Two members from The Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies, Mr. Cheng Ka Yiu and Mr. Chu Kwan Ngai “Kenny” visited PEN-International and NTID for the week of September 15 - 22, 2007. Professor Gladys Tang, Chair of the Department was on campus Friday, September 21, 2007 to participate in discussions for the next steps in the collaboration between PEN-International and CUHK.

Mr. Cheng and Chu are working to develop curriculum and technical systems for producing linguistically-based sign language dictionaries as well as teaching and learning materials. They also are going to be training deaf individuals, from Indonesia and Sri Lanka, at their location in Hong Kong, in the processes they have developed for documenting and disseminating sign language materials. See the handouts of a presentation (below) by Dr. Tang at the 2006 Asia Pacific Congress on Deafness for background information on the project.

Specific Training Topics

1. Training and suggestions on computer techniques that can be used to facilitate the development of print and non-print sign language material development. This includes photographing and video recording sign examples, manipulating the images for reproduction, producing online, e-books and other media to disseminate the sign resources. Adobe products (Photoshop, Acrobat) and Microsoft Office are of particular interest. Specific individual or online training for these products would be very helpful.
2. Observing classes and meeting instructors that can offer suggestions regarding teaching strategies when teaching computer skills to deaf users, with little or no computer experience. Especially teaching OS, Office Applications and Adobe products, at an introductory level.
3. Smart classroom design and use, including networking of student computers in the smart classroom to support newly acquired computer application skills.
4. Videoconference system design and use, both for business meetings and instruction.

NTID and RIT Faculty and Staff Presentations

The visitors from Hong Kong first met with Professor John Cox, Chairperson of NTID department of Arts & Imaging Studies. They had the opportunity to observe classes of David Hazelwood, Kathy Voelkl, and Frank Argento. Later they meet with Elissa Olsen, Chairperson of the NTID Applied Computer Technology Department, along with members of the faculty, including Myra Pelz, Donna Lange, Deborah Poe and Karen Beiter. At the Wallace Memorial Library, they meet with Marianne Buehler, Head of Publishing and Scholarship Support Services; Nick Paulus, Scholarly Communications Coordinator and Joan Naturale the Deaf, Disability and Education Librarian. To become more familiar with smart classroom teaching and design, they met with Jeff Porter, NTID Learning Consortium Chairperson and Chas Johnstone of NTID Technology Support Services. Finally they met with Minoru Yoshida for a presentation on various equipment configurations for videoconference systems and for an overview of recommended procedures when using videoconference systems for meetings and training.