BrightSign Glove
Supporting staff and students to achieve their full potential since 1968.
Welcome to our weekly CENMAC blog post.
BrightSign Glove – by Tracey Francis, Design and Content, Charlton Park Academy and CENMAC
If you connected with CENMAC at the TES Virtual SEN Show, you would have seen that we were supporting BrightSign Glove, a sign to speech smart device. We have followed the development of this equipment from the early stages and founder Hadeel Ayoub attended our Communication Works event in 2017 to showcase the glove. Joanne and a now ex- student got a chance to have an early viewing. We are now trialling the device at Charlton Park Academy with Joanne, a Teaching Assistant and after half-term with students.
At work I do have difficultly communicating at times within the hearing environment because I am deaf and a BSL user.
Joanne is deaf and uses British Sign Language (BSL). She was delighted to get her hand in the glove and to start using it. So, I asked Joanne to give us her thoughts on the glove.
Joanne, before we talk about the BrightSign Glove can you tell us about how you communicate in a hearing environment?
At work I do have difficultly communicating at times within the hearing environment because I am deaf and a BSL user. Some staff are really good at BSL and that is great, but at times communication can be difficult if there is not much movement with a person’s mouth or it is covered. There are some Level One BSL staff and I happily help them to improve their BSL as they also have to use different methods of communication with many of our students. Outside of work I am very involved with the deaf community.
What were your initial thoughts about the glove?
My first thoughts about the glove were, ‘Does it work?’ ‘How will it communicate because for BSL I use two hands for signing to communicate?’ ‘The glove is only for one hand?’
How have you found the BrightSign Glove since you first started using it at the end of last year?
Initially I found it hard to use because of setting it all up, but I persisted. I was amazed that one glove could be very useful and it is great to see the words come up on the device. I still have more signing and programming to do. I am eager to use it with students but want to get better at using it first.
How would you like to see future versions of the BrightSign Glove?
In the not so distant future I think the glove may help with deaf or hearing students and those with a speech disability to be understood better. For me I was hoping for two gloves because of the gestures, body language and impressions I use when signing. However, two has become one with the BrightSign Glove. I hope for this to be part of the landscape as our language (BSL) is very important in the deaf community.
Thank you, Joanne, for taking time to give us your thoughts and feedback on the BrightSign Glove.
To find out more about BrightSign visit:
www.brightsignglove.com
Articles on founder Haydeel Ayoub and BrightSign Glove:
www.forbes.com | www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine | www.arabnews.com
Useful Links
British Deaf Association: bda.org.uk
National Deaf Children’s Society: www.ndcs.org.uk
Hearing Link: www.hearinglink.org
My first thoughts about the glove were, ‘Does it work?’ ‘How will it communicate because for BSL I use two hands for signing to communicate?’ ‘The glove is only for one hand?’
Title page from Cenmac and CPA on Vimeo.
Joanne signs: CENMAC, Assistive technology in education. Helping you to communicate, learn and do more for yourself
Joanne signs for our CENMAC pupil handbook which can be found here:
cenmac.com/pupils/can-cenmac-help
Don’t forget you can share your CENMAC experiences for our CENMAC family to enjoy.
#HomeLearning #Technology #Support #CENMAC #BSL #TeachingAssistant #DeafCommunity #Mainstream #SEN #25YearsDisabilityDiscriminationAct
