[Athen] Food for Thought: Research in Machine ASL Translation

[Maria Ortado]

Thanks for sharing, Joseph.

As a sign language interpreter, I find this kind of technology really
frustrating. I just don't see how it is useful. Anyone who really knows ASL
would realize that motion capture of a deaf person signing, turned into
text, is almost impossible. There are numerous reasons for this even beyond
what was cited in the article, but I won't go into it here. So the only use
we have left is turning text (or even worse: voice capture) into CG signs.
So in a doctor's office or airport, we have the ability to provide common
phrases into CG ASL. Once the deaf person views the signed video question,
how are they supposed to respond? This technology, at best, can only
provide one-way communication. At worst, the deaf person will not
understand it and will have no way to request clarification.

I agree with you that the quote about "captioning is a waste of time" is
jarring. When people realize that deaf students are reading at a lower
level, why do they decide that this is the solution? The answer is to make
sure we are teaching deaf students better reading skills. This kind of CG
will never work in the ways that the developers intend. Teaching reading
skills is way more cost effective and gives deaf people more freedom in the
long run. They can just sit down and read instead of running the text
through a computer program.

This quote really bothered me too: *"More than 90 percent of deaf children
are born to hearing parents who don’t sign, said Hamilton, which means, “a
lot of deaf children grow up with almost no language until they hit school.
And that has created language deprivation.”* The answer is obvious: Teach
the children ASL as soon as hearing loss has been diagnosed. I work with
one deaf student who's parent told me "Oh, I don't sign." (She was implying
that it was too difficult to learn and she was not interested). That is
fine, it is her choice and I know these situations are not easy for
parents. But the above quote assumes that deaf children are destined to a
life without early-language acquisition and there is nothing we can change
about that. I don't understand why someone would think that a child should
learn language from a computer avatar instead of interacting with a
real-life, native ASL user. Humans learn language from interactions with
other humans.

The bottom line is that I think these expensive and complicated
technologies are the wrong solutions to these issues.

Again, thanks for sharing this article.

*Maria Ortado*
Interpreter Coordinator
Disability Support Services
Office: U216
Cape Fear Community College
mortado at cfcc.edu <mcortado334 at mail.cfcc.edu>
Phone: (910) 362-7098
NC Relay Service for Video Phone or TTY: Dial 7-1-1
Fax: (910) 362-7113

On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 11:14 AM, Nast, Joseph <Joseph.M.Nast at lonestar.edu>
wrote:


> Interesting article on slate.com:

>

>

>

> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/

> 05/computer_avatars_can_translate_written_spoken_

> words_into_sign_language.html

>

>

>

> Particularly jarring quote from Harley Hamilton, computer scientist at

> Georgia Tech affiliated with the Center for Accessible Technology in Sign (

> http://www.cats.gatech.edu/): “For kids, captioning is almost a waste of

> time… ”

>

>

>

> NOTE: According to the article, Mr. Hamilton’s reasoning seems to stem

> from Galludet University’s 2011 report entitled “Reading Research & Deaf

> Children” (http://vl2.gallaudet.edu/files/8713/9216/6286/research-

> brief-4-reading-and-deaf-children.pdf) which reports 18-year-olds who are

> deaf on average have a reading level that “… has remained relatively stable

> at the third to fourth grade level for more than half a century.”

>

>

>

>

>

> Joseph M. Nast

>

> Assistive Technology Specialist

>

> Lone Star College Cy Fair Disability Services

>

>

>

> Office: CASA 109

>

> Phone: (281) 290-3207

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

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>

>


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