ADAPT academic Dr. Elizabeth Mathews, Associate Professor at Dublin City University and an expert in deaf education, features in a recent episode of My Uni Life discussing her involvement in the creation of an Irish Sign Language (ISL) glossary. This pioneering glossary specifically caters to STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), marking a groundbreaking initiative in deaf education. With over 5000 people using ISL as their first language in Ireland, this resource promises to be immensely beneficial, ensuring greater accessibility for Deaf students and those who work with them.
The collaborative effort behind this glossary involves a diverse team of science specialists, ISL linguist experts, and STEM educators specialising in teaching Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Dr. Mathews specifies that the primary objective of this project is to enhance the accessibility of STEM education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals.
In addition to her involvement in this groundbreaking project, Dr. Mathews is known for her expertise in deaf education. She designed and implemented a pathway for Deaf ISL-users into primary teaching. She was also actively engaged in the SignON project at ADAPT, funded by Horizon 2020, which explored the machine translation of sign languages. In this project, Dr. Mathews’ role focused on co-creation and the empowerment of the Deaf community in machine translation initiatives.
Watch the full segment here.
