On December 5, 2019, an international conference was held at the headquarters of the Social Academy of Sciences. "Communication without barriers" dedicated to modern tools and technologies supporting the professional development of people with hearing disabilities. This event was the culmination of 2 years of cooperation between partners from Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland as part of the Erasmus + ProHear project, during which partners presented the results of the project, as well as discussed the situation of deaf and hearing impaired people on the labor market in each of the partner countries. Thanks to the invited guests, participants also had the opportunity to learn how effective team collaboration between deaf and hearing people (DeafRespect Foundation) can look like, how to use online tools and social media in creating their professional image (E-site) and learn a video translation system to help people with hearing disability communicate with the world of hearing people (Polish Association of the Deaf). During workshops, as a part of the simulation game "City of the Deaf", hearing people could experience problems faced by deaf people in everyday life and learn about the educational platform created as part of the ProHear project. Deaf and hard of hearing people learned how to in practice overcome the employer's fear of employing a deaf person and how to use e-learning courses in the process of professional development.
The conference was conducted in both Polish and English and in Polish sign language. It was also a great opportunity to exchange international and intercultural experiences between communities of people with hearing impairments as well as trainers and vocational counselors working with various professional environments.
We would like to thank all the guests, guests and our partners for their participation and fruitful cooperation.