Accessible Tourism for Deaf People in Poland: The SITur and SITex Programs as Proposals for Accessible Urban Information

SITur and SITex are multimedia programs addressed to Deaf tourists, whose main communication means is Polish Sign Language (PJM). In this article we present the background and main assumptions for the development of the programs, conducted experiments and conclusions regarding further development directions. By assumption, creating programs was carried with the participation of their beneficiaries. Before programs development, the style of leisure and tourist destination of the Deaf in Poland were recognized using questionnaire interviews; for comparison, the same questions were asked to a control group of hearing. Besides texts, maps, pictures, pictograms, the programs include PJM animation module, borrowed from Thetos translation program. PJM users repeatedly tested the programs, i.a. on selected tourism routes. The PJM and the tourism industry experts also reviewed them. Feedback from the Deaf environment is currently used to improve programs - to complement vocabulary and animation expression (including facial expressions of avatar-translator).