In today's society, children who are D/deaf face an extreme disadvantage in education, training and employment. Despite many advances in recent years, adequate bilingual education in Sign language and written language is still not available in most European countries, leading to D/deaf children acquiring only lower literacy levels. Lack of opportunities, particularly in employment, can lead to psychological, social, emotional and economical problems, social exclusion and depression. According to the World Health Organisation, these are the most common and difficult issues for D/deaf people to overcome. Career Paths Inclusive contributes towards empowering D/deaf youth. As a result of project outputs, D/deaf youth are empowered and informed in their choice of future career, have access to and use bilingual digital tools, and have augmented their transferable skill set. The project aims to design, develop and test digital multimedia career guidance tools with bilingual (multilingual) content to empower D/deaf youth in planning their career paths, thereby facilitating greater self-determination and inclusion. There will be three work packages: IO1 CHECK YOUR PROFILE - an online generator providing suggestions for fields of work based on a series of questions in Sign Language and plain text on the user’s interests, strengths and weaknesses. IO2 CAREER PATH TOOLKIT - Multimedia toolkit enabling users to gain insight into a specific occupation via additional barrier free information in Sign Language and plain text. IO3 LEARNING BY PLAYING - digital games and activities provide job-specific vocabulary training in a contrastive learning format. The main target group is D/deaf youth aged 16 - 30. Participation and empowerment didactics are the cornerstones of project methodology. Selected D/deaf youth play a key role in output production, ensuring implementation is user-driven. The tools provide a contrastive learning effect, in Sign Language and written language, as well as incorporating visual elements, such as videos, animations, graphics, games and more. Plain text format is used to ensure maximum accessibility. Not only are D/deaf youth able to gain knowledge and insight into various careers, the tools foster the learning of specialised job-oriented vocabulary. Contrastive learning enables D/deaf youth to improve literacy levels in written language, as well as training and augmenting Signing competencies and fluency. The tools can be used for self-study purposes or as part of a blended learning approach to vocational training. Responsive design is fundamental to tool development, ensuring access via smart phone or tablet. Providing accessible and inclusive digital career guidance tools contributes towards ensuring greater equality of opportunity for D/deaf youth in their choice of career path. The tools will be available in the following Sign Languages: Austrian, Czech, Slovak and German, as well as German, Czech and Slovak written languages. The use of plain text and focus on visual presentation means that the tools can be used by other groups such as people with intellectual disabilities or hearing youth wishing to acquire Sign Language skills and competencies. The tools can be used in integrative and vocational schools, as well as by organisations offering employment services, counselling and support throughout Central Europe. Multiplier events in all 4 participating countries, combined with an effective dissemination strategy ensures the widest possible reach of the project outputs and the use of the tools.
In today's society, children who are deaf face an extreme disadvantage in education, training and employment. Despite many advances in recent years, adequate bilingual education in sign and written language is still not available in most European countries, leading to deaf children acquiring only lower literacy levels. Lack of opportunities, particularly in employment, can lead to psychological, social, emotional and economical problems, social exclusion and depression. According to the World Health Organisation, these are the most common and difficult issues for deaf people to overcome. Career Paths Inclusive contributes towards empowering deaf youth. As a result of project outputs, deaf youth are empowered and informed in their choice of future career, have access to and use bilingual digital tools, and have augmented their transferable skill set. The project aims to design, develop and test digital multimedia career guidance tools with bilingual (multilingual) content to empower deaf youth in planning their career paths, thereby facilitating greater self-determination and inclusion. There are two work packages: CHECK YOUR PROFILE is an online generator providing suggestions for fields of work based on a series of questions in sgn language and plain language on the user’s interests, strengths and weaknesses. CAREER PATHS TOOLKIT is a multimedia toolkit enabling users to gain insight into specific careers via additional barrier free information in sign language and plain language. The main target group is deaf youth aged 16 - 30. Participation and empowerment didactics are the cornerstones of project methodology. Selected deaf youth play key roles in output production, ensuring implementation is user-driven. The tools provide a contrastive learning effect, in sign language and written language, as well as incorporating visual elements, such as videos, pictures and more. Video content is signed and captioned but there are also plain language versions to accompany the signed videos. This ensures maximum linguistic accessibility. Not only are deaf youth able to gain knowledge and insight into various careers, the tools foster the learning of specialised job-oriented vocabulary. Contrastive learning enables deaf youth to improve literacy levels in written language, as well as training and augmenting signing competencies and fluency. The tools can be used for self-study purposes or as part of a blended learning approach to vocational training. Responsive design is fundamental to tool development, ensuring access via smart phone or tablet. Providing accessible and inclusive digital career guidance tools contributes towards ensuring greater equality of opportunity for deaf youth in their choice of career path. The tools are available in the following sign languages: Austrian (ÖGS), Czech (CZJ), Slovak (SPJ) and German (DGS), as well as German, Czech and Slovak written languages. The use of plain language and the focus on visual presentation means that the tools can be used by other groups such as people with learning difficulties and/or intellectual disabilities, as well as hearing and hard of hearing youth wishing to acquire sign language skills and competencies. The tools can be used in integrative and vocational schools, as well as by organisations offering employment services, counselling and support throughout Central Europe. Multiplier events in all 4 participating countries, combined with an effective dissemination strategy have ensured the widest possible reach of the project outputs and the use of the tools.