Development of The AR School App for Children with Hearing Impairment Who Begin Learning Ecuadorian Sign Language using Augmented Reality

Abstract

Augmented reality AR has been used for many years in different fields of education. It has provided advantages in learning, However, no applications focused on the initial learning of Ecuadorian sign language for children with hearing impairments in their primary school years have been found. In this paper we present the development of a mobile application based on augmented reality, the Unity tool was used as a platform for mobile devices and the Vuforia SDK complement for augmented reality. With this application, the child can see the gesticulation of words in sign language through the use of printed templates. It also has an option to perform a quiz that will allow it to evaluate the knowledge the children acquired from the learning module. The mobile application called ARSchool based on augmented reality which is designed and adapted for people with hearing impairment, mainly for school-age children, as support for the initial learning of sign language in Ecuador. Once the application was developed, it was tested both at school and at home, in which teachers and parents made children with hearing impairments interact