Full Inclusion with Sign Language!

Victoria Manning grew up with an older deaf brother in an academic-focused family. She gained a bachelors degree in Wellington, New Zealand followed by a Masters in Mental Health Counselling at Gallaudet University, in 1996. Returning home, Victoria provided New Zealand’s first Deaf mental health services. She was also one of two individuals who took a human rights case against the largest telecommunications company and succeeding in establishing a telephone relay service for New Zealand.

Victoria was employed at the Government’s Office for Disability Issues when the Government directed the drafting of a Bill to give official recognition to New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Victoria was a key advisor on the NZSL Bill for four years (2003 - 2006) from its initial development and throughout its progress through Parliament.

While working at the Human Rights Commission Victoria led the Commission’s Inquiry into NZSL. The resulting report “A New Era in the Right to Sign” (2013) included recommendations for government funding to support early acquisition of NZSL and a governing body to oversee the promotion and maintenance of NZSL, both of which have now been implemented.

Having worked in disability policy for many years, Victoria authored the Disabled Persons Organisations’ (DPOs) civil society report on New Zealand’s progress on the implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). A highlight of her career was being chosen by the DPOs to represent disabled New Zealanders at the United Nations in Geneva, in September 2014, for New Zealand’s first examination of its progress under the CRPD.

Victoria was awarded a Queen’s medal in 2015 for services to the Deaf and disabled communities.

Victoria is now the General Manager–Strategy at Deaf Aotearoa. She is also the inaugural chairperson of the NZSL Board which advises government on the promotion and maintenance of NZSL.

Full inclusion through sign language is at the heart of Victoria’s work and aspirations, and she is very much looking forward to attending the Third International Conference of the World Federation of the Deaf in Budapest, Hungary.

Csilla Bartha is leader of the Research Centre for Multilingualism of the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, habilitated research professor of Eötvös Loránd University, scientific advisor of the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her main research areas are sociolinguistics, bi- and multilingualism, language use of minorities (within and beyond the borders of Hungary), language rights, linguistic discrimination, connection of access and education, linguistic diversity, globalization, new ways of learning and minority education, and the sign language standardization of the Deaf communities in Hungary. She was involved as leader or participant in several national and international scientific projects. Inter alia she is member of the Linguistic Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Public Body of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Association of Hungarian Applied Linguists, and the Hungarian Sign Linguistic Association. She was delegated minority language expert of UNESCO, at present she is the Hungarian minority language expert of Mercator Education. She is founding member of the Research Platform of Mercator Multilingual Research Centres. One of her most significant research project leading activities was the co-ordination of the basic and applied research titled SIGNificant Chance project: The theoretical and practical steps of the standardization of the Hungarian Sign Language and she is still the leader of the MTA-NYTI Languag-E-Chance Educational Research Group. Csilla Bartha participated in several important international, European Union consortia and projects as consortium or project leader as well.

Péter Zalán Romanek was born in a Deaf family where all is deaf and they use sign language as mother tongue in everyday life, although he attended in Deaf school in Budapest where he got special education. He received a master degree in Classical Philology in Budapest at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in 2014, then he passed in a PhD-program in Applied Linguistics, focusing on the sociolinguistics of the Hungarian Sign Language. His choosen research topics is the dialects of the Hungarian Sign Language, the sign language standardization and the discourse analysis of the Hungarian Sign Language.

He is the sign language analyst in the Research Centre for Multilingualism (Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) and he was involved as the technical supervisor in the project SIGNificant Chance (2013-2016) which focused on the standardization of the Hungarian Sign Language for educational purposes. He is still the president of the Hungarian Association of Sign Language Studies.

Dr. Krister Schönström is an associate professor at the Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University. His primary research interests include several aspects within the topic of deaf bilingualism, including questions related to sign bilingualism, acquisition of written languages and sign languages in the deaf. He is currently conducting research focusing on the bilingual development of Swedish sign language as well as written Swedish in Deaf children enrolled at sign bilingual schools in Sweden. He has also been conducting several projects in sign language test developments aimed at measuring SSL skills in the deaf. In recent years, he has expanded his research agenda to include investigations of hard-of-hearing children with respect to language production in SSL and Swedish. Furthermore, he is conducting research related to multimodalism and the teaching of sign language use, and is currently principal investigator for a funded three-year project on second language acquisition in SSL. As a deaf person, Dr. Schönström has his own personal experience with sign bilingual education as he was among one of the first deaf children in Sweden to grown up bilingually at home and in school.

Mathilde de Geus gained a MA degree in History and University Teacher Training at Leiden University in 2004. She has studied Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. In 2012 she gained a MSc. degree in Educational Sciences at Manchester University and Leiden University. Besides this she is a certified Teacher of the Deaf also a licensed Remedial Teacher and Tutor.
Between 1999 and 2013 she has worked in Deaf Education at several schools and institutions for the Deaf in The Netherlands. In 2009 she started her own business providing advice, coaching and consulting for deaf, hard-of-hearing children, parents and schools in mainstream education. She has gained extensive experience in educational management.
Her main interests focus on didactics, cognitive development, learning/teaching models, educational design, curricula, development of applied materials, bilingualism, multilingualism, translanguaging, bildung and social ecology.
Mathilde is involved in several projects promoting educational opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. She is affiliated with some University-lead projects as expert-researcher and advisor. In 2016, Mathilde's project ‘Developing a parent sign language curriculum’ in collaboration with Joni Oyserman (The Netherlands) and Kristin Snoddon (Canada) received an award at the Zero Congress for best 'Innovative Practice on Inclusive Education’.

