INTERACTIVE DIGITAL BOOK FOR DEAF AND LISTENER CHILDREN

The research project aimed at developing a digital book for deaf children based on a bilingual perspective, which is the object of this paper, is supported by the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), an agency of Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). Its main attributions are to promote scientific and technological research and stimulate researcher training in the country. The research is being carried out within the ambit of the Interdisciplinary Design Laboratory / Department of Education for Arts & Design at PUC-Rio (LIDE|DAD|PUC-Rio). From 2004 to 2007, the LIDE team developed a research project called ‘Multi-Paths: a game to assist in acquiring a second language by deaf children’. The public for this project was deaf children enrolled in elementary school at the National Institute of Deaf Education of Rio de Janeiro - INES/RJ. With the objective of moving forward with the Multi-Path project, which resulted in a game with two versions, one a board game, and the other in multimedia, the intention is to create a digital children’s book with interactivity possibilities, comprised of scenes narrated in LIBRAS and written Portuguese. The narrative will be defined together with pedagogues and teachers of deaf children. The proposal will also consider joint artistic creation, in which the author, illustrator, animator, programmer, sound person and narrator work in partnership The intention is to take Multi-Path to a new platform, since the content to be created will be provided in tablets, and/or similar support, aimed at innovating the teaching-learning process for deaf children. Based on the skills and competences determined by the Laws for Guidelines and Bases for Children’s and Elementary Education (Law no. 9.394/96 – Law for Guidelines and Bases for National Education, BRASIL, 1996), the stories in their hard copy or digital formats stimulate vocabulary and provide countless gains in skills for children, including deaf children. In this sense, the study includes discussions on issues related to Design and to contemporary languages in education. For such, hypermedia concepts in educational environments will be examined, giving priority to interaction, user experience and the role of teaching-learning for deaf children.