sites, platforms etc. - Develop the cultural identity and active citizenship skills for Deaf Community members; - Developing the Deaf Community culture by encouraging its members to create and perform in specific artistic moments; - Developing a positive attitude, specific for an inclusive society, towards Deaf Community among the hearing people . These results were achieved by the project activities: local/national and transnational trainings, realization and distribution of intellectual outputs, dissemination activities, multiplier events, etc. Deaf people were involved in all project activities (including project management activities). Each organization engages Deaf people as employees, which results from the essence of the issue of Deaf Culture - where these people can provide the most information on this subject. In this way, we implement the principle of social inclusion of people with special needs. Ensuring equal access to services in IVCCD project required the provision of a sign language interpreter at every stage of project implementation."

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.