Developing a bilingual mobile dictionary for Indian Sign Language and gathering users experience with SignDict

Area of Science:

• Assistive Technology
• Linguistics
• Deaf Education

Background:

• Sign language dictionaries are crucial for deaf literacy.
• Traditional print formats struggle to capture sign language nuances.
• Video-based solutions offer a more effective representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a bilingual mobile sign language dictionary.
• To incorporate features for text-to-sign conversion and spoken-to-sign translation.
• To assess user preference and effectiveness for learning Indian Sign Language (ISL).

Main Methods:

• Development of a mobile application with video-based sign language.
• Implementation of text-to-sign conversion using camera input.
• Translation of simple spoken sentences into corresponding signs.
• User feedback collection from 2,900 Indian users.
• Comparative assessment by 45 deaf school stakeholders.

Main Results:

• The mobile application is preferred by 2,900 users for learning ISL.
• Key features like easy availability, speed, and character recognition were highly rated.
• Stakeholders found the mobile application significantly more effective than existing resources.

Conclusions:

• Mobile applications provide a preferred and effective platform for learning Indian Sign Language.
• The developed bilingual dictionary addresses limitations of print formats.
• Technological advancements enhance accessibility and literacy for the deaf community.