The Kasahorow Fellowship Committee has awarded the 2012 kasahorow Fellowship to Ashesi Computer Science major, Diana Dayaka Osei ’12, for her project that aims to promote Ghanaian Sign Language. Diana’s project aims to help close the communication gap between deaf people in Ghana and the people in their environment by developing a repository and teaching resources for Ghanaian Sign Language (mainly aimed at people who do not know how to use the language). Diana will receive $500 in funding from kasahorow as part of her fellowship award, to help her further develop the project.
Diana, who graduates next month, undertook this project for her senior year thesis at Ashesi after she visited the Cape Coast School for the Deaf to volunteer as part of her service learning requirements. It was while there that she developed an interest in Ghanaian Sign Language, and realised that there were very few resources available for learning the language.
“I was surprised about this,” says Diana. “Resources for learning Ghanaian Sign Language are limited in comparison to other sign languages around the world. I decided that it would be good to help change this.“ Diana’s project will involve building an online portal for learning Ghanaian Sign Language that will also allow proficient users of the language to contribute content for and support learning on the platform.
Kasahorow is an organization that promotes the use of African languages. Its current projects include African language dictionaries, keyboards and learning resources as well as web tools.