Deaf students learn code with dreams to become programmers

The project aims to equip students with disabilities with the same skills as pupils in regular schools.

Eighteen year old Mohammed Essam, left, and Khalid Hafez, 20, are learning basic programming at the Al Amal School for Deaf Students in partnership with Microsoft. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

SHARJAH // When Mohammed Essam punched in a code and watched a set of robots stop and turn at barriers following his commands, he quickly grasped that his hearing impairment would no longer be a hurdle in his dream of being a programmer.

The 18-year-old is among 15 students learning basic programming at the Al Amal School for Deaf Students in partnership with Microsoft. It is part of an ambitious project to equip students with disabilities with the same skills as pupils in regular schools.

“I want to study IT and programming in university so I can help people with hearing disabilities, help create any kind of technology for signing programmes. I also want to design things,” signed Mohammed, who has profound hearing loss and communicates through a school teacher.

“I liked to make the robot move and learn new programmes. I like this because I can do this by myself. It is easier than connecting with people - that is not easy.”

Instead of teaching complicated coding, Microsoft used the kudo tool, which uses icon-based visuals. The students picked up the concept almost immediately and will be introduced to more advanced software in September.

“This is like step one for computer programming and, in the next academic year, we will teach them to write a proper code,” said Radwa Salem, programme manager at Microsoft Gulf, about working with software to develop a mobile app.

“We believe that computer science, coding and programming can be a future for these students and can open a new channel for entrepreneurship. Employment is something they are always worried about, they say, ‘who will hire us?’ This showed them they could pursue this as a career. This is an area they are interested in, especially now that they trust the technology. They are very tech savvy, very visual, so understand quickly.”

It has been a learning experience for all.

“Our generation is not so into technology so sometimes if a teacher has any problem, the student helps her. For us to trust the abilities of our students gives them a better chance in the future,” said school principal Afaf Al Haridi.

“They cannot use their language so this limited them before but, with the new technology, new horizons have opened up.”

The process began a year ago when the school was included in the Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme, which offers digital learning to 240 public schools.

It has transformed communication and instruction in the school. Before, one designated teacher sat before a camera and completed sign language videos of each subject, then another tech-savvy teacher edited and stored the information.

After learning programmes such as Office Mix, any teacher easily embeds sign language videos onto PowerPoint that can be opened by staff or students at any time.

“Every teacher became his own content developer. It relieved the stress on that one sign language specialist of standing in front of the camera for hours translating lesson after lesson,” said Ms Salem.

Understanding the aspirations of the students has also been an eye-opener.

“It has been an exceptional engagement with Al Amal school, this was a special story for us because here you can really see how technology will change the way these students are going to use it,” said Ahmed Ashour, regional education sector lead, Microsoft.

“For us, the real impact happened when students said this technology helped them become ‘the same as the other students’. It means that they always felt there was a difference. Now they can actually utilise materials created for other students and have equal access to it.”