Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals and Education: Greece - A Special Case of Social Exclusion

Athanasios  Skordas; Panagiotis  Giavrimis; Efthymios  Valkanos; Ekaterini  Nikolarea

Authors

Athanasios Skordas Educator, MSc, Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, Greece
Panagiotis Giavrimis Lecturer, Department of Sociology University of Aegean, Greece, Pamfilis 17, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Efthymios Valkanos Associate Professor, Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Greece Antoniou Daniolou 2A 54644, Thessaloniki, Greece 00302310 891385
Ekaterini Nikolarea ESP/EAP Teacher, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Greece University Hill, 81100 Mytilene-Lesvos, Greece, 00302251036438

Abstract

This paper is part of a wider research which makes an effort to record the conditions of Deaf and Hard of Hearing
(DHH) individuals in Greece, with emphasis on learning the Greek Sign Language (GSL) and using new technologies (i.e. ICT).
The basic aim of this study is to explore the educational needs of DHH individuals and, whether these needs are met or not and
why these individuals are socially excluded from resources that they should have been offered or provided by institutional
educational agencies. More specifically, it has been studied to what degree DHH individuals have acquired the necessary
knowledge to communicate effectively with the GSL, communicate and acquire information with the help of a PC as well as to use
ICT.