"The changes that have taken place in recent years in the education of the deaf (emanating from the recommendations of the European Parliament through the document A2-302/87, the United Nations Resolution 1994, the Salamanca Declaration 1994, and the UN General Assembly in 2006) require public schools’ new projects, a new profile of teachers capable of acting in different areas and with sustained training in the development of studies in the area of education of the Deaf.There is in Physical Education discipline taught in schools a space for learning language concepts and for the development of Sign Language for deaf students. Positive experiences and effective communication in Physical Education teaching can form the basis for regular practice of physical activities that promote health and well-being. But when sign language is not the domain of teachers and deaf students do not master spoken and/or written language, teaching can become complex and segregating. In addition, the lack of adequate resources, in this specific case, the lack of a bilingual glossary of comprehensive bilingual sports, which allows students to learn sports terminology and display the demonstration of their motor skill, can obstruct the ""full"" exercise of the teaching and learning process. When the teacher does not master the Sign Language, it must be supported by an interpreter, but the lack of resources, which make it possible to learn and update new terminology in Sign Language, can also condition the translation work of the interpreters, taking them many linguistic niches of Sign Language, since they also use this type of tools in the preparation of the translation process. Taking in consideration these identified needs, SportSign's main target groups are: Physical Education teachers, Interpreters and Deaf students.In practical terms, SportSign aims at developing joint initiatives meant at creating a Bilingual Sports Glossary as a self-learning pedagogical tool for free access at world level through an innovative approach to increase the effectiveness of the pedagogical strategy directed at deaf students in Physical Education and Sports, based on a 2-phase model:1 – Development of a tool kit - Sport Sign to be tested in class context by each partner country (Physical Education teachers, Sign Language teachers and Sign Language interpreters will be trained through an E-learning course);2 - Creation of an online community platform to promote cooperation and exchange of good practice between Physical Education and Sign Language professionals.The methodology proposed for the progress of the project aims at the effectiveness of its implementation, development, dissemination and sustainability. The project is grounded on 3 milestones: Milestone 1: completion of the comparative study; Milestone 2: SportSign toolkit and Sport Sign e-Community platform; Milestone 3: Analysis of pilot action results and sharing of good practices.The first output of the project will be a Comparative Study. For this study, each country will involve participants from the target groups in data collection, which will then be analysed, compiled and published. Along with this activity, two other outputs will be underway - the SportSign Toolkit and the e-Community platform. It follows a period of testing and validation of these ICT tools. A pre-testing with local participants will enable validation, product improvement and training of the target public in the user version. Students will be involved in sport, recreation and cultural activities to develop contacts with peers from partner countries and will create a network to promote the SportSign e-Community platform. Then the piloting stage will take place in each country and will be object of a monitoring and assessment process. The collection of the results will lead to the fourth and last output – the Good Practices guide. This Guide will be published and widely disseminated to schools with deaf students, sports clubs, associations of deaf people, physical education teachers and interpreters’ organizations and other stakeholders.SportSign will contribute to standardize the use of Sign Language in Physical Education discipline and Sports using schools as dissemination vehicle. From a sustainability point of view, the SportSign Toolkit can be easily extended by integrating more advanced sports’ terminology or by including other sport modalities, as well as through its translation to other EU languages.SportSign piloting activities expects to reach a significant number of participants. Approximately 25 physical education teachers, 25 interpreters and 100 deaf students will be directly involved in the project activities. It is expected that besides the piloting and after its end the project will impact on a much wider community."

<< Objectives >>The aim of this project is to respond to the need for language acquisition (either spoken or sign language) of deaf children and to establish effective means of communication within the family by educating and empowering families - parents, siblings and grandparents of deaf or hard of hearing children - through a family learning approach, so that they are able to provide inclusive, nurturing and anxiety-free environment for early childhood development.<< Implementation >>Project partners will work together to develop:1) Family Learning Toolkit 2) Pedagogy programme for parents / eLearning Course - a set of educational, training and information material to develop and strengthen language and communication skills, building resilience and becoming disability advocates3) Educational online platform enabling digital learning4) In-service Training Programme for Adult Educators - trained to fully harness the potential of the SILENT educational resources<< Results >>Our project will result in:- resilient, empowered and equipped parents with the needed knowledge, ability, and confidence to help their children achieve their full communication potentials and act as their advocates;- free accessible project resources;- aware and supportive family members;- enhanced language acquisition of deaf children;- enhanced positive self-image of deaf children- adult educators with new skills, competences and confidence to deliver trainings;- more inclusive society

AimThe common purpose of the partners in this project is to benefit from each other’s experience in the field of how to approach employers and network with employers. This project aims to improve the competencies ‘in networking with employers’ of employment specialists of VET-providers supporting persons with disabilities to find a job in the open labour market. Context As is well known by those active in the field of work and disability, the employment chances of people with disabilities are much lower than those without a disability. Also the rate of poverty is higher, partly due to this limited access to employment. Employment specialists in many countries are putting much effort in increasing the chances on work of people with a large distance to the labour market. Most employment specialists of VET-providers are professionals working as social workers, psychologists or teachers, having knowledge and experience in working with their target group, though often are lacking a proper knowledge about the business world. A better knowledge on how to network with employers and a better understanding of the employers’ perspective will help them to improve the quality of their employment services and, because of that, improve the chances for people with disabilities to enter labour market and to stay there. Profiles of the partnersThe profiles of the partners in this project consists of employment specialists of VET-providers and experts: employment specialists that work in daily practice in supporting persons with a distance into the open labour market, an expert in the field of networking with employers and an expert in inclusive employment and ‘working with the business approach’. OutcomesThis exchange project will lead to:A network of experts and special VET providers exchanging knowledge and experiences during the time of the project and afterwards.A checklist of criteria to be used when looking for potentially interesting companies. The checklist supports the user to target the potentially successful companies for networking and placement of persons with disabilities. A manual for successful networking, including:o Techniques and methods on how to target companieso Methods to network successfully with employerso How to use an ‘employer-based’ approacho Case studies of each participating countryo Do’s and don’ts to be taken into account for a specific country