Dubuisson, C., M. Bastien, R. Berthiaume, A.-M. Parisot et S. Villeneuve (2004) "Création du logiciel d'alphabétisation bilingue 'Le français sur le bout des doigts': évaluation de l'outil et de la démarche", Revue ReCALL.
Designed for a literate, hearing clientele, traditional CALL tools do not necessarily
meet the needs of deaf people, and are not adapted to their learning styles,
especially in the area of literacy. Current developments lead us to believe
that, in order for deaf people to subscribe to literacy campaigns and to ensure
that such measures are efficient, two conditions must be met: Quebec sign language
must be the language of instruction (Dubuisson, Machabée, and Parisot,
1997) and the participation of deaf people must be felt at every stage of the
development of course material. Research has shown that in architecture for
example, the participation of the target clientele in the design process of
the product can lead to the emergence of significant solutions (Vezeau et al.,
1999). In light of the quantity of Web systems and products that are hardly
used or difficult to use, Rubin (1994) reminds us of the need to consider the
user, and not only the machine or the system, in the development process. The
main goal of our research is to establish design parameters (developmental process,
type of software, and content) for CALL software aimed at deaf adults. Only
the data relating to the developmental process will be presented here. We will
analyze and discuss the responses obtained through interviews with deaf members
of the development team, audiotapes (on which an interpreter recorded the words
of the team members), and videotapes of meetings. The interpretation of this
data will give way to a qualitative assessment of the efficiency of the approach
in the development of material adapted to the needs of the target population.