Designed for a literate, hearing clientele, traditional CALL tools do not necessarily meet the needs of
deaf people, and are not adapted to their learning styles, especially in the area of literacy. Current developments lead
us to believe that, in order for deaf people to subscribe to literacy campaigns and to ensure that such measures are
efficient, two conditions must be met: Quebec Sign Language must be the language
of instruction (Dubuisson et al., 1997)
and the participation of deaf people must be felt at every stage of the development of course material. Research has shown
that in architecture, for example, the participation of the target clientele in the design process of the product can
lead to the emergence of significant solutions (Vezeau et al., 1999). In light of the quantity of Web systems
and products that are hardly used or difficult to use, Rubin (1994) reminds us of the need to consider the user,
and not only the machine or the system, in the development process. The main goal of our research is to establish design
parameters (developmental process, type of software, and content) for CALL software aimed at deaf adults. Only the data relating
to the developmental process will be presented here. We will analyze and discuss the responses obtained through interviews
with deaf members of the development team, audiotapes (on which an interpreter recorded the words of the team members),
and videotapes of meetings. The interpretation of this data will give way to a qualitative assessment of the efficiency of
the approach in the development of material adapted to the needs of the target population.
