In the EU member states, approximately 750.000 people are deaf from an early age and use a sign language as their preferred language. Deaf people not only have their own language, but also their own culture: Deaf Culture. The education of deaf children has a long -, and controversial - history going back centuries. Today, most hearing people do know about sign language, but they may know little or nothing about Deaf Culture, Deaf Education. Deaf Clubs, for centuries the centres of Deaf Culture, are disappearing quickly or have vanished already. Most deaf children are now mainstreamed. As a result, the heritage of Deaf people is at risk. In the Deaf Museums project, we will develop Open Educational Resources (OER), including an online training course in museum and general entrepreneurial skills for and by Deaf sign language users, to promote, preserve and share the Deaf Heritage. The Deaf Museums project has 2 long term goals: 1. To promote, preserve and share the Deaf Heritage and by doing so: to promote Deaf awareness in the widest sense possible. 2. To improve the employability of Deaf sign language users and the success of Deaf entrepreneurs by providing them with the necessary mindset and skills. In so doing, it will support the Erasmus+ goals for the participants in Strategic Partnerships: increased capacity and professionalism to work at EU/international level: improved management competences and internationalisation strategies; reinforced cooperation with partners from other countries and other cultures. Short term objectives of the project are: 1. To develop online Open Educational Resources including a training course in basic Museum skills, for and by Deaf sign language users. The course will include examples, guidelines, signed stories and case studies, all produced and/or tested by the participants in the project. Included will be topics that state of the art mainstream museums are addressing: “Who are museums for and why are they working to engage new audiences? How do visitors respond emotionally to museum objects and spaces? And how can museums play a role in the pursuit of social justice, human rights, or health and well being?” (https://www.culturepartnership.eu/en/article/5-free-online-courses-for-museum-workers). Special attention will be given to the use of social media and ICT tools. All information will be in International Sign, written English, and as many of the partners’ signed and written languages as possible. 2. To output case studies and good examples of museum exhibitions (e.g. about Deaf Culture, Deaf Art, Deaf people during WWII, Deaf migrants, Deaf in the European Union), produced by the participants in the project. The case studies and exhibitions will be included as examples in the training course and will be used to promote the project and disseminate its results both during and after the project's lifetime. 3. To research the state of the art in this field through surveys and interviews, to use the results to set up a platform for the promotion of real and virtual Deaf museums and Deaf Heritage initiatives, nationally, across Europe and globally, and to promote and support transnational collaboration in this field. Methodology and participating organisations The participating organisations represent a diverse mix of organisations from different fields of education, training, and other socio-economic sectors, including institutes of higher education, NGO's and SME's, from 7 European countries. In the consortium, participants from 'the Deaf world' and from the 'mainstream Museum world' will work together to produce high quality results and output by sharing and comparing each other's expertise. Our methodology will be based on peer-learning and challenge-based learning. Partners as well as several invited experts will share their expertise in specific fields. Partners will be asked to find solutions for the challenges that Museums in general, and Deaf Museums in particular have to deal with. They will learn practical entrepreneurial skills by planning, producing, promoting and evaluating the exhibitions that they will develop during the project. At each consortium meeting, they will be interviewed about the work they have done and about lessons learned. These interviews will be included in the OER and will be used to disseminate information about the project, both during and after the project's lifetime. Impact and potential longer term benefits Interest in the Deaf Heritage and Deaf Culture and how to preserve and share these, has been growing rapidly in recent years. Therefore, we expect the project to have a major impact on Deaf people and Deaf Organisations in general, and on Deaf Museums and similar initiatives in particular. We also expect the project to have impact on mainstream Museum professionals. Long term benefits: bridging gaps between generations of Deaf people, between Deaf and hearing people, and between Deaf and mainstream Museum professionals.
Long term: highlighting the importance of existing Deaf Museums, creating tools for training Deaf sign language users in museum skills, enabling both deaf and hearing to produce exhibitions that would help protect, share and preserve Deaf Heritage for Deaf communities. Outputs are meant to both inspire and train individuals and organizations; to provide examples, answer questions, and encourage Deaf sign language users to produce new exhibitions once they get familiar with the Museum sector through our OER so they can position themselves in the Deaf Museum scenario described in depth by our state of the art report. Short term: we wished to create an OER that would include a training course in basic Museum skills and that contained a number of resources - examples, guidelines signed stories, interviews, and case studies - all produced by project participants - to inspire them and guide them in the realisation of a Deaf Heritage exhibition or a Deaf Museum. Also, we wanted to produce exhibitions that could have an immediate impact; be used as examples and would both promote the project and disseminate its results. A side effect we hoped for was to initiate and support transnational collaboration.
Deaf heritage is at risk not least because most deaf children are mainstreamed and are therefore disconnected from the larger Deaf community. Deaf Clubs, that in the past were focal points for Deaf communities, are disappearing fast or have vanished already There is a need for collective work - at national and transnational level - to make sure that Deaf sign language users are technically capable and also motivated to protect, preserve and share Deaf History and Deaf Heritage. First and foremost for their own Deaf community. Deaf individuals, therefore, need to have access to training material in sign to acquire Museum skills, so as to be able to produce exhibitions on their own or in collaboration with Deaf and/or hearing organizations, Dear and/or hearing mainstream Museums. The DM project also address the need for resources of different kinds to be gathered in one accessible platform. It is essential that these resources be both in sign - case studies, personal memories and stories, interviews - and in written form - bibliographies, archival material, examples of training courses.