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It is a common remark among the professional in the fields of special education, that despite of the tremendous evolution of computer communication networks and especially Internet services and facilities, little has been done towards the direction of usage and penetration of these network services within the domain of education - training and mainly within the sub domains of life long training, continuing vocational training and distance training for the Deaf People. The basic cause of the current state is the lack of material translated into the Sign Language as well as the lack of dexterities in the use of tools of e- learning technology by hearing impaired people. However, the user-friendly multimedia based telecommunication as well as the information services of the Internet can be used as a standard electronic platform to support primarily the main procedures of distance, life long and continuing training for the Deaf people. The penetration of the telecommunication and information services, adjusted to their special needs via the means of the Sign Language, is a certain method towards the general improvement of the educational and training services provided for the Deaf People.

The basic objective of the proposal is the support of the equal rights of Deaf people for their access and real attendance in the professional training. The final aim is the creation of a passage for these individuals into the new professional fields via their training with specialised knowledge and dexterities in the use of the continuously developing sectors of e-learning and electronic Trade (e-commerce). Indisputably, these knowledge and experience will constitute supplies for their life long training and education.

Specifically, in the sectors of e-learning and e-commerce, an important blossoming in the work market is observed and new places of work in the enterprising sector are continuously created. Consequently, the team objective (Deaf people), that faces problems of social exclusion and unemployment, will have multiple profits from the pilot action of distance and long life training into the new tools of society of information.

We point out that the quality of the educational material that will be produced as well as the methodology of training that will be applied in the pilot work, is ensured by the attendance of experienced scientific personnel of special education, special scientists and engineers of information technology that have participated repeatedly in inquiring European programs of distance education and education of Individuals with Special Needs.

In the present proposal, we intend to produce the following deliverables:

a) Development of an e-Learning environment for the Deaf People adapted to them via the Sign Language. The environment will be based on the usage of the advanced teleconference services of Internet (network virtual classroom) and will offer a sum of facilities and services that will be able to support, via an easy and friendly way, education and training in the form of life long and continuing education for the Deaf People.

b) The design and development of electronic informative “adaptive” material for Deaf People in the form of Web is included. This informative material will be based on animation (flash technology) and streaming video (multimedia) and will be directed towards the aim of training in e-commerce and new technologies of Internet. The material will be all translated in the Sign Language via the Streaming Digital Video.

c) Furthermore, the creation of a web portal and a human network (forum) of educators, technicians and educators within the scientific domain of deaf people, is also within the central goals of the present proposal. The portal together with the human network will undertake the role of the information circulator from and to professional and deaf students. These means, via specific actions, will inform the professional and students for new products. Moreover, it will bear the feedback and demands from deaf community (students, professional) to industry.

d) Lastly, the design and running of a pilot application of life long and distance training within the scientific domain of e-commerce will be corporated in the proposal for the Deaf People. In this pilot, all the above mentioned actions and developments will be co-ordinated so that the desired outcome of training will be available in the community of hearing impaired people, for application and evaluation that will lead to the final improvements of the central as well as the subsidiary design and developments. Taking into account the circumstances in Greece, deaf people do not have the proportional economic resources in order to be equipped with suitable material and technical systems for the use of e-learning. This being the case, the project aims at the creation of centres of distance training into the associations of Deaf/ Hard of hearing so that via the proportional material - technical equipment and parallel training of the teachers of Deaf people, the services of new society of information would be provided to the Deaf people. Finally, it should be reported that several seminars for the Deaf People of the use of tools of e-learning and e-commerce will be materialised.

Concluding the short presentation of this proposal, we underline that the main goals of this project are presented in the above paragraphs (a, b, c and d). It is also understandable that the main products and actions of this project can be used for the support and development of other applications of Distance Education for the Deaf People in any field of knowledge. This fact will have radical impact on the form of training systems and politics, taking into account that it is the first time that an integrated training system for Deaf People based on the teleconferencing facilities of Internet is being introduced.

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