The beneficiaries of Being Deaf in an Inclusive Europe Project are deaf adult people. The success of their social and professional integration depends on education, on access to information and also on the ability to research on information. Unfortunately, the deaf people’s possibilities to inform themselves mainly depends on the speech language level and on a good knowledge of spoken and written verbal language because there are few informational and educational materials using Sign Language as main communication instrument. The project was implemented through a strategic partnership between 5 non- profit organisations from 5 European countries: Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Poland and Germany. All partners provide services to Deaf people and have experience in working with Deaf people and in producing multimedia educational or informative materials using Sign Language. According to the statistics, in Romania there are, approximately 25 000 hearing impaired people, in Turkey, approximately 350 000, in Poland, approximately 50 000, in Slovakia 50 000 and in Germany approx. 100 000 deaf people. In total, in partner organisations' countries, there are approx. 575 000 deaf people. Over 150 000 from them are Sign language users. One of the major barriers to for Deaf people is the lack of recognition, acceptance and use of sign language in all areas of life as well as lack of respect for Deaf people’s cultural and linguistic identity. This leads to marginalization of Deaf people. By raising the level of awareness for the entire society on this issue this attitude can be changed and the Deaf Community can be recognized as linguistic community. That’s why one of the priorities of our project targeted reducing disparities in learning outcomes affecting Deaf Adult Learners.Bilingual education is a wide spread concept on European and also on global level, referring to children and young deaf people. The innovation of our project consists in transferring this concept in education throughout Life Long Learning of deaf adults. The access to bilingual education (using verbal communication and Sign Language at the same time) for deaf adults is quite limited on European level and almost absent on national level because of the small number of interprets and because of limited financial resources assigned to this domain.The main Project Objectives were: - development of social and professional abilities of integration for the adult deaf and hearing impaired persons by forming and informing them about the labour market, the opportunities that digital technology and it’s continuum upgrading offers them in terms of communication and social integration, Human Rights, social integration abilities, Deaf Community Culture;- facilitating the access to Open Educational Resources for Deaf people through the creation and development of a free e-Learning Platform containing video informative materials on various topics of interest for Deaf Community using Sign Language as primary means of communication. These objectives where achieved primarily through 5 Training Activities (Blended mobility of adult learners) including 80 mobilities for direct beneficiaries and by producing of 5 educational materials tailored to their special needs and e-Learning specific (available in five languages of partner countries). The main activities and tools which ensured internal and external communication and, also, dissemination, exploitation of project results and its impact, where the project website, a virtual Learning Platform to Deaf adult learners and 5 national multiplier events addressing in special to Deaf Community and including Press Conferences. The main results and impact envisaged where: - increasing the socio-professional integration skills of the beneficiaries; - informing deaf people about the opportunities that digital technology and it’s continuum upgrading offers them in terms of communication and social integration and developing the necessary skills and competences in order to use digital technology; - increasing the self-esteem and developing the cultural identity for European Deaf Community; - new educational strategies which can be duplicated in the beneficiaries’ institutions and other European similar institutions and new open educational resources adapted to deaf people special needs. A virtual Learning Platform was developed and, it is an important source for information and lifelong learning for Deaf Adults.

<< Objectives >>The project focuses on the obstacles faced by the hearing impaired in their vocational training. Flexible and learner-centered teaching programs and materials will be developed for them. The outcomes of the project will be made available to everyone online and in open access, in a structure that does not require a membership system. Thus, the project will contribute to the transition of the hearing impaired to the labor market and to close the existing gaps in adults' access to education.<< Implementation >>Wp1: Preparation of eight modules that will form the Financial Literacy teaching curriculum for the Hearing Impaired Individuals,Wp2: Preparation of Financial Literacy Readiness Level Measurement Tool for the Hearing Impaired IndividualsWp3: Preparation of Digital Teaching Materials of Financial Literacy Teaching Curriculum for Hearing Impaired Individuals Wp4: Preparation of Financial Literacy Sign Language Glossary of Terms3 TPM, 1 LTT Activity, 2 ME Activity will be carried out.<< Results >>•Financial Literacy curriculum will be prepared for the hearing impaired,•A measurement and assessment tool will be prepared to determine the readiness levels of the users,•A measurement and assessment tool will be prepared in order to determine the level of users after vocational training,•Financial Literacy distance education digital contents for the hearing impaired will be prepared,•Financial Literacy glossary of terms will be prepared in sign language.

