Semiotic inspection intermediated method: a case study with deaf students

Accessibility actions in Distance Education (DE) seek to contribute to the integration of deaf students in higher education. For the actions that can be proposed, it is necessary to be well acquainted of the needs of this target audience in terms of communication, language and interface design. The aim of this study was then to evaluate the communicability of the Virtual UFMG interface, customized in Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Moodle, using the Semiotic Inspection Intermediated Method (SUM). The application of this method revealed the main communication problems in the Virtual UFMG interface, apprehended the special needs of the deaf in both situations, in the DE context and the VLE Moodle environments. The results from this application also showed the relevant categories of the system's use and also proposed suggestions for the interface improvement. It was then possible to generate indicators on accessibility in distance education written in Portuguese and focused on deaf users, contributing to their accessibility to DE contexts of academic studies.