The working group "barrier-free" introduces itself

"Our aim is to facilitate a constructive exchange of content between people with different hearing statuses and different visual and oral communication habits," explain the members of the working group in advance. "That's why our work focuses on supporting people with hearing loss who communicate using spoken language. This means that our handouts focus on the development of written alternatives or support formats to primarily spoken scientific discourse. We are also open to sign language approaches and communicate with relevant stakeholders."

The initial impetus for the barrier-free working group was the increasing communication challenges for colleagues with hearing impairments at the Department of History at the University of Erfurt in connection with the global Covid-19 pandemic. For example, in the video conferences that increasingly took place at this time, it was hardly possible to read lips due to minimal delays in the video process and lighting conditions that could hardly be influenced. At the same time, there are more and more new forms of written communication that can have an inclusive effect, and not just for deaf and hard of hearing people. The group wanted to capitalise on this and make it better known. "Our experience is that removing communicative barriers through written communication can also help university members with care responsibilities, without native German language skills or with chronic illnesses to read up on learning material or meeting content at a later date in peace: Barrier reduction benefits everyone, not just a small group of 'affected people'," says Paula Mund, another member of the working group alongside Juliane Wenke, Lisa Maria Hofer, PD Dr Anja Werner, Professor Christiane Kuller and Professor Sabine Schmolinsky. "Of course, we are also addressing the question of the extent to which codification creates new barriers for some groups of people. We are therefore not calling for spoken discourse to be replaced by written discourse, but merely for it to be supplemented."

On its website, the working group not only introduces itself, but also provides very specific handouts for different communication formats such as written interpreting (SD) and written conversations (SG) for download. In addition, sign language videos with subtitles and scripts summarising the articles in the new anthology of the DFG network on the History of the Deaf in German-speaking Countries will also be made available on the website.

For further information, the barrier-free working group can be contacted at the following e-mail address: ag.barrierefreiheit@uni-erfurt.de.