The DeafIT Academy team members introduce themself.
We are seven sign language users, deaf/hoh and hearing people, who work in a wide variety of areas in and outside the IT industry and have many years of professional experience. The team has joined forces with the vision and goal of creating an accessible education and information platform, especially for sign language users, deaf/hoh and hearing IT professionals, in order to exchange their expertise with even more people.
Who are we?
Nicole Weißkopf – DeafIT Leader
Florian Erfurth – DeafIT Leader
Christina Gebhard
Nick Massing
Melina Möhnle
Selina Marchewicz
Veronika Winter
Read more about DeafIT team members
Nicole Weißkopf, DeafIT Leader
Job & Company:
Senior Community Managerin bei Ray Sono AG & Freelance
follow me @NickelPic
How did you come to your current professions?
I have worked in a wide variety of industries during my school and training period, including the commercial sector, health and social services, such as physiotherapy, social care of people in need of help, and care for the elderly. After graduating with a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree, I completed an apprenticeship as a photo media laboratory technician and then worked briefly in the photo & advertising industry.
By chance, I joined one of the most successful German media companies on the Internet, as a community manager, where I acquired my skills and know-how in community management for over 10 years, in addition to online marketing. I found my calling in it and am a passionate community & online marketing manager with heart and soul, who has now discovered the digital data world. After a stopover at an e-commerce startup, I am now working as a senior community manager at a large digital advertising agency and also as a freelancer.
Florian Erfurth, DeafIT Leader
Occupation & employer:
Managing Director of SamuraIT UG (limited liability)
How did you come to your current profession?
My enthusiasm for technology started in my early childhood when I started experimenting with the programmable video recorder Philips VR2334. To the “enthusiasm” of my parents some recordings on VIDEO2000 video cassettes got lost after my “programming” with the bright red button. I found out my first order `LOAD “*”,8,1` alone at the age of six. From then on, I had sold my soul to IT. I studied computer science at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and worked in the field of IT administration. After successful completion, I started as a software developer with C/C++ and Java and rose to project management and finally to IT manager. With 20 years of know-how in software development, IT administration, project management and team management, I am happy to pass on my experience.
Christina Gebhard
Occupation & employer:
Business Analyst at Siemens AG
How did you come to your current profession?
About my training as a clerk for office management and the subsequent part-time study to the Bachelor of Business of Administration and various in-house training courses, I work today as a business analyst in the back office of the account management of the central Research and development at Siemens AG in Munich.
Nick Massing
Occupation & employer
Working student at Vitronic & Student for Digital Media at Mainz University of Applied Sciences
How did you come to your current profession?
After my training as an electronics technician, I gained eight years of professional experience in various companies and in the meantime I successfully completed the secondary school for electrical engineering. Due to the lack of accessibility in communication and advanced digitization, my dream job as a computer scientist was not feasible. With the increasing change in the two areas, I now see the great opportunity for me to further expand my professional career with a degree in digital media at Mainz University of Applied Sciences.
Melina Möhnle
Occupation & employer:
Digital Accessibility & mindscreen GmbH
How did you come to your current profession?
Early on, I had to experience the barriers of communication, as I am deaf-bordering hearing impaired from birth. Therefore, I have decided to do everything to break down these barriers and make media accessible to all. After graduating from a university of applied sciences, I studied multimedia information and communication at the Ansbach University of Applied Sciences and successfully completed the Master of Arts Degree (M.A.) with 1.7. Both my bachelor and master thesis dealt with the topic of accessibility in media.
Parallel to my master’s degree, I worked as a working student at the Institute for Broadcasting Technology (IRT) in Munich-Freimann. After completing my Master’s degree in 2019, I took the opportunity to join the IRT Accessibility and Metadata team as an engineer. My focus was on accessibility services for media content and platforms. After the IRT was not continued by the German media authorities for financial reasons, I applied to an agency for digital accessibility and can continue my task.
Selina Marchewicz
Occupation & employer:
System administrator at the IHK Ulm
How did you come to your current profession?
For a long time I knew that I belong in the IT industry. In 2013, I started and successfully completed an apprenticeship as an IT system electronics engineer at Deutsche Telekom. In 2013, I started and successfully completed an apprenticeship as an IT system electronics engineer at Deutsche Telekom.
Now I work as a system administrator at the IHK Ulm. In short: Almost everything that has a power plug is my responsibility 😉