"Sign languages are an important part of Europe’s multilingual diversity. An estimated 1 person in 1,000 uses a national sign language as their first language - i.e. about 500,000 people EU-wide. Others may use sign language as a second or third language, for example the family and friends of deaf and hearing-impaired people. Depending on the perception, deafness is considered as a disability or as an enrichment with an own culture. Unfortunately, different studies of partner organizations shows that there are still few people who know that there is one DEAF CULTURE which refers to a group of people who have common beliefs and practices, who have a set of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, specific language, customs and traditions that are transmitted through sign language. The vast majority of people continue to see deafness just as a deficiency. More, there are still few members of Deaf Community who are truly aware of their own cultural identity. To ensure the inclusion of deaf people in European society it's necessary raising the level of awareness for the entire society on this issue, on the hand, and awareness of their own cultural identity by deaf people and active involving in promoting it, on the other hand. The direct beneficiaries of the project were Deaf persons, students and adults, aged between 16 and 90 years, who also participated in the project activities and events. They are members of Deaf Community from different countries, who identify themselves as members of the Deaf Community with a distinct language and culture. Over 500 direct beneficiaries were involved in project activities in the realization of intellectual products, transnational and national learning activities, multiplication events etc. of which about 400, Deaf beneficiaries. The longer term benefits is increasing of the the chances of social inclusion for Deaf people by forming and developing the cultural identity for Deaf Community members and making the hearing community be aware of the existence of Deaf Community cultural identity. Our aim was not only to promote the culture of Deaf Community and the Sign Language but also to help the process of developing the Deaf Culture by encouraging its members to create and perform in specific artistic moments, to became active citizens in promoting their own culture, which was also successfully achieved by implementing the project. The project objectives where: - Promoting Deaf Community Culture in order to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of Deaf Culture and Sign Language by creating and dissemination of a Virtual Cultural Center of the Deaf which contains different cultural products of the Deaf Community and informative multimedia educational materials about Deaf Culture. - Forming and developing the cultural identity for Deaf Community members by offering accessible information in Sign Language regarding own community culture and encouraging active involvement in creation of new products of entertainment and life long learning for deaf audiences like Sign Language Songs, Sign Language Comedy Shows, other relevant leisure and educational multimedia materials. The main results and impact envisaged are: - Educational and entertainment resources for Deaf people: Multimedia Open Educational Resources about Deaf Culture available in four versions (using partners countries Sign Languages) and videos with specific cultural manifestation of Deaf Community; - ""International Virtual Cultural Centre of the Deaf"" website that will include all our project results any many other resources in the topic, resources created by partner organizations but by other organizations, too. It will be a ""virtual cultural treasure"" about Deaf Culture where any interested person/organization will find open educational and entertainment resources, links to other sites, platforms etc. - Develop the cultural identity and active citizenship skills for Deaf Community members; - Developing the Deaf Community culture by encouraging its members to create and perform in specific artistic moments; - Developing a positive attitude, specific for an inclusive society, towards Deaf Community among the hearing people . These results were achieved by the project activities: local/national and transnational trainings, realization and distribution of intellectual outputs, dissemination activities, multiplier events, etc. Deaf people were involved in all project activities (including project management activities). Each organization engages Deaf people as employees, which results from the essence of the issue of Deaf Culture - where these people can provide the most information on this subject. In this way, we implement the principle of social inclusion of people with special needs. Ensuring equal access to services in IVCCD project required the provision of a sign language interpreter at every stage of project implementation."

