A note on sign language gloves

Date: 2020-07-04 06:42 am (UTC)
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From: [personal profile] hellofriendsiminthedark
The final three paragraphs of the article are very significant:
However, some deaf researchers have criticised the development.

"The tech is redundant because deaf signers already make extensive use of text-to-speech or text translation software on their phones, or simply write with pen and paper, or even gesture clearly," said Gabrielle Hodge, a deaf researcher from the Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre at University College London, to CNN. "There is nothing wrong with these forms of communication."

"It would be so much easier if tech focused on user-driven and user-centered design in the first instance, rather than dreaming up 'solutions' they think will fix all the problems in the world."


I'd like to draw attention to another article, written in 2017, called Why Sign-Language Gloves Don't Help Deaf People. It's a great read about the audism inherent to "translation glove" pursuits, which began as far back as the 1980's and which pop up again every few years. From centering "accessibility" around the convenience of hearing folks rather than the wants, needs, or convenience of Deaf folks, to fundamentally misunderstanding the grammatical construction of signed languages, there are many reasons why translation gloves end up being self-congratulatory technology instead of anything usable or beneficial for the Deaf community.

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