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The School of Art and Design of the University of Wolverhampton has recently commenced a number of unique new projects, which will enhance the educational and career opportunities for the Deaf community.
The University of Wolverhampton currently has the largest number of profoundly Deaf students of any higher education institution in Britain. Within the University there is considerable expertise in working with Deaf people and teaching English as a second language to Deaf people. The School of Art and Design has a large number of registered Deaf students and the percentage of Deaf students entering the School has risen steadily since 1996. The School is one of the few specialist providers to accommodate a community of Deaf students.
Deaf students can be disadvantaged in their acquisition of English as they cannot learn spoken language by absorption. However, Deaf students have another language, British Sign Language (BSL), which they can utilise to access information and concepts. Art and design language and terminology can be subjective and it relies on the understanding of Sign Language interpreters to ensure the student receives accurate information. In order to facilitate the clear understanding of BSL concepts in art and design it is important to define and translate these concepts and make a standardised BSL glossary available to the education sector. Additionally, Deaf students' attainment in English must be further developed alongside their language ability in BSL in order to maximise education and career opportunities for this group.
In order to facilitate this the UoW has received a DfEE grant to fund projects which will achieve the following:
The project has an information web site at:
http://www.wlv.ac.uk/sad/deafprojects
If you would like more information please contact Judith Mole, email: judithm@directlearn.co.uk, tel. 01629 540386 or 01902 321959 or fax on 01629 540820.
© 2001
