SignWiki is a collaborative web and mobile platform which enables collection, dissemination and analysis of sign language resources and knowledge. The platform was developed by the Communication Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Iceland (SHH) and in the beginning of 2012, Moller-Trondelag Kompetansesenter in Norway became a development partner. The system is unique in its integrated pedagogical, open and participatory approach. The development is based on open source software, including MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) and jQuery Mobile.

In January 2012, the Minister of Education in Iceland officially opened the Icelandic SignWiki (is.signwiki.org), which has been well received by the sign language community and the general public in Iceland. The platform has fundamentally improved access to the Icelandic Sign Language and is widely used in teaching, by parents of deaf children, among interpreters, by university students, in deaf schools and in workplaces. Importantly, SignWiki also serves as an institutional knowledge resource for the SHH; it is actively used by its staff and is greatly improving knowledge sharing in the operation of the centre. SignWiki is currently being implemented in Norway by Moller-Trondelag Kompetansesenter and in Namibia by the Centre for Communication and Deaf Studies.

The vision behind SignWiki is to contribute towards human development, empowerment and equity for deaf people by strengthening sign languages and education through the use of information and communication technologies. SignWiki was developed with the aim to enable other countries to utilize the platform, in particular developing countries. Plans to move forward and form partnerships around those objectives are currently underway.

Visit the Icelandic SignWiki project launched January 31 2012.