In the Canary Islands there are approximately 20,000 deaf people
19 july 2021
María del Carmen Rodríguez, Doctor and Professor at the Department of Education at the ULL (University of La Laguna), along with Beatriz Miranda Olivera, teacher and sign language interpreter, have been teaching one of this year’s practical workshops as part of the 2021 Adeje Summer University, in the Adeje Cultural Centre.
The four-hour workshop dealt with fundamental aspects of signing, teaching the basic alphabet, looking at concrete situations, greetings, verbs, job titles, etc. Students were taught some vocabulary and simple phrases around personal information etc.
In the Canary Islands there are approximately 20,000 deaf people with different levels of audio needs. From an educative perspective sign language “should be included in the school curriculum as an teaching tool, above all in centres that cater for those with hearing difficulties, at all levels of education”, said María del Carmen Rodríguez.
She added that it was not good enough that at university level there were a limited number of courses available through sign language, and that the educational institutions needed to improve.