Joni Oyserman gained a bachelors degree in sign language teaching at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences in 2002, followed by a MA program in General & Sign Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. She has studied at Finnish Sign Language Centre at the University of Jyväskylä as an Erasmus+ Exchange student for 6 months.
At the University of Amsterdam she has 14 years of experience working as a teacher sign language(SL) and lecturer, including involvement in national and Erasmus+ projects and 19 years teaching experience with second language learners (students, adults, parents and interpreters sign language). Besides, she is Google for Education Certified Innovator and a Web/Multi-Media Engineer. Her main research interests focus on sign linguistics, research, SL didactics, multilingualism, e-learning, education/curriculum and second sign language acquisition. This connected with Common European Framework Reference for SL (CEFR) and International Sign. She is one of the authors of the first 'CEFR descriptors for Sign Languages’, published August 2013 in the Netherlands. Joni is one of the founding members and President of the European Network for Sign Language Teachers, set up at 2nd LESICO conference in 2015. In 2016, Joni’s project ‘Developing a parent sign language curriculum’ in collaboration with Mathilde de Geus (The Netherlands) and Kristin Snoddon (Canada) has won an award at Zero Congress for 'Innovative Practice on Inclusive Education’.

Roberta J. Cordano became the 11th president of Gallaudet University on January 1, 2016. During the announcement of her selection as president, Cordano was recognized as a "transformational leader who is the right person at the right time for Gallaudet."
Cordano brings to the Office of the President experience and skills built in both traditional and non-traditional settings. Prior to Gallaudet, Cordano was the vice president of programs for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cordano has held several leadership roles in different sectors, including health care, higher education, and government. She is a founding member of Metro Deaf School, a pre-k through eighth grade school, a bilingual-bicultural charter school for deaf and hard of hearing children in St. Paul, and a founding board member of Minnesota North Star Academy, a bilingual-bicultural charter high school for deaf and hard of hearing students.

Bruno Druchen is the National Director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa (DeafSA) since 2003. He started his career in Deaf Education as Deaf Teacher assistant in South Africa and won the scholarship to be part of the Deaf Theatre group of National Theatre of the Deaf in the USA . On his return to South Africa he was part of television programmes as an actor and then also the producer of television programmes for the Deaf Community in South Africa.
Bruno Druchen served on the Pan South African Language Board of South Africa. He was appointed on the Presidential Working Group on Persons with Disabilities and still serving as an active member. The Deputy President of South Africa appointed Mr Druchen on the Human Resource Development Council. He was elected as the Chairperson of the South African Disability Alliance for 3 consecutive years. Bruno as the National Director of DeafSA, is seen as a transformational leader and the organization grew from 30 staff members to 82 staff members and from 5 offices to 19 offices to ensure that services are rendered directly to the Deaf Community. He has been instrumental in aspects of Deaf Education and South African Sign Language, in 2014 SASL was approved as a subject in 47 schools of the Deaf and been mobilizing the Deaf Community and government for the approval of SASL as the 12th official language of South Africa. Bruno is active at both local and international level debates on issues of Deaf Education, Sign Languages and the Human Rights of Deaf persons in South Africa.
Bruno Druchen is committed to encouraging the use of South African Sign Language through such measures as campaigning for improved training and education, better interpretation services, and increased awareness amongst government and the public. This includes the promotion of research projects and subsequent distribution of findings and information, as well as the development of educational curricula and training programmes for deaf people and interpreters alike.
At heart, of his aim is to protect the fundamental human rights of South Africa's Deaf community – ensuring that no deaf person is excluded or made to feel isolated– and to make sure Deaf culture is granted the recognition and consideration it deserves in government policy, media transmissions and other forms of public activity.
Mr Bruno Druchen also played a fundamental role in the employment Deaf and hard of hearing staff at the Park Inn by Radisson Cape Town Newlands to ensure the ideals of inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Deaf and hard of hearing employees fulfil roles throughout the business, both front and back of house, including positions in reservations, housekeeping, security and maintenance, among others. The total Deaf employees is at 20% and the positive spin off this initiative had was a total of 40% of Deaf People employed at 3 hotels in Cape Town.
Bruno Druchen is a hugely respected member of the South African Deaf Community in South Africa and internationally and currently serves as the WFD Interim Regional Secretariat for Eastern and Southern Africa. Bruno has published chapters in books and been presenting at International Conferences.

Antal Kuthy is the founder and CEO of E-GROUP ICT GROUP (Est.1993). E-Group is an innovative software technology company headquartered in Budapest, with regional reach to CEE and numerous international project references. Antal is a software and telecommunication engineer but had extended studies in financial economics and game theory as well. Lived in multiple countries, US, Tokyo, London, and spent recently over 7 years in Hong Kong and China, developing new business opportunities for the group.
Antal’s early interest, beginning of nineties was in SPEECH PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY research and development, working with Watson (IBM’s researchers) Research Group and application of speech technologies.
Currently E-Group’s research and development focus is in APPLIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, cognitive software technologies and application to industry problems (financial, health, government etc). E-Group is highly privileged to be selected to be member of EIT Digital and EIT Health organisations, the two premium technology program of the European Institute of Technology, targeting future technologies making life better, human existence more sustainable and Europe a better place applying cutting edge technologies to real life problems.
E-Group has an extensive relationship with SINOSZ, the Hungarian Association For Deaf and Hard of Hearing people , and actively developing VIDEO TRANSLATION SYSTEMS (& beyond) which is in live service in Hungary for over 3 years , and continues to develop rapidly with new functionalities and system extensions utilising the latest technologies available.