SZJ za decu i početnike — Co-Designing Serbia's First Sign-Language Learning App with the Deaf Community

Serbia has no official Serbian Sign Language (SZJ) training programmes, courses or school curricula, and interpreters remain scarce; most hearing people who sign learned informally through personal ties to the Deaf community.
In 2022–2023, UNICEF Serbia partnered with the Belgrade Deaf Organization, the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Association of Serbia and IT company Vega IT to co-design "SZJ za decu i početnike" ("Serbian Sign Language for Children and Beginners"), a free cross-platform app built in React Native for Android and iOS. Each vocabulary entry pairs an illustration with a video of children demonstrating the sign, and gamified quizzes test retention; an Umbraco back-office lets the partner associations add new categories and terms without a developer.
Presented around the anniversary of Serbian Sign Language's recognition as the Deaf community's mother tongue, the app passed 1,000 downloads and won the Special Award for Best Socially Responsible Application at Serbia's national digital awards.
Honest caveat: Vega IT retained full control of project scope, architecture and release, and no independent evaluation of children's sign-language learning outcomes has been published — the download count and award are self-reported by the project partners and the app-store listing, not an external study.

Read the full analysis: https://www.vegaitglobal.com/media-center/business-insights/co-creating-the-first-serbian-sign-language-app-for-children-and-beginners-with-unicef