With the support of the ‘Sustainable Knowledge Transfer Project Fund’ from The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services, we have established ‘SLCO Community Resources’ and started service in 2017.
Having been conducting academic research on sign language and deaf education for over twenty years, I have always believed that the success of sign linguistics research is not determined by the number of publications, but rather how it impacts the deaf community and how it influences the society’s mind set regarding deafness and sign language. Since 2006, our team has set up and has been running the “Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrolment in Deaf Education (SLCO) Programme”. With the introduction of sign language into kindergarten, primary and secondary school, deaf and hearing students have been learning through both spoken and signed language. In the programme, we have witnessed deaf and hearing children overcoming their communication barrier and becoming friends, growing up together and learning efficiently. This strengthens our belief that sign bilingualism should be promoted to a much wider spectrum of society, to increase public’s knowledge and awareness in Deaf Culture and sign language and to encourage deaf-hearing inclusiveness in society.
With the establishment of SLCO Community Resources, we will use the findings of sign linguistics and deaf studies to develop relevant support and service programmes, to improve the language and academic abilities of those in need, and to cultivate positive opinions on sign bilingualism in society. We hope that with our services and support, different groups in the community will be able to use both signed and spoken language to surmount communication barriers, and to promote mutual understanding, support and appreciation.
We hope that you will come and join us, and together we can all create an inclusive and loving community.Professor Gladys Tang
Chairperson, Board of Directors
SLCO Community Resources