Award nomination for media project

A University of Wolverhampton project which is developing resources for Deaf people who work in the media industry is in the running for a top international award.

SignMedia is a two-year project which aims to enhance the career prospects of Deaf media professionals in Europe. It provides vocational materials in an entertaining and engaging way, with interactive exercises in written English taught through the sign language of their country.

The project, which is worth half a million Euros and is supported by the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the European Union, is one of the nine finalists selected from over 200 entries spanning 32 countries in the MEDEA Awards 2012.

The awards recognise media that support learning, and Wolverhampton will be up against projects from Greece, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France and the UK.

SignMedia is led by the University’s Institute for Media Arts with experts from the School of Law, Social Sciences and Communications’ Deaf Studies Department. Wolverhampton’s partners in the programme are Klagenfurt University, Austria, University of Turin, Italy and Mutt & Jeff Pictures Ltd, UK.

Director of the Institute of Media Arts, Samantha Hope, said: “The SignMedia learning resource is unique within educational materials available for Deaf people and the response from our users has been very positive. To also receive such a positive response from the media and learning experts at the MEDEA Awards is fantastic and with over 200 entries from 32 countries the competition for a nomination was stiff.

“The SignMedia partners from the UK, Austria and Italy are excited to attend the awards and we hope we win! We’re also launching SignMedia and presenting at the Media and Learning Conference 2012, so there will be plenty to celebrate.”

The winner will be announced at MEDEA Awards Ceremony which takes place on Wednesday 14 November during the Media & Learning Conference 2012 in Brussels. The SignMedia project has also been invited to present its work at the conference.

The new interactive learning resource on the web will provide exercises in written English, taught through the sign language of each partner country. This will mean there will be three versions of the course, related to British Sign Language (BSL), Italian Sign Language (LIS) and Austrian Sign Language (OGS). It also has a sign language glossary of over 300 media terms.

The project is located at SignMedia (www.signmedia.tv)  and will be officially launched at the Media and Learning Conference 2012 in Brussels on November 14th.

This project has been funded with support from Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, Development of Innovation fund.

ENDS

For media inquiries please contact Vickie Warren in the Media Relations Office on 01902 322736

Note: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.