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New sign language new(S): the globalization of sign language in the smartphone era

TANNENBAUM-BARUCHI, Caroline
FEDER-BUBIS, Paula
October 2017

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"Languages are dynamic and change over the years. Changes in sign languages have been usually initiated to accommodate the needs of the local Deaf community. With the increase in smartphone use, sign languages are influenced not only by the local Deaf community, but also by foreign Deaf people on the other side of the screen, regardless of their location. Smartphones influence the sign language itself and the Deaf community by connecting different communities of Deaf people through messages, shared information and experiences, and news delivery. The popularity of this technology among Deaf communities is a social phenomenon emerging from Deaf people themselves. Smartphones may promote the globalization of sign language, shortening distances between Deaf communities around the world"

Disability & Society, Volume 33, 2018 - Issue 2

Including alternative stories in the mainstream. How transcultural young people in Norway perform creative cultural resistance in and outside of school

DEWILDE, Joke
SKREFSRUD, Thor-André
2016

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The development of an inclusive pedagogy takes on new urgency in Norwegian schools as the student body has become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse. Traditionally, the Norwegian school has been dominated by homogenising and assimilating discourses, whereas alternative voices have been situated at the margins. In response to this tendency, we present two transcultural students’ autoethnographic stories produced in alternative spaces to the Norwegian mainstream, that is, in a transition class for newly arrived students and on Facebook. Both spaces are perceived as contact zones in the sense that they are culturally and linguistically complex. This article illustrates how the students perform cultural and linguistic resistance towards dominant homogenising discourses as the transition class and Facebook seem to offer opportunities for constructing alternative stories. Moreover, we contend that these alternative stories offer important knowledge for conventional education contexts since they represent stories of competence in contrast to the assumed limitations of these students.

Information design and distance learning for international development

SHAW, Rod
2001

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[Publisher's abstract] This book presents an investigation by research into the ways in which distance learning is affected by the physical design of printed study materials. In particular, it examines the use of engineering drawing systems for illustrated, instructional texts concerned with technical aspects of infrastructure development. Part I comprises a review of literature on learning and adult education; international development and distance learning; information design for self-instruction; and research into illustration, with particular reference to the visual perception of engineering drawings and the implications for their cross-cultural use. Part II presents questions and hypotheses which emerged from the literature review. It also presents the research methodology designed to test comprehension of engineering drawing systems, along with the results of tests undertaken by five adult learning groups selected from pre-degree, undergraduate and postgraduate populations. Part II concludes with an analysis and discussion of the results of these tests. Part III presents the conclusions drawn from both the literature review and from the analysis of the research results. It concludes with proposals for further study

Information on learning braille

ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND (RNIB)
2000

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This is a comprehensive guide to resources for teaching braille, including teaching packs, writing machines and writing materials. It includes contact details of organisations in the UK and USA. It is also available on audio-cassette, diskette and in braille

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