Husband and wife Andrew and Caroline Thomson, who are both deaf, are flying out to the massive 10-day sporting event, which starts on September 5, to raise the profile of the athletes involved and promote their own highly successful business.
An
drew said: "There will be over 4000 sign language users from over 80 countries from all over the world at the event. It's the first time we have been out there on business – we're really excited to be doing this. It's going to bring worldwide exposure for Falkirk."
Sign Now, based in Grangemouth Enterprise Centre, started operating in 2006 to make information accessible to deaf people. They accomplished this with products like VideoTalk and Communicator which, thanks to technology and British Sign Language, allow conversations between deaf people or between a hearing person and a deaf person to take place.
Andrew won the 2008 Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year and Sign Tube, run by Caroline, was named best website at last year's Falkirk Herald Business Awards.
Mary McLuskey, Sign Now business and marketing manager said: "More and more people are using Sign Tube every day – up to 3 million every month and that's rising all the time.
"During Deaflympics the traffic to our site could increase threefold. There is a potential market there of three to five million people."
Sign Tube, like You Tube, can be used as a social networking site.
However, it can also be used by businesses who want to advertise products to the deaf community.
Mary said: "It's a real opportunity for businesses to get into an untapped marketplace – the deaf community which has previously experienced difficulty in accessing even basic information.
"If people want to advertise to the deaf community then Sign Tube is the place to go. Sport in general is one of the key ways in which deaf individuals can achieve without barriers – sport is often a barrier-free activity.
"So we are promoting our own business, but we are also promoting the contributions deaf people can make to society and getting their voice across to as many people as possible through Sign Tube."
The Deaflympics features all the athletic events the Olympics is known for and a number of sports including badminton, football, shooting, tennis, volleyball and judo.
Andrew said: "The Deaflympics are the second oldest games next to the actual Olympics and started in 1924. They are older than the paralympics but are not recognised the Olympic committee, so they are not promoted in the same way."
Andrew and Caroline will become media correspondents during their visit.
Caroline said: "We will be filming, interviewing deaf people, asking them how it feels to be out there. We will upload videos onto Sign Tube showing interviews with the competitors."
The couple will be taking their children, Wayne (13) and Carl (12), with them to the event, letting the two boys, who can both hear, meet deaf children, work on school projects and see the spectacle.
Visit www.sign-tube.com or www. sign-now.com for more information.
