CHS: Medium: Improving Information Accessibility with Sign Language First Technology

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

In the United States, American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary language of many deaf adults, and many deaf students receive classroom instruction in ASL while learning English as a second language. However, most interactive computing tools are presented and navigated exclusively in English, even those designed for deaf audiences. Making access to technology contingent upon a sufficient command of a second language creates significant barriers and access delays for deaf individuals. This project takes a human-centered computing approach to build a foundation that advances understanding of how deaf individuals could work and learn in environments that are designed with their needs and preferences at the forefront. It investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of new SL1 technology, which will provide delivery of signed language (SL) content by allowing deaf signers to navigate, search, and interact with technology completely in their first language (L1). The optimization of SL1-based user interfaces has never before been attempted and could lead to a breakthrough in historic communication and learning barriers; determining preferences, needs and optimized presentation of information for Deaf users will benefit this population and future populations of ASL signers. Technology that is truly accessible to deaf SL-signers has the power to facilitate lifelong learning, enhance access to educational content such as STEM topics, improve career opportunities, and allow SL-based organization of SL corpora, assessments, dictionaries, learning and employment resources. This work will directly impact deaf individuals, parents, interpreters, teachers, and students studying SL. Direct collaboration with deaf graduate and undergraduate students, deaf faculty, and deaf researchers, along with several partner schools for the deaf will ensure that the Deaf community has an instrumental leadership role in the design of future tools that meet their needs. Because there are no character-based written forms for signed languages, SL1 technology requires the development of SL-based user interface components, including menus, navigation, and search functions. Building on the team's prior work on the ASL STEM Concept Learning Resource (ASL Clear), and the ASL Assessment Instrument (ASLAI), this project will explore the viability, benefits, and impacts of sign language user interfaces, identify design considerations and best practices for this technology, and identify challenges for the integration of sign language into interactive systems. A formative study with deaf adults will explore challenges encountered with existing technology resources, and user needs and preferences for SL-based tools. Through an iterative and participatory design process, the team will study and refine appropriate layout, search and navigation designs in interactive computing contexts, then develop design guidelines that optimize the experiences of deaf users. The results will contribute new human-computer interaction techniques, design guidelines for optimizing technology for deaf users, exposure of barriers and features needing technical improvement, and empirical evidence and subjective feedback on the benefits of such interfaces on user task performance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.