This is a CTP of initiative: DESIS - DESIS Lab Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
The ‘Social Technology Award of the Bank of Brazil Foundation’ established in 2001 is the main identification and certification instrument for social technologies in the country.
The winners gain resources to improve the technologies created as well as gaining visibility, as this award is recognized in the whole country. Besides that, the selected technologies became part of the “Banco de Tecnologias Sociais”- BTS (Bank of Social Technologies), an important Brazilian database in areas of social development (http://www.fbb.org.br/tecnologiasocial/).Legally established national institutions, either public, private or non-profit compete for the awards during a ceremony which is held every two years.
The award aims to identify, certify, reward and disseminate social technologies that have already been implemented at local, regional or national levels and that are effective in addressing issues related to food, education, energy, housing, environment, water resources, income and health.
According to the interviewee, the institutions enter the contest with the main interest that their projects "will become widespread, if not, it is not social technology, otherwise it is something you do with half a dozen friends. A project only becomes social technology when the society appropriates from it (...) when you win, you gain scale because the project comes into existence in Brazil".The projects that score best in the award ceremony receive a certificate made ??by a specialized team, in direct contact with the project creators.
The DESIS BH project that won the award is a game developed for the deaf, called "Librário: Design inclusivo para surdos" (Brazilian Sign Language: inclusive design for deaf people). The project won first place at the awards. The goal of the game, a card game, is that people who are not deaf can learn sign language: "It's a matter of putting yourself in the other's shoes. I once asked her (deaf doctorate fellow) what I could do to help deaf people and she told me she wanted everyone to speak her language, sign language. 'Why do I have to learn your language? 'It was from this answer that the game came, I thought, yes, why not? We do have all the conditions to learn this language".
The game was developed and tested with the help of a municipal school (public school for children). For the interviewee, the school is a favourable environment for the inclusion of deaf people, when listeners can understand a bit of sign language. The game "Librário" consists of a deck of cards in pairs that contain sign language signs. The iconographic images and words in Portuguese enable listeners to learn signals. Art education for youth workshops were developed enabling communication between the participants. This exchange allows learning to occur in a fun way, with the strengthening of ties between the community members where everyone is included.
The interviewee recognizes what they do as inclusive design: "We work with what we call inclusive design. Here in BH there is a carnival group created by a wheelchair user which for us is exactly what we do. The group is called "No mundo cabe todo mundo” (Everybody fits in the world). We try to work so that all people have space and can express themselves and have the same opportunities".
According to the interviewee the award cannot be assigned to a specific person, only for a group "it is a good collaboration". Thereby, the actors of this group that were pointed out by the interviewee as being responsible for co-production of the CTP were:
- Master student - The idea of ??working with deaf people was initiated when he started his master studies, sought out the DESIS BH, and started to work in the lab.
- Coordinator of DESIS BH (the interviewee herself) - was doing a post-doctorate in Canada in social design, right after having the idea of working towards something with deaf people. She chose the research line of digital technologies and began researching towards the development of the technology.
- Deaf doctorate fellow – in the doctorate class of the interviewee in Canada there was a deaf student. "I started talking to her and she introduced me into this world, which is quite different. I attended dinners and other events that were fundamental to my understanding of this universe. It’s very interesting that I did not master the language of the deaf. At the dinner table everyone was talking except me".
- Master student at the UEMG (State University of Minas Gerais) - one of the master students that the interviewee supervised decided to work on the project together with the others.
- Vice coordinator of DESIS BH – she also liked the idea and devoted herself to working together on the project.
- Municipal School in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais that works with the deaf community - Along the way, the DESIS BH team met a school for children who worked with deaf people. The school principal, teachers and students of this school were essential to the full development of the game and were able to test it.
March 2012 - Change of students at the university (as happens periodically every year) and the entry into a master’s course of a student that was interested in working with deaf people.
June 2013 - Coordinator went to complete a doctorate in Canada – The coordinator went to Canada to complete her doctorate and coincidentally found a deaf colleague in her class.
2014 - Work and contracts commenced with the municipal school.
May 2015 - Registration for the award – in 2015 open enrollment for the ‘Social Technology Award of the Bank of Brazil Foundation’ and DESIS BH submitted it`s “Librário” project.
September 2015 - The “Librário” project is announced as one of the award finalists
November 2015 – DEDIS BH was awarded. The project won first place.
December 2015 - Due to the award, DESIS BH became visible to the press and its components were invited for a series of TV, newspaper and radio interviews. According to the interviewee, the visibility that the project gained was very beneficial to the laboratory for people to get to know the project, for the institution to recognize the laboratory’s work and therefore there was more incentive to work among laboratory’s components.
The interviewee pointed out two types of contestation. The first occurred before the CTP and one occurred after the CTP.
The contestation before the CTP pointed out by the interviewee refers to a necessary adaptation to the project so that it could compete (which took time and was quite laborious, generating an excess of work wearing the team down.
According to her, when the lab creates a project it does not do so thinking of entering the project for an award. Thus, when completing the registration process, its members were required to consider adequate ways for the project to be eligible.
The second contestation relates to the amount received for the prize: "Money is a source of problems". Because it is a public university, there is a large amount of bureaucracy surrounding the financial resources received and the funds do not go directly to the laboratory, but to the university. These funds only come out of the university’s central bank account for certain expenses. This causes problems, for example, with the municipal school which does not understand why they cannot have access to the resources: “the partners find, for example, that we are changing our car, going to Europe or something else. They do not understand that the money has not yet come and that when it comes it goes to the chancellor. Therefore we do not know how much we will be able to spend... so at some point, the prize causes tension as well"
The interviewee said that their expectations regarding the possibility of receiving an award were that the lab would be able to gain visibility as visibility would improve their ability to work both within the university as well as outside it. Thus, she states that this anticipation was fulfilled.
But she also says that she could not have predicted or have had expectations about what she called "harmful" reactions, referring to the reaction of partners outside the bureaucracy of the public university regarding the expenditure of resources.
"Our goal has always been to publicize the project. Of course when you enter a competition you want to win. What we want is to promote sign language for as many people as possible. Now, this jelousy is being created and we cannot solve it yet... when we go into the school, we feel that they do not believe that we did not receive the money... they are suspicious... we could not solve this feeling of unease and it is a problem we did not think that we would have”.
From the interviewee’s point of view, the projects need to become social technologies so that they can gain scale and be recognized by many people.
According to the interviewee, the media is the only way to spread information. And yet, she said, the university cannot enter the news without an award, as was their case, because for her, the media is difficult to access. She believes that the university makes projects that can reach small towns, but cannot give the necessary visibility to activities/products and processes created within the university that are able to be applicable on a large scale.
Learning is always worth it "we have to look for visibility wherever and whenever is possible, doing what we can to be in the media. While the media is not the ultimate goal, it is a great ally. You have access to many places that the university just does not have access to".
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