What is Martha EDU?
Martha EDU is a social enterprise interested in the innovation and development of educational tools for people with hearing disabilities. Martha’s products are the result of continuous research and study of the best educational methodologies in Arabic-Jordanian Sign Language. Our educational products are supported with Arabic, English, and an interactive application that displays visuals and videos with child-friendly cartoon characters in collaboration with talented children who are proficient in Jordanian-Arabic Sign Language.
Our Values
Digital Safety
Equality
Transparency
Cultural Sensitivity
Practical Empathy
Digital Safety
Digital safety of children and their families is at the heart of our work. Our products provide a safe, meaningful, and engaging child-family learning experience. The content and functionality have been prepared and tested by both users and top experts in the field, who ensure that children are protected from harmful or abusive content. In addition, the product will offer age-appropriate privacy settings in line with European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children and recommendations of UNICEF’s Guidelines for Industry on Online Child Protection.
Equality
Our product is an easy, accessible, and affordable technology that reduces inequalities by offering it with minimum cost or free for charge for those who can’t afford it. It provides the educational experience regardless of age, gender, the income of families or social backgrounds. Martha EDU’s products can help reduce language development disparities between D/deaf children and their hearing peers. The product also promotes high-quality education through an inclusive learning experience for all children and families in multiple languages (sign, English and Arabic) using new technologies and high-quality visual content.
Transparency
As you may have noticed from your readings about Martha EDU on our website, we share our approach, partners, processes, and objectives with you openly. We welcome your questions and thoughts through the many feedback and communication forms we have on our website, and we are glad to develop new ways of staying in touch with you.
Cultural Sensitivity
Culture evolves, grows and changes, and so do we. We aim to come alongside people from diverse backgrounds by exercising cultural sensitivity. Our clients’ priorities, values, and perspectives are incorporated into all the work we do. Furthermore, diversity is in our very DNA as a social enterprise run by Syrians and Jordanians, with contributions from many more who add distinct value to our contribution to the world.
Practical Empathy
We are driven by people and their experiences, by the stories, pain, and hope they share with us. We strive to apply these human experiences to solutions with meaning and sustainability to act upon what we learn from you.
Clarify a problem
Most people who identify with a hearing disability or being d/Deaf face challenges that begin in early childhood. With 90% born to hearing parents, the majority of d/Deaf individuals develop without access to a common language with others, and lack literacy skills in sign language.
In the developing world, children are confronted with the additional impacts of armed conflicts, poverty, and short-sighted policies. These dynamics can be barriers to accessing medical, legal, social, economic, and educational assistance, building meaningful relationships and creating hope-filled futures.
Our solutions
At Martha EDU, we strive to eradicate the barriers to literacy from the lives of d/Deaf individuals from childhood, using interactive flashcards and mobile app technologies.
We aspire to reach every home with our products. By leveraging our state-of-the-art flashcards equipped with QR codes and augmented reality features, d/Deaf individuals and their families can benefit from a fully-immersive learning experience.
Using a multi-level structure, we also gradually add English and Arabic words to the vocabulary and imagination of children and their families. Moreover, given the nature of our solutions, we are able to scale and localize our products to a wide range of contexts and cultures.
of d/Deaf people lack education or are undereducated, are illiterate or semi-literate.1
of d/Deaf children are born to hearing parents with little or no experience dealing with d/Deaf people. 2
References:
1. World Federation of the Deaf. 2003. “Position Paper regarding the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.” Ad Hoc Committee on an International Convention, Fourth Session. 24 June, 2003. [URL]
2. Mitchell, Ross and Michael Karchmer. 2004. “Chasing the Mythical Ten Percent: Parental Hearing Status of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in the United States.” Sign Language Studies 4(2): 138-163. [PDF]
Why Martha EDU?
Martha EDU’s sign language flashcard system is unique because it is–
Easy, user-friendly, and engaging
Presented in Jordanian Arabic Sign Language, complemented by written Arabic and English
A form of home-based learning
Affordable at an estimated cost of US $40, and based on human-centered design through thorough collaboration with community members, professionals, and nonprofit organizations
Fully functional without the support of professionals
Supported and endorsed by leading civil society organizations such as the International Refugee Commission (IRC), Oxfam International, and the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation
Designed to give d/Deaf children and those with hearing disabilities in Jordan and the region opportunities to overcome financial, socioeconomic, and cultural barriers and increase societal integration
Downloads
App available on Google Play and App Store.
Expert opinions
Explore more than fourteen cartoon characters
Adam
Salma
Hamza
Alayaa
Zaid
Nada
Jamila
Amir
Nour
Sultan
Shammah
Kareem
Zeina
