Personagens virtuais no ensino da língua gestual portuguesa

The Portuguese Sign Languages (LGP) faces a low diffusion level, amongthe deaf as well as the hearing communities. The communication of deaf persons, to be effective, requires the knowledge of LGP, not only on the speaker´s side, but also from the listener´s. This paper focuses on the use of the new technologies in the diffusion and teaching of the sign language, it is also true that there is no dispute in relation to the added value that the new technologies represent as support material in the teaching. We give special emphasis on the technologies that use images and/or models based in three-dimensional graphics to create virtual signers.