FEEL IT - A Pioneer Curriculum for Designing Tourism Experiences for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People

Project Summary and Objectives

Being a Deaf or hard of hearing tourist can be very difficult, because of communication barriers and lack of consideration for their requirements in the design of tourism services.

In order to give them the opportunity to have touristic experiences tailored to their needs, the FEEL IT team is creating an online community where users can share knowledge and give or receive feedback for their trip. 

FEEL IT will also create a VR game that lets hearing persons have the chance to understand how it feels to be a visitor with hearing impairments. 

Making tourism inclusive is a small but vital part of the pathway to an inclusive world.

Objectives

• Offer a better understanding of the requirements of tourists with hearing impairments as a valuable share of the tourism market (referring to physical access, accommodation, food, activities, attractions and transport).  
• Create employment opportunities for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing to work as travel agents, creating accessible vacations for their peers.  
• Train travel agents in how to serve Deaf customers and customers with hearing impairments. Staff who are well-trained with a ‘can-do’ attitude are important in improving travel enjoyment for these groups of customers. 
• Create a European online community of Deaf and hard of hearing people that will advise peers to on how organize their trips in the countries they wish to visit.

Project Partners

• University of West Attica, Greece (Coordinator)
• Phoenix Post-secondary Institute, Romania
• Omegatech, Greece
• European Network for Accessible Tourism, Belgium
• CEIPES, Italy
• Institute of Entrepreneurship and Development, Greece
• CYCERT, Cyprus

Resources

Visit the FEEL IT Website

Join and engage with the FEEL IT Online Community in English, Greek, Italian and Romanian languages.

Enrol to take the FEEL IT open e-Learning courses - for Travel Agents, learners who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and anyone who is interested in improving services for these tourirsts.  

• Courses are available as video lessons with sign language and subtitles in Greek, Italian and Romanian.
• Courses are available in English language as slides and text (- not British Sign Language or International Sign).   
• All courses are free of charge. 
• A certificate is offered by the Cyprus Cerfication Company to candidates who take a final exam.

Follow FEEL IT Training on FaceBook

FEEL IT is financed by the EU ERASMUS+ Programme: Cooperation Partnerships (Key Action 2). Agreement number: 2021-1-EL01-KA220-VET-000028082 
 

EU disclaimer:
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.