Patrick Seifert (20) is committed to better participation for deaf people. He writes regularly in the BZ about his voluntary work, including for the website www.msa-berlin.de Photo: Ufuk Ucta
From the BZ editorial team
This Corona! I was on a scholarship from the Parliamentary Sponsorship Program as an exchange student in the USA when, after seven months, I suddenly had to go back to Germany!
On March 19, 2020 I landed in Tegel at a ghost airport full of emptiness. All shops were closed. lockdown My school? Also to! Cut off from social life – that is another particular problem for deaf children and young people.
Corona forced schools to digitize: homeschooling as a video conference was an idea. Switching between home and school is another. The teachers sent my worksheets by e-mail and I had to – yes, exactly: print them out at home! I stood at our printer and thought ironically: “Welcome to digitization in Germany!” In my deaf school in Minnesota, the Metro Deaf School, we worked in a virtual classroom. Everything was digital! No printouts!
But there are also projects in Germany that focus on digital education. After my return, I found the website “msa-berlin.de” on the Internet, which is being set up by two women on a voluntary basis. The website prepares you online for the intermediate school leaving certificate (MSA). Access for the deaf to their digital educational offering is also important to the two creators, Anja and Michi. Accessibility! My theme. I arranged to meet them online and have been helping explain key terms on the site in German Sign Language (DGS) for over two years. To do this, I volunteer at home to produce short DGS videos for technical terms in geography, chemistry, German or math.
On the homepage, everyone can then puzzle themselves “fit” for the MSA and look “cleverly”. Free and without ads. “Education is priceless and for everyone,” think Anja and Michi. And: “Learning should be fun and easy!”
Maybe you are also curious about DGS? For me, barrier-free digital educational offers are a key to political commitment: for democracy and freedom and for inclusion. Seen in this way, Corona is also an opportunity!