Catalina De La Rocha

Towards Gamification for Signed Languages

This project created an educational game to support the Mexican Deaf community in teaching and learning the Mexican Sign Language (MSL) with their hearing family and friends. Visual elements understandable by both hearing and non-hearing players were used to bridge the gap between Signed Language and Written Language. The game uses SignWriting® and Augmented Reality to afford a convivial learning experience and to promote MSL in Mexico. A Design Thinking approach was used to empathically examine signals, trends and drivers, and gathering inputs from global experts. Integrating digital and tangible tools, a game was created using Augmented Reality to provide a three- dimensional experience of Sign Language. The app encourages players to create their own word collections that could potentially create a MSL crowd-sourced library. Combining gamification, SignWriting® and crowdsourcing, the tool can be easily customized across different countries in different Sign Languages. http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/325/