Virtual Booth

SIGN YOUR VOICE: SIGN LANGUAGE BOARD GAME

Sarah Marya Dani binti Iwan Dani, Muhammad Syamim Hamzi bin Mohd Fauzi, Dr. Murugadas a/l Ramdas@Chelamuthu

Department of Commerce, Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah 40150 Shah Alam

Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM) is the primary form of communication for the Deaf Community in Malaysia. However, more than 40,000 deaf individuals face numerous communication barriers due to the lack of awareness and knowledge of BIM among the hearing population of Malaysia. There is also a lack of resources to learn and practice BIM. This project aimed to develop and evaluate an educational board game to support sign language learning and to increase interest among Malaysians to learn BIM, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of Quality Education (SDG4) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG10). The development of the board game followed the five stages of Design Thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Interviews with Deaf students were conducted to gain insight on their troubles, and a prototype was tested with learners during a beginner sign language class. A survey on the testers showed high levels of engagement and learning effectiveness. Results indicate that the board game can be effective to support sign language learning and encourage more learners of BIM from the hearing population, subsequently bridging the communication gap between the deaf and hearing communities in Malaysia.

Keywords: Sign language learning, Design Thinking, Game-based Learning, Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia