SDNP and PAD use APDIP grant to research ICTs-assisted Learning Tool forDeaf in Pakistan

March 08, 2003

Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP), Pakistan, a part of IUCN Pakistan Programme's Education, Communication & Knowledge Management Group, is presently working in collaboration with Pakistan Association of the Deaf (PAD - a leading deaf association in Pakistan), under the Asia Pacific Development Information Programme's (APDIP) ICT R&D grant to research the effectiveness of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) on learning of the deaf.

The challenging theoretical and practical study focuses on devising workable and replicable learning solutions for the deaf of Pakistan. In the initial information gathering phase, a national seminar "Environment & Deaf Education" was arranged on March 8-9, 2003 at IUCN Pakistan's Sindh office in which Pakistani Sign Language - PSL - (Urdu) symbols for 'environmental' terms and Urdu grammar were developed and standardized. Sign language experts from all over the country - Larkana, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sukkur, Sargodha, Hasilpur, Pind Dadenkhan, & Bahawalpur - participated in the workshop. Henceforward SDNP-IUCN will publish the standardized environmental and other sign language symbols (alphabets, grammar, traffic, general dictionary words) developed by PAD, using on-line (web) and off-line (CD-ROM) technologies. The CD-ROM product will comprise lesson plans/assessment tests graphically illustrated through PSL. Selected data sets from the exercises will be made available online on Internet as freeware for easy downloads by the deaf community. The effectiveness of ICT tools on the learning of the target community will be researched in two parts on a small and later a large focus group using both qualitative and quantitative feedback.

If successful in its objectives and impact, the product can be widely adapted across the country with the aim of greater development and integration of the deaf of Pakistan into the society as contributing members of the community. As a whole, promoting Pakistani Sign Language aims to bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing worlds and more broadly intends to bring closer the users of Urdu language in more than 20 countries.