Mobile Sign Language Survey: Concept for research with Deaf people

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Many Deaf people communicate best in sign language and not in text. In South Africa, this means South African Sign Language (SASL). Meanwhile, not all researchers can sign. So how can researchers include signing Deaf people in their research? One part of the answer is: sign language interpreters. But, this can become expensive. In response, one author suggests creating a mobile-based survey system. In other words, a mobile sign language survey.

First, deaf people would watch sign translations of the survey questions in video. Next, they respond to the questions in sign language. The mobile phone records their responses in video. Later, a sign interpreter can watch all the video responses and help transcribe them. As a result, researchers can reduce the time they use interpreters. The author reviews some existing solutions, their constraints, and possible alternatives. This paper is not a comprehensive guide to creating a mobile sign language survey. But it might be a start.

The author, Samito Sbusiso Sibiya, completed this article in 2014. He submitted it as a project for their honors Bachelors of Science degree at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Furthermore, he created power point slides that summarize his paper. Meanwhile, both the paper and the power point slides are in PDF format. Both also are partly accessible for people using screen reading software. But, both have accessibility barriers. For example, neither use bookmarks. We also could not assess if either uses alternative tags to describe images.

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