COIMBATORE: For all the ‘change’ that life throws at you constantly, there is a famous adage that shows you the way: “When the whole world is running, run through the middle of it”. With the pandemic being quite a change in our lives for the past two years, we have all tried to make our own paths and adjusted our lives to run through the middle of the crisis. But, ever thought of people who couldn’t do the catch-up? Those who were still stuck in the past, with the ‘change’ casting an absolute blackout on their lives? Deaf-mute children like R Vikash, a class 6 student, are among them.
With learning completely turning into online mode, kids like him were left with no choice but to go through a real struggle to learn anything new. Vikash, through an interpreter, told TNIE that it has been difficult for him ever since the pandemic even to read a book and understand lessons. The main reason for this was the new way of learning was non-inclusive to the use of sign languages, and that they had no alternatives in front of them.
A breakthrough came in the form of a group of teachers in Coimbatore. With the unavailability of resources like Braille books, the group has put in efforts to convert the books in their syllabus to videos with the concepts explained through sign language. The initiative focuses on adolescents from economically deprived and vulnerable sections of society, who study at government schools. Murali Kuppusamy, who taught at a special school at RS Puram for deaf children, has been pioneering the work through his Deaf Leaders Foundation.
Murali’s daughter Sneha M, who does the role of an interpreter in the project, explains the group’s work. “With classes turning into online mode, deaf students were affected. It was not possible to provide them with sign language facilities online. The situation of government school students was even worse. This made us start the initiative for those who have great difficulty in getting proper guidance for online classes. We hope the video lessons meet their needs,” Sneha said.
According to Murali, even before the pandemic, these students struggled to understand the lessons as many of their teachers did not know sign language properly. “Taking classes in sign language will be of great benefit to these students. Our efforts are for that,” he said.
However, challenges have been aplenty for the group. It was impossible to bring every student to attend online classes at the same time. The solution, then, was to record the videos of the lessons in sign language and post them on their website: www.thesignclass.org. “There was hope that the students could watch those video lessons and learn them anytime,” Sneha said. The team started by videographing the syllabus of fifth standard, and is now working on videos for the other classes including SSLC, Sneha added.
The lessons, which are explained in sign and audible (Tamil) language by trained teachers, are recorded and added with subject-related videos and pictures.Later they are uploaded on the website with English subtitles. A team of seven teachers, two of them disabled, are behind and in front of the screens to make the videos.