Abecedarium: The Ocean in Sign Language

"Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language” is a long-term participatory and inclusive project by TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space born in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences (CRN-ISMAR), and developed with ENS-Ente Nazionale Sordi ONLUS (The Italian National Agency for the Deaf) and Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (CNR-ISTC). The project, initiated in 2020, aims to map out and create an eco-glossary of terms and signs relating to the Ocean and its environment in Italian Sign Language (LIS), starting with a hands-on event that actively involves the deaf community. You can learn more about the project here.

Ocean Space has collaborated with the Italian National Agency for the Deaf to actively involve the Italian deaf community in mapping out all the existing and known signs relating to the marine world to verify which signs are not part of everyday use (such as the term "Anthropocene” for example) intending to create a common vocabulary and enable the deaf community to participate in the global debate as a right of democratic citizenship.

"Abecedarium: the Ocean in Sign Language" is a participatory project conceived and curated by Valeria Bottalico, museum accessibility expert, and Angela Pomaro, a researcher and scientific director at the National Research Council's Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR).

Learn more about the program here.