Students from the School of Business of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) have developed an Internet application specially designed to improve the lives of the hearing-impaired community. The Advanced Lesco project is an online platform that allows users to contact a sign language interpreter who can assist them in real-time via web and telephone conference.

Lesco is the acronym of Lenguaje de Señas Costarricense (Costa Rican Sign Language). Despite Lesco being officially recognized as the official language of the hearing and speech-impaired in Costa Rica, there are only about 16 fully certified interpreters who do not have hearing or speech impairments. These are busy interpreters who charge between $10 and $20 per hour for their services -if you can find them; they are usually at public institutions serving in an official capacity.

The Advanced Lesco communications network aims to expand the number of interpreters and to lessen the economic burden on users. The online platform allows a hearing-impaired person in Costa Rica to connect to a Lesco interpreter who will then be connected to someone without a hearing impairment via telephone. A skilled interpreter may even be able to translate between Lesco and English. Users agree to keep phone calls succinct for the purpose of keeping the cost per session from about $2 to $3.

Asvanced Lesco was developed by Ana Ruth Villarreal, Omri Daniel Goren, Nathalia Salas, and Olga Álvarez of UCR as a course assignment. Miss Alvarez is a hearing-impaired student for whom UCR provides a Lesco interpreter who follows her to different classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories on campus. Her classmates researched sign language interpreting services in the United States and came up with their own idea.

In Costa Rica, there are more than 35,000 people who, like Miss Alvarez, live with a hearing impairment.

Source: University of Costa Rica