eSIGN eSIGN - Essential Sign Language Information on Government Networks zCoordinator: University of Hamburg yInstitute for German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf xThomas Hanke

eSIGN Sign Language & the European Deaf Community zSign language is the closest-to-native language for the Deaf community z0.1% of the European population zNo written form of sign language zWritten language competence of many Deaf people poor yBilingual education spreading slowly

eSIGN Project Idea: Virtual Signing into eGovernment initiatives zVirtual Signing reduces bandwidth problems with digital video zRelatively easy=cheap and flexible production process zEnsures Deaf peoples integration into a key component of tomorrows Information Society (cf. anti-discrimination acts) zMultilingual focus: British Sign Language, Deutsche Gebärdensprache, Nederlandse Gebarentaal

eSIGN Virtual Signing on World Wide Web

eSIGN Builds on ViSiCAST animation and language technology zIST project zVirtual Signing on Television, in counter transactions and on WWW

eSIGN eSIGN proposal consortium zU Hamburg (DE) - coordinator zSystematics Integrations (EDS subsidiary, DE) zNorfolk City Council (UK) zInstitut voor Doven (NL) zU East Anglia (UK) zTelevirtual (UK) zRoyal National Institute for Deaf People (UK)

eSIGN Consortium synergy RNID IvD SI Norfolk UH UEA TV Virtual Signing eGovernment Community access

eSIGN Workpackage structure

eSIGN Exploitation zClient software will be made available free of charge to the Deaf community so that the three eSIGN sites will immediately become accessible to the target group zEnabling Deaf peoples political participation not only a social objective, but becoming a legal requirement thru national anti-discrimination acts zWe provide and demonstrate a versatile and cost- effective possibility to create sign language versions of eGovernment portals that delivers quality without substantial bandwidth requirements

eSIGN Exploitation (2) zThe approach taken can be adapted for other European sign languages, basically this requires building the appropriate lexicons zOnce the tools are in place, the model is not restricted to eGovernment, but can be applied to B2C contexts such as mail order, virtual travel agencies etc. zHere it is not only the (comparatively small) customer target group, but also the prestige to care about a handicapped customer group.