Re:The race to teach sign language to computers
by bluefirebrand on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @01:53PM
(#26402280)
> Expecting all Deaf people to simply use written English when dealing with a computer is like expecting all Americans to use Spanish to interact with their computers
Kind of a false equivalence here. For many Americans there is no real reason to learn Spanish. However, I have to imagine that for literally all deaf people learning to read and write the dominant local language is required in order to participate in the larger society. Signs will be written in that language, restaurant menus, newspapers, business emails, etc. You will be surrounded by writing of your local language every day.
There doesn't really exist a world where a person can get by without being able communicate with others in their vicinity. Deaf people are more often surrounded by non-deaf people who they will have to communicate with somehow. Sharing a common spoken language is kind of out of the question, sharing a common written language is the next best thing.
So, sure. Create a written sign language, make unicode support for it and create new locale settings for each dialect of sign language. This will not eliminate or even really reduce deaf people's need to learn to write their locally dominant language.
Kind of a false equivalence here. For many Americans there is no real reason to learn Spanish. However, I have to imagine that for literally all deaf people learning to read and write the dominant local language is required in order to participate in the larger society. Signs will be written in that language, restaurant menus, newspapers, business emails, etc. You will be surrounded by writing of your local language every day.
There doesn't really exist a world where a person can get by without being able communicate with others in their vicinity. Deaf people are more often surrounded by non-deaf people who they will have to communicate with somehow. Sharing a common spoken language is kind of out of the question, sharing a common written language is the next best thing.
So, sure. Create a written sign language, make unicode support for it and create new locale settings for each dialect of sign language. This will not eliminate or even really reduce deaf people's need to learn to write their locally dominant language.