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Spread the sign: new web tool for the deaf

The Swedish teacher Thomas Lydell-Olsen was confronted with this problem when organising Leonardo mobility projects with his deaf pupils. This experience inspired him to create a visual dictionary for sign language. This dictionary is web-based and allows to watch the sign language for specific words in small films. 11 languages are presently available: English, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Finnish, Czech Lithuanian, Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian.

With the help of this translation tool, sign language is accessible to everyone across Europe and the world. It is a completely new initiative, very successful at the level of the users and is planned to be further deepened and expanded.

This pedagogic self-learning tool is free to use all over the world. It is primarily intended to improve the vocational pupil's language skills when going abroad for work practise. But it also includes many words of daily language and will continue to be enlarged both in terms of entries as of languages.

Sweden is seen as a pioneer country in terms of research and documentation of sign language. The Queen of Sweden has a particular interest in it and has learned the sign language herself. She personally attended the launch event for the sign language dictionary in Stockholm on 31 March 2009.

The project started as a pilot project in Leonardo da Vinci 2005 and is presently continued under the Lifelong Learning programme to extend the scope and transfer the results to other countries.

To know more

• 'Spread the Sign': project website
• 'Spread the Sign': launch event photo gallery
• European Commission: The Leonardo da Vinci programme