Empowering Communication: The quest for automatic solutions in sign language

Emmanuelle ABOAF

Devfest on Discord - December, 13th 2024

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Fullstack developer at Shodo in Paris, France

EMMANUELLE

ABOUT ME

SHODO
Duchess France
yeeso
Women Techmakers
Tag contributor strategy deaf & hard of hearing working group
Compositech

Around 466 million people worldwide are affected by disabling hearing loss.

WHO

72 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people around the world use sign language.

There are over 300 different sign languages in the World.

Sign language

is not universal.

Gif you got this

WHEN YOU CREATE A TOOL WITH ASL

It won't work for other countries

that use a different sign language.

YOU MUST KNOW

Gif Troy Kotsur, an deaf actor, says in ASL "You feel me, right?"
  • Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community
  • Deaf culture
  • Learn local Sign Language with Deaf people
Wearable-tech glove translates sign language into speech in real time
University Students Designed Gloves That Translate Sign Language Into Speech
Giovatrix, an Indian Startup, Building AI Gloves to Help Speech impared Speak again

Gloves

I created the term ‘Disability Dongle’ in 2019 to draw attention to the phenomenon of design and engineering students and practitioners prototyping ‘innovative’ solutions for disabled people. The definition satirises an outcome in which designs or technologies ‘for’ disabled people attract mainstream attention and praise despite disabled people's legitimate concerns about them.

– Liz Jackson

Question of responsability

Automatic sign language as like automatic captions

are not 100% reliable.

AVATAR 3D, the SOlution ?

In English, sites like Signer.ai ou Signapse.ai offer automatic American Sign Language (ASL) translations on videos, texts, and audios.

In France, KEIA and IVèS (IRIS) offer to automatically translate content into French Sign Language (LSF) via a 3D avatar.

© KEIA

© KEIA

Transcript in English :

"Fanstasm
He is developing an algorithm that automatically translates sign language [into French].
Reality
It's not sign language. This is sign language."

IVèS's Signbot

SIgn SPEAK

Sign Speak is not merely building technology for Deaf people; it’s building it with them.

Built with the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community

Nothing about us without us

Gif 3D avatar said "Thank you"

LinkedIn : Emmanuelle Aboaf

THANK YOU!

RESOURCES (1/2

RESOURCES (2/2)