Videos documenting economic and legal terms produced in Macedonian Sign Language

The necessity to innovate in free knowledge was one of the key lessons learnt from the implementation of the Capacity development for underrepresented communities (CDUC) project, which led to the idea of producing videos documenting frequently used scientific terminology in the Macedonian Sign Language. In the first half of 2024, Wikimedia MKD collaborated with economic and legal experts from one hand and a professional interpreter in the Macedonian Sign Language on the other hand on a project that resulted in the recording of 199 videos documenting slightly over 200 basic economic and legal terms.

Why are such videos necessary?

The results from the research on the Macedonian Sign Language community, which was conducted for the purpose of the CDUC project, revealed that the users of this sign language are not fluent in the Macedonian language. As a result, these people oftentimes face difficulties when communicating in public or private institutions (e.g. when visiting a bank, when requesting a legal service, when visiting a medic etc.). These difficulties are primarily caused by their inability to comprehend the meaning of some scientific terms, which puts them in disadvantage and makes them more vulnerable to hoaxes by other parties. In order to solve this problem, there is a growing necessity to convey the meaning of the basic scientific terminology that these people are frequently exposed to in the Macedonian Sign Language as their system of communication.

How was the project implemented?

The project was implemented in three phases, which were mostly carried out in the first half of 2024. In the first phase, economic and legal experts were commissioned to compile two lists of 100 basic terms in their respective fields. The experts were guided to prepare a brief definition and an example for each term. After the lists were compiled, they were submitted to a professional interpreter in the Macedonian Sign Language, who had to devise a way to interpret them so that they could be easily comprehensible. In the second phase, the production of the videos took place. Following the positive experience from Wikiexperiments, the years-long producer of the scientific experiments was hired to record and process the videos so that the desired quality is achieved. The economic and legal experts attended and monitored the recording of videos. A total of 100 videos documenting 100 economic terms and 99 videos documenting slightly over 100 legal terms were produced. In the third phase, the videos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons where they are available in corresponding categories for economic terms and legal terms. Additionally, each video was enriched with Macedonian subtitles of the interpreted content.

On 18 October 2024, a gala event was held in Skopje at which the project was presented to the members of the Macedonian Sign Language community. At the beginning, the rationale behind the project was explained with a reference to the results from the research phase of the CDUC project. Then, the sign language users were guided to the categories on Wikimedia Commons containing the recorded videos. Finally, sample recordings of both economic and legal terms were played.

Future plans

Considering the positive impact of the project and the value added for the Macedonian Sign Language community from its implementation, there are plans to carry on with its implementation and produce more videos in other scientific fields. This would involve collaboration with specialists in other fields who will have to compile lists of 100 commonly used terms. Once multiple sets of 100 scientific terms in different fields are documented, a long-term plan is to create a digital library of systematically organised content as an open educational resource.