Language resources and visual communication in a deaf-centered multimodal e-learning environment: Issues to be addressed

This paper examines some of the major problems linked to the task of designing appropriate multilingual e-learning environments for deaf learners (DL). Due to their hearing disability most DL experience dramatic difficulties in acquiring appropriate literacy skills. E-learning tools could in principle be very useful for facilitating access to web-based knowledge and promoting literacy development in DL. However, designing appropriate e-learning environments for DL is a complex task especially because of the different linguistic background and experience DL may have, and of the multimodal language resources that need to be provided and integrated (e.g. language produced in the visual-gestural or signed modality, in written texts, closed captioning for vocal language information). The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) describe and discuss issues we believe need to be addressed, focusing on the limitations that appear to characterize several e-learning platforms that have been proposed for DL; (2) present and discuss ongoing research aimed at overcoming these limitations.