VisuoLab: Empowering the Deaf Community
VisuoLab provides access to content designed for deaf individuals through a visual and interactive multilingual platform, along with tools that enable easy and effective communication, supporting deaf individuals to reach their full potential.
VisuoLab Ecosystem
Digital Repository
Collection of educational, informational, and entertainment content created and shared by the Deaf community.
Resource Creation
Content creation tool to express creativity and share stories through visual and interactive sign language content.
Multifunctional Meeting
Inclusive and interactive learning environment that empowers the Deaf community to succeed academically and professionally.
Open Source Platform: Join Us in This Endeavor
Born from an initiative by Humboldt University of Berlin and Federal University of Santa Catarina, in partnership with Levante Lab, a proposal emerged in 2022 to bring solutions for the deaf community in one place. Aiming to enhance the experience of communication, learning, content production, and distribution, VisuoLab is an open-source platform that seeks to become a reference in accessible digital solutions.
Resource Creation
Anyone can contribute by creating and sharing accessible content such as educational materials, informational resources, and entertainment.
Create and Share
Upload, reference, or create your own content:- Literature, academic, and educational resources
- Sign language resources
- Research projects
Accessible Features
- Multilingual support
- Videos with time markers
- Subtitles
- Visual glossary
V-book Creator
- Image and video uploader to add multimedia content
- Text editor to add written content, such as transcriptions for videos
- Sharing options with other users
Sign Language Portal
A user-friendly interface in sign language, offering a wide variety of accessible content for the deaf community.
Multifunctional Meeting:
Freeform Activities
The VisuoLab's Multifunctional Meeting Area offers an interactive space where students, teachers, translators, and interpreters can engage in non-evaluative activities that promote communication, collaboration, and learning in a dynamic and creative way. This area is dedicated to open activities that are not graded but encourage skill development and knowledge exchange.
Features
Video-Based Communication:
Chat with tools designed for the deaf community.
Add markers, comments that appear on the video timeline.
Record comments synchronized with the media timeline.
Spaces
Spaces function as a classroom where students, teachers, and interpreters interact with each other through various activities.
Open Activities
Users can participate in different types of open activities, such as:
- Comments Only: Participants can communicate with each other through text and video.
Usage: Discussions, idea sharing, and informal feedback. - Submission: Participants can leave comments (with text and video) and record or upload videos to be evaluated.
Usage: Sharing materials, demonstrating practices, and collaborative feedback. - Simultaneous: Participants watch a video and record a response video that plays back simultaneously.
Usage: Designed for interpreters and translators to practice simultaneous interpreting. - Consecutive: Participants listen to spoken content or observe an image, take notes, and then translate the content based on their understanding.
Usage: Designed for interpreters and translators to practice consecutive interpreting, with a focus on active listening, memory, and producing a video response after the stimulus. - Video Meeting: Participants join a real-time video call.
Usage: Debates, group practice sessions, or collective guidance.
Multifunctional Meeting:
Assessable Activities and Learning Management
The Multifunctional Meeting is equipped with tools that allow teachers to create, manage, and assess activities that promote active and collaborative learning. This section focuses on assessable activities and management tools that ensure rich feedback, customizable settings, and a flexible evaluation system.
Assessable Activities
Users can participate in different types of assessable activities, such as:
- Perception Activities: Assess students' understanding of sign language, translation, and interpretation.
Examples: multiple choice, true or false, image matrix, short answers, and activities created by H5P. - Production Activities: Encourage students to create content based on provided material.
Examples: recording personal videos, to be submitted for evaluation by the teacher or peers. - Interaction Activities: Promote collaboration among students using materials provided by the teacher.
Examples: virtual rooms for group interaction, with or without the teacher, including subgrouping.
With these tools, the Multifunctional Meeting ensures an inclusive, dynamic, and efficient learning environment that benefits both students and teachers.
Partnership
Meet the team of experts who combined their knowledge and passion to bring this idea to life.
Universities
Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany) and Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) are two renowned public institutions in the field of deaf studies and have significantly contributed to the advancement of research and education for the deaf community.
Professors
Professors Christian Rathmann, Christian Peters, and Thomas Geißler from Humboldt University of Berlin, and Ronice Müller de Quadros from Federal University of Santa Catarina were crucial in providing guidance and knowledge to create a platform that meets the specific needs of the deaf community.
Levante Lab
Levante Lab is a company based in Florianópolis-SC, dedicated to creating technological solutions with a positive social impact. With a focus on technical support, user experience research, and development, Levante Lab is an important partner in bringing this innovative platform to life.
Discover SignBank
SignBank is an open web platform created by the same partnership. It offers a vast database of sign language for deaf communities worldwide, also serving as a resource for linguistic research.
View more
Around the World
We believe sign language should be available to everyone, regardless of their location. Our goal is to promote cultural exchange and awareness, highlighting the diversity of sign languages and their unique cultural elements, further fostering inclusion and valuing sign language communities worldwide.
Currently, we are developing versions of this platform to serve the following locations:
International
Partnership:
Humboldt University of Berlin
- English
- IntSL
Germany
Partnership:
Humboldt University of Berlin
- German
- DGS
Brazil
Partnership:
Federal University of Santa Catarina
- Portuguese
- LIBRAS
Austria and Hungary
Partnership:
Humboldt University of Berlin
- German
- DGS
International
Partnership:
Humboldt University of Berlin
- English
- IntSL
Germany
Partnership:
Humboldt University of Berlin
- German
- DGS
Brazil
Partnership:
Federal University of Santa Catarina
- Portuguese
- LIBRAS
Austria and Hungary
Partnership:
Humboldt University of Berlin
- German
- DGS
Do You Want to Bring This Idea to Your Location?
We invite you to become our partner and contribute to the continuous improvement of the project.
