Inclusive dictionary for people with disabilities through an accessible technological platform

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges for people with disabilities is the lack of accessibility to information, and communication, in addition, to learning processes, which results in few possibilities for labor and social inclusion. Currently, in this sense, research and projects are carried out to promote strategies that allow greater use of ICTs in the acquisition and exchange of knowledge to reduce inequalities in terms of accessibility, especially for people with disabilities and, in general, for priority care groups. However, sustained processes are required that allow comprehensive accessibility to people with disabilities.According to studies carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is estimated that 5% of the world’s population has a hearing impairment (World Health Organization, 2018). This community generally presents learning problems given the low effectiveness in the transmission of messages between listeners and non-listeners, and, regarding information and communication technologies, there are not enough computerized educational materials that facilitate communication and Autonomous Learning.It is important to mention that ICT plays a decisive role in teaching-learning in various educational environments. Undoubtedly, new technologies can supply means for improving teaching and learning processes, and managing educational environments in general, since they facilitate cooperation and collaboration between students. In addition, they contribute to overcoming social inequalities. Because sign language is the first language of the deaf community, and since it is expressed spatially and visually, it is necessary to produce multimedia content for the generation of computerized educational tools to properly transmit these messages. The present work is oriented toward facilitating sign language learning in people with hearing impairment, which contributes to their coexistence and interaction.We cannot fail to mention that the approach to nature is mediated by language. Without sufficient lexical background, any formative action is limited. It is essential to have a sufficient repertoire of terms that help the speaker understand and know her environment. Under regular conditions, vocabulary acquisition may be conditioned by diverse, but drawing events or conditions: access to physical or digital bibliography, limited educational experience, family environment little related to reading, etc. The increase in vocabulary in a speaker facilitates learning. Many reading comprehension problems begin with the impossibility of properly decoding words.The problem of access to vocabulary improvement is exacerbated for the deaf community and people with visual disabilities. The aggravation is because they do not exist in the Ecuadorian environment, dictionaries that offer information from the Ecuadorian lexicon not defined in general dictionaries and that, at the same time, contribute to the interpretation of sign language for the deaf community or that meets the standards of inclusion necessary to facilitate reading in users with visual disabilities.In this context, part of our work will be focused on determining which is the lexicon of Ecuadorian speech that deaf people do not know. We consider as a hypothesis that the lexicon unknown by deaf people mostly comprises terms with abstract or very localized references.In addition, we propose to propose the structure of the design of a technological platform of the dictionary. This web application would present the set of lexical entries defined in Spanish and expanded with an author appointment, accompanied by an image of the referent and a video with sign language interpretation of both the definition and the appointment. Each dictionary entry will offer automatic reading on the screen for the accessibility of no seers. The dictionary macrostructure will be composed of basic words and expressions of sign language to promote educational interest and facilitate and energize learning.The work will also be based on a methodology specialized in web applications such as OOHDM (Object Oriented Hypermedia Desing Methodology), on free tools for the manipulation of multimedia audio, video, and images such as Avidemux, Audacy, and Gimp respectively, in the Netbeans 14.0 development tool with JSF 2.0 framework. For integration with the database, PostgreSQL will be used.