Johanna Steiner

Deaf people often face accessibility issues due to the underrepresentation of Sign Languages. This can impact their personal, educational, and professional lives, as many people lack knowledge of Sign Language and how to interact with Deaf individuals. Deaf people are confronted with a hearing world who rarely knows their struggles and needs on a daily basis. If more people knew how to sign, Deaf people's lives would get more accessible. As many countries struggle with a limited number of Sign Language interpreters for a vast number of Deaf people. Often times relay services or technical solutions are under-represented. That is why it is vital that more hearing people learn how to sign. This way they are able to offer better access and inclusion for their fellow Deaf citizens. Sign Language courses are expensive, not widely available, and online options may not be flexible enough for everyone. Existing language apps rarely offer Sign Languages or have limited, low-quality content. Lingvano provides an alternative for learning American, British, or Austrian Sign Language remotely, flexibly and on any device. The app uses gamification to keep users engaged and motivated, aiming to bridge the gap between the hearing and Deaf communities to make the world for Deaf people more accessible. With this app and web based solution users are not only flexible in terms of when or where they want to learn but how much time they would like to invest as well. Lingvano offers bite-sized, engaging lessons. With investing only 10 minutes a day learners will make great progress! Lingvano offers various ways to learn, repeat, and practice Sign Language through short units, lessons, and quizzes, allowing users to learn at their pace. A mirror feature helps learners check their signing, while a vocabulary trainer aids in learning and retaining new signs. With the fingerspelling and numbers trainer users are able to improve the topics mentioned. Users can also look up signs in the dictionary, regardless of whether they've been covered in the course. Lingvano offers a flexible, engaging solution to anyone who wishes to learn Sign Language remotely at any time of the day. Come and learn Sign Language with Lingvano!