MOTIVATION

Every sixth person in the EU has a disability, making it difficult for them to fully participate in society and the economy. It is estimated that there are 80 million people in this group. More than 70% are forced to live/survive on the poverty line due to their limited access to employment. (EU Labour Force Research, 2010). In 2015, the European Federation of the Deaf published a report titled "Hearing Loss: Statistics", which states that 50 million people in Europe are deaf. When the figures related to hearing-impaired employment in Europe are examined, it is a fact that more than 50percent of them are unemployed, and the vast majority of those who can find jobs have to work in low-skilled and low-wage jobs.

 

Our project was designed in partnership with organizations from Germany, Portugal, Türkiye, and Finland. Our goal is to do our part to reduce the barriers faced by deaf people who aspire to become cooks or chefs, who have received vocational training in vegan cuisine, or who are already working professionally in this field but wish to further develop their skills or professional knowledge. Deaf people whose native language is sign language may face various challenges in vocational training. The main reasons for this include curriculum that is not fully adapted to their needs, a limited number of teachers who know sign language, and a shortage of training materials prepared in sign language. These challenges have become even more pronounced with the shift to distance learning during the pandemic, and it has been observed that only a limited number of studies have been conducted on distance learning solutions tailored to our target audience. These findings point to challenges that are similarly encountered across Europe and in many parts of the world.

 

Solutions for vocational education and distance learning of the hearing impaired have taken place in the literature. E-learning systems include short learning modules to best meet the needs of hearing-impaired students, the content of the training includes as little text as possible and is presented in a visual format (pictures, subtitled videos, etc.) and provides an automated evaluation system (Pappas et al., 2018). The specific needs of deaf learners in an e-learning environment include: bilingual knowledge (text and sign language), interactive and exploratory learning, high-level visualization, learning in peer groups through video conferencing (Drigas & Kouremenos, Kouremenos & Vrettaros, 2005).

 

Our project will offer this service completely free of charge and online to anyone who wants to improve themselves in the vegan kitchen field. These are the intentions and objectives we have in our minds.