Project inspires coding education for hearing impaired
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – A Purdue project is giving deaf and hearing impaired people learning opportunities to find jobs in the technical industry, but the group is still trying to raise money to expand their efforts.
The Deaf Kids Code team from Purdue University’s Engineering Projects in Community Service hosted, “Inspire to Innovate,” on campus Sunday.
The event showed the public the group’s goal of translating JavaScript coding videos to American Sign Language for the Khan Academy.
They’ve been working to translate 100 videos since the fall of 2016. That’s the minimum number needed to be listed on the non-profit educational academy’s main website.
Team members say the videos can help deaf children learn code and spark interest to pursue computing education.
It can also raise the number of deaf individuals who are employed.
“It’s to show that anybody, from anywhere, from any walk of life has the ability to contribute to society,” said Deaf Kids Code founder Shireen Hafeez. “Anybody can come up with an idea and implement, with these skills, to be a change maker of tomorrow.”
The group needs financial help because the process of translating is expensive.
Sunday’s event kicks off a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the ongoing project.
Thirty-two videos have been translated so far.
The goal is to complete the 100 videos by the fall of 2019.