Italy
participants
The activity was organized to introduce participants to Deafhood and Deaf Culture, still too little known and taken into account. The goal was to be achieved through sign languages and in particular Italian sign language, an integral part of deaf culture.
During the first part of the activity, we provided information about sign languages, the difference between Deafhood and Deafness, the history of the deaf people and the deaf community, in a participatory way, so as to create a debate and assess what is popularly known about deafness and what the reality is.
In a second moment we introduced the rules about how to sign and then we got into the practical part of the activity. The participants chose their sign-names and learned how to introduce themselves in Italian sign language, the alphabet, how to say and ask age, nationality, name and sign name, ESN volunteer and International/Erasmus student.
The last part was real awareness raising, in fact we talked about how to approach a deaf person, how to relate to deafness, deaf people, community and sign language in everyday life, in order to develop a more inclusive language in this field.
