CHROMATIC VISUAL CODE DESIGN FOR COLOR-GRAPHEME ASSOCIATION SCHOLASTIC DEAF POPULATION

Understanding literacy is an important means of gaining access to knowledge, this is required to understand and appropriate the alphabetic principle, starting with the letters (graphemes), then continuing syllables, words and phrases. The development of written and oral language in the deaf child is a difficulty because the alphabetic principle is not present since his phonological channel is not activated and the relationships of correspondence grapheme-phoneme don’t exist, being the phoneme a specific sound as minimum unit language to give meaning to the letter. Understanding this situation, the proposal is the design of an augmentative system of communication from the ideasthesia, phenomenon semantic-sensory of activation concepts that produces an experience (Nikolić, 2009), relating the letter to color. A semantic encoding is applied using the numbering system and color order (color cube by Alfred Hickethier, 1952) associating it to grapheme, giving a chromatic meaning coded to each unit of the alphabet, as it is the phoneme. By means of this process of ideaesthesic integration of color and grapheme called "chromatic visual code" is expected to deaf children can understand the alphabet and then have a more complete learning process of reading and writing.

This research was conducted using the methodology of Human Centered Design and collaborative design; it is divided in three phases that correspond to the processes of listening, create and deliver. In the first phase (listening) expert interviews were conducted, also a dive held in the context for 4 months to observe and understand the interaction, skills and difficulties of students reading and grammar classes, art education and recreational spaces. The objective of the second phase (create) is the develompment of the chromatic visual code and the design of a proposal that will facilitate the comprehension of the alphabet, obtained from the participation in different areas (Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Speech Therapy and pedagogy) through a focus group, making design adjustments and then continue with validations. On the third phase (deliver) the validation of the instrument was developed in the reading and grammar course of Rotary Club Foundation in Palmira city, Valle del Cauca (Colombia). Two sessions per week were made during one month; the sessions were recorded, analyzed qualitatively with an experimental group of students between 4 and 10 years with different pathologies of hearing and a control group of listener students. An initial test was make to determine the level of development in the syllabic understanding and the alphabet, besides another test was conducted at the end of the experiment to compare the development with the instrument and this effectiveness comparing results of the initial evaluation with final evaluation.