No Deafference

Communication is a simple act of exchanging messages between people. Yet, some other people struggle with understanding and conveying messages as a result of their hearing impairments. That’s why Hiba decided to help those people through a mobile application.

Over 466 million people across the world suffer from hearing difficulties according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Public and private initiatives are launched globally to facilitate the inclusion of those people. In Lebanon, daring social innovators are also taking action to help hearing-impaired individuals to overcome their disability and become active members of the society.

Earlier this year, DOT Lebanon conducted a Digital and Media Literacy Training Program in Beirut and Mount Lebanon areas in partnership with Abdullah Al Ghurair Foundation for Education to help youth develop their digital skills.

During this training, we met Hiba, a Palestinian CCE student who discovered at the age of 5 that she suffers from hearing difficulties. 

I wasn’t able to communicate properly with my friends and family which made me feel embarrassed as a kid. Said Hiba.

Passionate about music, she wanted to enhance her digital skills to share her passion with people having the same case. 

She suggested “No Deafference”: an innovative idea aiming to help people with hearing impairments communicate easily with their environment. No Deafference is a mobile application that uses the mobile camera to shoot the deaf person communicating and translate their sign language into spoken language, and vice versa. The application also helps deaf people participate in training courses and understand music and songs.

Deaf people are able to sense music vibrations. Combining these vibrations with lyrics, they can enjoy songs. Music is a universal language that anyone can understand! Added Hiba.

Hiba was excited about sharing her project with DOT Lebanon’s trainers. She is aiming to develop the No Deafference App as soon as she learns coding principles. She also expressed her readiness to enroll in the Mobile Application Development training course with DOT Lebanon to turn her idea into a real project. 

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