Multimedia technology offers users the opportunity to make connections between diverse forms of information (text, pictures, animation, digital video, and sound), to navigate through information in a non-linear (hypermedia) manner, as well as to learn by directly interacting with the software. Traditional multimedia software typically makes extensive use of sound effects, spoken English, and music as well as written text and is thus inaccessible to the deaf. Typical HIV/AIDS-related information in print and on video is largely inaccessible to the deaf because of the heavy reliance on written or spoken English. For this reason, HIV/AIDS issues are widely misunderstood by the deaf community. This proposal investigates the extent to which an innovative multimodal approach, which uses a sign language video window to provide important information, can increase the accessibility of HIV/AIDS information to individuals with hearing impairment.Phase I will address this objective by testing the technical feasibility of creating software which presents information in sign language using digital video and will test its usability. Phase II will assess the effectiveness of the software for providing accessibility to information on HIV/AIDS for the deaf and will undertake the development of commercial educational software products.National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
