Hypermedia Learning Tool For Ethiopian Sign Language

Though the degree varies, deaf people in different parts of the world are facing challenges to communicate with hearing people. The situation in Ethiopia is similar except there has been no remedy tried to bridge the gap. The problem is more serious in public service areas like hospitals,police stations, and schools. Different options have been suggested and tried to resolve the communication gap between deaf and hearing people in other countries. This work is intended to illustrate an approach of user-centered design and development of hypermedia software that can be used to teach basic health related Ethiopian Sign Language for hearing health professionals so that they can be able to communicate to their deaf customers. This work is useful to the deaf community, health professionals, and anyone else who may be interested to work on deaf/hearing communication gap and try to bridge the gap through the use of Information Technology. Moreover, since this work is the first in the area, it indirectly will play a great role in creating deaf awareness in the country.