The Online course with translation into Russian Sign Language (RSL) will help Athletes with various hearing impairments understand the anti-doping rules and the anti-doping system.
Specialists from RUSADA, together with the Educational and Methodological Center of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf and the Russian Deaflympics Committee, developed this Course taking into account the peculiarities of perception and understanding of information by hearing-impaired athletes.
The lessons published on the official YouTube channel of RUSADA are recommended for use by organizations providing sports training for Athletes with hearing impairments.
We are convinced that knowledge of anti-doping rules will help Athletes prevent accidental violations.
When creating the Course, specialists faced non-trivial tasks. For example, in RSL there are no many concepts from the field of anti-doping, therefore, when translating into sign language, the center’s specialists collectively discussed almost every phrase and used various translation methods: by meaning, by gestures, by letters. Additionally, Athletes with hearing impairments may use different signs to express the same phrases depending on whether they are using International Sign Language or RSL. This also made the course translation process more difficult.
Equal conditions for participation in sports competitions, as well as the equal rights of Athletes to access anti-doping education, are important priorities for RUSADA. That is why RUSADA initiated the creation of the Online Course for Athletes with hearing impairments, which demonstrates the best global practices in anti-doping education.
We thank the staff of the Educational and Methodological Center of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, its director Elena Soloveichik, Specialists from the Russian Deaflympic Committee and RUSADA Ambassador from the Russian Deaflympic Committee Ekaterina Savchenko for their responsiveness and active participation in this unique project!