The career aspirations of young Deaf people do not differ from hearing youngsters. However, the obstacles that they need to overcome so that to achieve their professional goals are much bigger. Nowadays, we can observe many activities directed to young Deaf people, aimed at helping them to overcome language barriers. Unfortunately, most of these activities are focused on rehabilitation of Deaf young people (helping them to improve hearing abilities), teaching them the language of the country in which they live, or teaching hearing people sign language. All of these activities are very helpful. But the Deaf young people, that we (and as it turned out – our partners as well) discussed with, have mentioned one thing that lead us to preparation of this project. They pointed out that communication barrier results in lack of information about how this “real” world of hearing working people looks like and how the real co-existing of hearing and Deaf people goes on daily basis. Most of us is afraid when we have to go to new school or job. Thoughts as “will I fit there?” “will I understand what I have to do?, “will they accept me?”, “will I manage to fulfil my duties?” – are much more concerning in the case of Deaf person. The second thing that we were told is that Deaf young people want to enter “hearing” labour market, so they want to get to know its rules. They want to receive information about how to enter and function on this labour market – information adjusted to their needs but still based on information which their hearing colleagues receive while starting professional life. Our project and prepared results are directed to young Deaf people, and to career advisors who work or would wish to work with Deaf young people. We would also like our project to have influence on the people from the environment of young Deaf people and show them that it is worth to support Deaf person in his/her professional aspirations. The main objective of our project was to change attitudes of young Deaf people, help them to believe that they can have influence on their professional development and are able to overcome obstacles in order to function in every professional environment they choose to be part of. We also plan to: •Increase job-opportunities for young Deaf job-candidates in the regular job market. •Encourage young Deaf people to do their best to start independent work-life in regular job market. •Give young Deaf people tools helping them enter the labour market. •Help young Deaf people to overcome obstacles in effective professional development and entering the labour market We planed to do it by: 1.development of a set of tools helping and guiding young Deaf people in the process of entering the labour market (translated into their languages); 2.giving young Deaf people information about how to define what skills and competences they already have, and about how and where they can improve them; 3.giving young Deaf people information about which skills and competences are mostly required at the labour market; 4.showing them how the reality of working with hearing people looks like; 5.encouraging career counsellors to reach Deaf young people and help them to enter labour market effectively (by give them tools and instructions about how to work with Deaf)

On one hand, integrating young Deaf people into the job market is a key challenge; a high percentage of them are unemployed, and those who are employed are often in low-skilled and low-paid jobs. Nowadays, the education on offer for Deaf people in Europe is sparse, and heavily focused on school and apprenticeships, rather than long-term employment. With EU funding, it is necessary to export its concept across Europe, boosting training for Deaf people, helping them to find jobs.Every European citizen has got equal rights in participating at the active and democratic life of Europe and language is the most important instrument to communicate and convey ideas and feelings. For this reason, since Sign Languages are the mother tongues of many Deaf youth, it is important to promote the use of Sign Languages in every context in order to facilitate their empowerment and inclusion.On the other hand, the concept of a museum is no longer just a physical place where artworks are collected and housed, but is conceived as an active institution that should offer a diversified range of services to make art and culture accessible to all people with disabilities. Museums need to adapt to a diversifying society and shall offer accessibility to inclusive, comprehensive and creative educational experiences that embrace and foster cultural, social diversity, and provide to everyone the ability to live and participate equally in a pluralistic society. Based on this framework, the main project objective is to find ways to diversify the museum, its interpretative tools and practices in order to become a tool for Deaf youth social inclusion. For this purpose, the partnership built an educational model engaging Deaf youth in art training for becoming museum guides for Deaf audience, so to favor their social and working inclusion, and the engagement of Deaf audience in the museums. The activities implemented in Austria, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia were as follows:-Context analysis in six partner countries collecting 30 existing learning experiences, services and activities to enable Deaf youth to learn about art and to increase the engagement of Deaf audience in the museums and in cultural activities. The results from the context analysis, in terms of knowledge, competences and approaches, represented the first contribution to the development of MADE educational model.-5-days learning activity addressed to 16 (and 6 additional participants) young Deaf and hearing trainers experienced in art disciplines or Deaf education from all partners countries in order to build new training model and curriculum to engage Deaf youth in art training for becoming museum guides.-Development of MADE educational model for Deaf youth, a tailor-made training programme including 4 learning modules aimed at enabling Deaf youth to acquire transversal skills and professional competences to become a museum guide. The Educational model and learning materials are available in the partners languages.-Development of a Toolkit meant as a virtual space hosting the learning and teaching materials developed within the Educational Model, available both in written partner languages and national Sign Languages as well as International Sign Language addressed to young Deaf trainees and trainers.-Implementation of six national study circles involving 60 Deaf and hearing trainers, experts in the field of art and Deaf teaching, museum institutions representatives for analyzing the Educational Model adapting it to the national contexts.-Testing of MADE educational model in six partners countries through the implementation of at least 30 teaching hours and the simulation of museum tour involving 85 Deaf youth and 27 Deaf and hearing trainers in cooperation with national museums.-Six multiplier events in the partner countries, involving 150 participants, aimed at presenting the MADE educational model advantages and methodology to the Deaf community, stakeholder organisations such as museum institutions, educational and training centers, public institutions working on the field of social inclusion and labour market.The main target groups involved in the activities were: Deaf youth, young Deaf and hearing trainers, museum institutions, VET providers working in the field of Deaf education, Deaf community and general public interested to the project topics.The project results positively impacted on the MADE target groups who directly or indirectly participated to the project activities. Mainly the young Deaf people benefited by the project results empowering their soft skills and professional competences so to undertake a new job opportunity. The other target groups benefited from the project activities by increasing their awareness of the need to diversify and offer educational programmes adapted to the specific needs of Deaf young people and by expanding opportunities to make art accessible to the whole Deaf community using sign language.