The project aimed to develop practical deaf awareness solutions for adult education and professional contexts. A first objective was to jointly design and test a structured deaf awareness workshop for non-deaf adults, providing them with concrete knowledge, communication strategies, and inclusive approaches when interacting with deaf people. A second objective was to produce accessible and reusable awareness-raising resources, in particular videos, that could support training delivery and reach wider audiences beyond direct participants. These resources were intended to be deaf-led, adaptable across countries, and usable by other organisations active in inclusion and adult education. Finally, the project aimed to strengthen transnational cooperation between Empoway (Belgium), Associação Portuguesa de Surdos (Portugal), and Listen Up Foundation (Bulgaria) through the exchange of expertise, joint content development, and mutual capacity building.
The project was developed in response to a concrete and shared need identified by Empoway, Listen Up Foundation, and Associação Portuguesa de Surdos through their direct work with deaf people and non-deaf professionals. All three organisations observed that deaf people across Europe continue to face daily barriers in workplaces, public services, and education due to a lack of deaf awareness, limited knowledge of Deaf culture and sign languages, and ineffective communication practices among non-deaf staff. Although inclusion and accessibility are increasingly discussed, the partners identified a clear gap in practical, deaf-led awareness training for adults working in contact with deaf people. Existing resources were often fragmented, not accessible, or not designed for adult education contexts. The partners recognised the need for shared, innovative, high-quality, and reusable training materials that could be applied across countries. The project was therefore designed to deliver concrete solutions: structured deaf awareness training sessions and accessible video resources, led by deaf trainers, to support meaningful inclusion and long-term impact in professional environments across Europe.