Mathquest: An Interactive Application For Hearing-Impaired Students

MathQuest is an innovative application product addressing the gap in special learning devices for students with hearing impairment. These students have limitations and hearing loss which has implications for limited vocabulary, slow cognitive, and language development. During their learning, hearing-impaired students are assisted using sign language. However, not all terms can be translated using sign language, especially terms used in learning abstract concepts such as mathematics. Moreover, there are no special learning devices that can be accessed by these students. Thus, MathQuest emerges as a solution to the problem of learning mathematical concepts for students with hearing impairment, e.g., addition and subtraction of integers. MathQuest can be accessed on the desktop using Windows operating system and it has four key features: (1) iconic language features related to mathematical modeling of concrete objects in daily life; (2) colorful display feature related to colorful visual presentation, attracting attention and stimulating enthusiasm for learning; (3) the sign language feature in MathQuest presenting videos of instructions in the right or left corner of the application and accompanying videos to translate the content of the materials; and (4) interactive features providing positive affirmation feedback with thumbs up and stars or red blocks for incorrect answers.